watching
twin peaks all over again

while eating
darned fine cherry pie - and hot too:)

trying to decide
which would exert more calories: dog beach or the flea market... hmm

listening to
birds twittering... birds twittering is much lovelier than people twittering, it must be said

wondering
what Mr Drummond thinks about what became of his tv children

loving
making cotton candy on a saturday night

at the cherry farm

really reallys

i really hope....
i have flu. because if i don't, i have a very achy breaky heart and i am sure the flu will get better much faster :(

i really think...
a drive up north tomorrow to pick lavender, lilacs and cherries will help somewhat with the above mentioned situation

i really wish...
there was a Richard Ramirez crime scene tour of Los Angeles - i know, huh, there isn't one?? you know what they say... if you can't find it, invent it :)

i really want...
to bake cherry pies and cobblers (like i even know what a cobbler is, i have to find out...) and wear a pretty apron (i have to buy that too...)

i really neeeeed...
to finish my 2009 book. it's just soooo beautiful and i cannot wait to hold it in my hands and really pore over every moment and detail (and cringe at all the mistakes)

i really really really dislike...
the pushy Angels fan mom who bosses kids around at Danny's soccer class... who the hell does she think she is???! thankfully soccer is over as of today and another lame actor is written out of the movie that is my life :)

i really shouldn't...
eat icecream after walking to the park and starving all day long... but it sounds sooooo creamy and cool and good for the soul right about now. i'll just have ginger cats and milk instead ;)

his last day at preschool

climbing trees in the playground


so excited to see Daddy in the audience :)

accepting his diploma (he was very excited that he got to keep the pencil :)


ps Mrs Kay's grandson is feeling better :) horray!!

spinning, books and vases

i wish
my tummy wasn't so spinny this morning. it feels like a washing machine - and not in a good way :|

i vow
to combine errands with exercise in my battle against the mean lizard-like little man who lives inside the wii fit balance board, who always says 'ohhhh....' when i stand on it. i wish he would just say 'great!'....

i demand to know
where my book about Buddy and Socks, the former white house pets is! it's been a week, for heaven's sake! according to amazon.com, it's still in KS... i sure hope the postmaster there is having a good read :| grrrr..... i bet he didn't even vote for Clinton, that's the worst part...

i wonder
is it so wrong to wish for a lovely gay son who is as thoughtful to his mother as Jonathan Adler???! and oh how i loooooove bud vases (just look under my sink!!)

i believe
in the power of two aleve also :) with just yogurt and aleve, we could do away with hospitals altogether :)

i hope
oh hope of hopes that Ben is better today

off to preschool 'gradulation' for our baby... back later xoxo

i want

to ride my bicycle (if it was a weekend, i'd ride it down to albertson's right now at 6:32am:)

to find out if feeding bananas with their skins still on is bad for the neighborhood goats. last time i sent Danny with chunks of apple, some hairy old battleaxe scolded him because the chunks were too large :| people who scold my kids are the reason i don't carry mace and a shotgun :|

to know if this supermodel is a boy or a girl????? i'm hopelessly confused and am clearly very out of touch with what's going on at home...

to research if there is some kind of vitamin like B12 that will stop me dying of a broken heart tomorrow morning. it's Danny's preschool graduation at 10:15am and our last day with Mrs Kay... i could adopt a child to go to her preschool....

to shop at the black dog store in martha's vineyard :)

to go to this covered bridge on saturday as part of the cherry expedition :)

take pictures today... it's been forever and a day

to buy two bunches of lilacs at Trader Joe's today

Mrs Kay's grandson, Ben to get better... he's heavily on my mind right now :(

the news

i really really hate russell brand (i am sure that's old news) he is filed in the same cubby as criss angel, carrot top and kathy griffin as men who are too sinewy and try far too hard to be famous (kathy's a man in my book, andy dick in drag i am sure of it...)

i saw salted brownies at trader joe's today... on day TWO of my diet. sooooo not fair :(

and i found the snack cup that i was supposed to send to Australia like a month ago... i am mailing it tomorrow i swear :|

i am really really really really really bored of the Dr Phil family... is anyone still watching? i wonder what monday ratings are... i bet just one in Beverly Hills: Robyn, because it's her job to :)

i have been researching icky childhood illnesses all day. Mrs Kay's grandson, who is also Danny's best friend at preschool, is in hospital with an unbreakable 105 fever and they are running all kinds of tests trying to find out what is wrong with him :( i am so worried for him, his Mommy and Mrs Kay but also a little for Danny and in turn Sam, baby Evan and the many kids in our circle in case it's anything horribly contagious like meningitis. fingers crossed he's better much better as of right now and my worrying is for nothing :)

today i finally caved to the constant nagging and signed up for amazon prime. i know i'm going to toss and turn over it....

off to bake cakes for teacher appreciation week and try not to eat the rejects... back tomorrow xox

good things

having a full tank of gas and the correct amount of air in each tire

picking our own fruit

running errands on foot

candy floss

the house smelling like cedar

shopping in Target kidfree at 8am :)

the first glimpse of the Vegas skyline

making a baby belly laugh

a brand new super crisp lens

'just dance' instead of boring 'my fitness coach'

tennis

the rats frenzied excitement when i put their fresh veggies, raisins and wholewheat bread in their food bowl :) they quickly carry the very best stuff up to their bedrooms one piece at a time, up and down three rattie floors over and over and over :)

Corey's good things

clean white sheets

New York pizza

warm-from-the-dryer socks on cold wood floors

the African Hut - the best British store outside of Britain, ok, Santa Monica ;)

weekends

feeding the ducks

the playdoh table at preschool (my favorite)

salt and vinegar popchips (they claim you can eat the whole bag without feeling miserable and only dreaming that you could induce vomiting afterwards.... and they even come in frustration free packaging :)

must go - back later xox

big loves

yogurt - i am quite sure it can cure any ailment known to man, except maybe lactose intolerance :)

Danny for noticing that all the pink flamingos were gone from the neighbor's lawn, and stating very matter-of-factly that they must have flown away :)

all creatures great and small... yesterday we visited Sam's teacher and her horse and i fell in love with horses all over again :)


Mrs Kay, who inspires me to live more simply, be more authentic, be more energetic, sing a little louder with the kids, dance a little goofier with them and be a firmer, fairer, more consistent Mummy


our Honda Odyssey - love it times one million

Great Britain... there is soooo much i love and miss about it (fish and chips, marks and spencer supermarket, coronation street, cadburys chocolate, old cathedrals and cobbled streets, indian restaurants, tesco, cloudy skies, micro-sized cars, really really really green grass, pizza express, kid clothes shopping, very old towns and super modern cities - i am so thankful to call it home

my iphone

McDonalds. it's the same the world over, it even tastes just as good here as it does in Great Britain! calorie controlled, consistent, easy-to-locate yumminess that is impossible to hate (especially those french fries :)

off to bed - it has been an exhausting night of watching wolves become bears and bears become webelos and webelos snap arrows in two and then fix them with their Dads.... it was all highly confusing and i am very ready to climb the wooden hill ;)

today

i plan to walk to Trader Joe's at lunchtime in full sun as part of my 'tan 'n' trim' weight loss plan. plus there is something so magical about walking home in the midday sun, with crusty french bread and fresh flowers sticking out of your shopping bag. oh and i need a neti pot too - i know i'll forget that...

if i was one of those people who posted updates about every bit of exercise they ever do this would be my first one:
walked 4.25 in 1:54:42 hours and burned 452 calories

and re the 1:54:42 hours part- i stopped at the park for an hour! and met a really prickly awkward mom and a really naughty little boy (unrelated to Ms Prickly) who threw sand at everyone. oh and he also stole Evan's very-hard-to-find plain vanilla alphabet cookies :| but it's ok because he's just a kid and it's not the end of the world :)

next on the list: just dance for an hour nonstop. i calculate if i can walk 8 miles per day and dance for an hour, i will lose one pound every 3 days. shit. i need this tattooed on my fork-holding hand :(

back later (vaporized into a sweaty mess hopefully :)

i have

a rampant disdain

for the sour kangaroo (and to the young kangaroo in her pouch - you too)

an insatiable desire
to play rock band on my fake plastic electric guitar.... but it's 6am and people are asleep and then they wouldn't be and then they would want to take over the plastic electric guitar ;)

been
playing Duran Duran today which reminds me... make a CD for Evan's mom like i promised to months ago :)

a sense of inner peace

when things are alphabetized

a feeling
all you really do need is love after all... not even money - just humanity, humbleness, acceptance, kindness, warmth... and to treat everyone you meet, children especially, with respect and patience

an itching
for a second cup of coffee

been emailing
back and forth with Sam on his ipod and i have to remember to use full stops and capital letters to reply :) i just got a note back asking what 'xoxo' is :)
x = kiss
o = hug
x = kiss
o = hug

back after the dressage event xoxo

in the words of the greatest songwriters of our time, Lennon and McCartney

ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on - bra!! (why bra....? who shrieks bra....? like ever....???!) i much prefer this to the lamest expression e-v-e-r: 'it is what it is'. yeah, ob-la-di indeedy :|

it's 5am and i am wide awake making......

a book of last year's favorites pictures (except january to march which are lost in techno-space but now i don't want really them to come back, even though a very nice british 'neighbour' (horray!!) has a clean room and has offered to help... because i'm up to june already and it would complicate things....)

(ps it's only about 6 months late... it was supposed to be my christmas gift from me to me)

anyway i have 1473 favorite 'must include - absolutely important 2009 storytelling pictures' to choose from :|

and i am spending far too many idyllic hours gazing at all those pictures and not enough time arranging them onto perfect little templates :|

i just love looking at pictures of the summer holidays... and pictures of vacations in little log cabins... and pictures of birthday parties and christmas morning and first days of school and last days of summer... i get so hopelessly lost in the memories that arranging the book never gets beyond page 14 :|

i'm probably the only person excited for 6 less days of school next year due to budget cuts... because it means more pictures of beach days and apple picking and whistlestop trips to Vegas

and i wonder if it's just me, but i always look at last year's pictures (or the year before's... any pictures that aren't today's pictures) and feel like i took so much better pictures then and wonder if my camera is broken or whether i just quit trying hard enough :(

oh well, i need more coffee and music... back later xoxo

our neighbor's yard (i don't know why........)

bears, horses and beatles

wanting

to go an empty, reflective beach for golden hour and take some wide angle happy pictures

relating

a lot with mother bears today :[

recreating

the san gabriel mission on the kitchen counter out of an amazon.com box, a piece of sandpaper and an exacto knife :)

today's playlist:

• helter skelter -beatles
• let's stick together - roxy music
• virginia plain - roxy music (i still love it :)
• gimme some truth (3 times) - john lennon
• kite - u2
• one vision - queen
• geek stink breath - green day
• turn you inside-out - rem
• happiness is a warm gun - beatles

i heard that song all the way through for the very first time last night (i have double album ADD) anyway it's been on a never-ending loop in my head :) did you know it took 97 takes.... that's like 5 hours nonstop of singing "bang bang shoot shoot"

remembering

with much much love my Dad/Sam and Danny's Grandad whose 74th birthday would be tomorrow xoxoxox

taking

dressage portraits of Sam's teacher's horse tomorrow (so he had BETTER get a good report card from her!)

back later (or not) with beach pics xo

favorites (for today at least:)

favorite housewives: new york (kelly yesterday.... it was chicken soup for the bethanny supporter's soul :)

favorite french fries: in-n-out animal fries

favorite drama: lie to me

favorite app: yelp

favorite online store: amazon.com

favorite real life store: superwalmart

favorite healthy snack: yoplait caramel parfait

favorite unhealthy snack: tillamook mudslide - muddy and not frozen

favorite song: 'virginia plain' by roxy music

favorite perfume: chanel no 19

favorite vegas hotel: the mirage (this will probably never ever change, even tomorrow :)

favorite wii game: just dance

favorite picturesque beach: huntington beach

favorite datenight: takeout and a movie in bed

favorite waste of a day: sunbathing at the beach with no interruptions - this is why i am not very tanned...

favorite day: saturday :)

i don't like....

(because it's all about balance :)

school carnival day :[ yes i admit i hate going and i dread going from the moment the date is announced. it's hot and full of kids and terrible food. and seeing as i have a cotton candy maker right here at home... why would i ever need to go to a carnival ever again...? because of my kids - right :[

Trinity Church in Santa Ana for being inconsiderate to neighboring schoolchildren (didn't God like children...? and wasn't there something about 'love thy neighbor' in the bible... i'm sure there was!) and the community around them. God bless you, Trinity Church!

people who assume they are the center of universe :[ (newsflash: the earth core is:)
update: Aaron informs me that the SUN is... mr know it all :)

being solely responsible for collecting the money/buying/presenting the teacher gift to Mrs Kay. i'd much rather be an elf than Santa Claus :[

all the "OMG did you see Grays???! i almost peed my pants!" status updates on facebook. no i did not see Grays... like EVER. my wildest dream would be that that the entire hospital and all evidence of the show was vaporized to nothingness.... did that happen??! if so, this should be on my like list :[

people who drive too slow or too fast - when clearly everyone should be driving the same speed as me :[

finding Danny's clown with grass hair has been given a very bad haircut by Mr Bumps (to add insult to injury...)

any Kardashian

having to go to two places today that are at opposite sides of the world. oh, and Tustin Ranch Costco too :[

RHONJ... all of them! they're boring and lame. and ps people make fun of Jersey girls and they're sooooo NOT jealous ;) they're my least favorite real housewives :(

i like........

finding new kindle books for very-hard-to-shop-for 9 year olds

having a COTTON CANDY MAKER!

life on mars - the car is absolutely silent while it's playing which makes me happy for two reasons :)

the 3:38 minute long version of heroes only :)

also scary monsters (and super creeps :)

(the world really really really really needs Rock Band: David Bowie :)

creamy ice (but not as much as runway... but far more than frosting which positively makes me sick with anxiety :)

being able to ask my iphone how tall any celebrity is, no matter where i am (except awful dead zones....)

mcdonalds caramel frappes (though i haven't had one for 2 weeks because i'm scared to look at the calories... but i bet they prevent osteoporosis, right?)

completely free weekends

U-pick cherry farms

people who only leave very occasional facebook updates, which makes them far more fascinating to me :)

Mia Farrow's hair in Rosemary's Baby

fish fingers, chips and beans

neutrogena anti-residue shampoo (it smells soooooo clean)

Princess Diana (how i still miss her...)

netflix from the computer somehow getting onto the tv in the bedroom :)

Mimi's carrot cake

parking in the garage (= clean windows/cool interior and a much simpler life with children and their 'stuff' :)

early nights :)

candy floss

we have a cotton candy maker!!! we have a cotton candy maker!!!! it makes perfect pink and blue clouds of cotton candy - and it's so unbelievably fresh and light and perfect, it tastes like being 6 all over again... jumping in a trampoline, gymkhanas, the bay city rollers and playing crazy golf with my tiny tears permanently under one arm :) i think i love my cotton candy maker and i think i will use it a whole lot more than any other kitchen appliance (except perhaps the microwave...)

this afternoon, my knight in shining armor cut through through treacherous LA rush hour traffic to bring it home :) tonight he's my very own George Clooney with Bryan Ferry's voice, Kyle MacLachlan's impeccable perfectness and Atticus Finch's awesome Dadness :)

i think....

i think whoever found Eric should jolly well keep him ;) face like a skillet - how rude!

i think this is the first time that mexican food has overtaken indian food as my favorite dining out option :)

i think the word 'photo' when used as a verb might be my very least favorite word of the american english language so far

i think this book about the Clinton pets sounds so cute (and it's coming to live at our house naturally:)

i think i am quite obsessed with White House pets (the ones with blue collars at least :)

i think i need to take a unisom tonight so i can quit tossing and turning about whether having a consumer cotton candy on a cart is better than a commercial cotton candy maker that is NOT on a cart. seriously? yes this stuff keeps me up at night :[

i think i should get up really early one morning and ride my bike all the way to Albertsons - just to prove i can go on big streets :)

i think my 70-200mm is my favorite lens right now

i think cats are totally awesome - they are like tiny tamed tigers :)

i think being married to your best friend is really cool (and lucky too, if they can make great coffee even though they don't drink it :)

back later xox

summer wishlist

• learn to make madelaines
  

• have a weekly nice-mommies-with-cameras beach playdate that starts before the marine layer burns off and lasts till the sun is hazy and the kids are ready for bed

• sail on a very calm lake

• go to magic mountain

• learn to make great bubble mixture

• eat funnel cake
  

• buy red, white and blue adirondack chairs for the lawn and sit in them often watching the kids play
  

• escape to an oceanfront house set amongst sand dunes and read celebrity gossip magazines on the deck
  

• watch Donnie Darko from start to finish
  

• see a concert at the Hollywood Bowl (and take a picnic)
  

• go to Vegas kid-free
  

• go to Vegas with kids and get suntanned (but not sunburnt and headache-ish) at the pool. then have a fancy dinner and feel the spray of the Bellagio fountains
  

• sleep in a tent in the backyard (with the door to the bathroom and emergency king size bed left unlocked :)
  

mind stuff

my coffee tastes extra extra good today because 'the hubbie' made it for me. he makes exceedingly good coffee :) and it's all walmart 'great value' or is it 'great choice', whatever they call it... we don't buy no stinking $10 coffee and girly hazelnut creamer crap here ;)

i am losing my mind. i made a photo book at the aforementioned store's website (where you can now choose wide/medium/narrow spacing - does it get any better than that?!) about 3 weeks ago and was just scratching my head wondering where it is. duh! i had it shipped to the store and it's been sitting there for 2 weeks :[

i don't believe in getting fancy photo books... my photobooks are intended to be pored over by children and friends, and end up full of fingerprints and slightly turned over corners.

what on earth is going on with the Travolta family? did they catch the Kennedy curse or something?? if i were them i'd quit going on vacation and just stay home... like forever :[ poor dogs! hmm, i wonder if they want Romeo.... i might even let them clone Blackjack (but not have him) but only if they give me a clone too and PROMISE not to make one for that dog collecting veruca salt, Oprah Winfrey :[

to do today:

• pick up that photobook from Walmart
• make more (highly popular!) baby rattles using empty pill bottles and popcorn kernels (i am sure that Dr Jim Sears guy would be shocked that my children might accidentally osmose some of the magic potions formerly housed, or accidentally eat some of the corn kernels, thus developing an early childhood anaphalatyic reaction to corn, but Suze Orman would be impressed at my ability to save a dollar or two :)
• figure out from the children in my family how to do that super fast tennis serve they all do that i can't figure out how matter how hard i hit the ball :(
• obsessively F5 craiglook looking for a gold medal cotton candy maker
• hand out preschool portraits at school.... i HATE this part - this is where people inititally love them... then start to ask if i can make their children smile more/squint less/be less fat/look more to the left/look more to the right, print it 17 more times for family that they are seeing today.... and the sum of these reasons is why i haaaate taking pictures for people :|
• buy a battery for the car remote control
• figure out if the amazon reviews are really true and if wii resort really does have dog fighing on it ;)
• find hotdogs in the deep freezer (which is the equivilent of climbing down Mount Everest)

back later xoxox

i like
finishing a dreadfully time/brain intensive project at last

i don't like
burning dvds - it's the work of the devil

i watched
desperate housewives at lunchtime... i really really really hope Susan Meyer moved a very loooooong way away from Wisteria Lane and that she doesn't get to visit very often. and that Orson Hodge didn't really leave... he can't leave, can he.... it would be a travesty against womankind :( and i wonder who has the wrong baby? hmmm.....

i braved
Tustin Ranch Costco which ties for first place with Disneyland as the unhappiest place on earth. and i also fought off the scary raptor lady at the Canon repair center today - so i really have earned today's slice of derned fine blueberry pie (and hot too! since i don't like cherry pie so much...)

i loved
hearing fishsticks being called fishfingers by the British kids who came to tea today. it was just as it should be :)

i'm happy
my camera is back. but the click sounds weird now. anyway the repair was free, which basically means i would be certifiably insane not to buy the cotton candy maker with the money i have 'saved'.

i'm sad
that the floss boss cotton candy maker is sold :( i hope whoever bought it has no fun with it whatsoever :(

i'm even sadder
that my second choice, the pink one on a cart, at amazon.com is out of stock too - what on earth is going on??? and what happened to the derned recession? i want a cotton candy maker and i want it now!!!! it's so unfair :(

why i love preschool free days.... we get to make bottlecap starfish

and play Dannybucks - he had to find a plant eating dino cup for a girl :)

and take the ducklings swimming and then dry them off

and take pictures of Mr Bumps through the kaleidoscope

pictures from last weekend... sailing at Baby Beach

datenight at Ruth's Chris

life out of balance

i am feeling a little overdrawn lately (in the Dr Phil emotional sense of the word)

with a little too time spent doing unto everyone else and no unto myself (see my hair for example)

giving and not receiving anything to show for it

i hate that idea that you give in order to receive

and i do love to give to others and do so unconditionally too

but sometimes i just end up wondering why i bothered

and if i'm thoughtful or just plain stupid

i hate quotes, but......

the beatles did say 'the love you take is equal to the love you make'

so even stoned, they knew that mutual give and take was essential

i just don't want to wait till 'the end' to balance my emotional checkbook

i need balance and harmony today!!

i need fairness and equality always - all people to feel equally validated and worthwhile

ho hum

it's not a personal thing

just an overall 'ho hum' about life right now

the song 'you're so vain' bugs me relentlessly

because it seems like it would be totally vain to not think the song is about you if you know the writer

in other news i've decided that the buffet of buffets is a very bad idea

nothing makes you feel as bad as SEVEN mediocre buffets

and if i had that cotton candy maker i'd never really have any reason to go to planet hollywood again...

since cotton candy is all they have that i like

but it does mean i NEEEED a cotton candy maker - stat :)

off to school... and maybe other places.

back later xoxo

i admit....

to being absolutely obsessed with cotton candy makers at the moment...

specifically commercial cotton candy makers - because i need a commercial grade one naturally :)

and i would even consider driving all the way to Berkeley to buy the gold medal floss boss listed on craiglook for the bargain price of $300.... with four different colors of floss sugar included :)

ok, the thought of a Zachary's pizza picnic in Golden Gate Park makes the thought of that drive a whole lot less ridiculous :)

and how much fun would it be to set up my cotton candy maker inside a hotel room to test it out??!

psst i am 50% sure it's Memorial Weekend this coming weekend and if not 100% sure it's the one after!!

hmm... if they don't sell it by then.... would it be crazy.....? it's not that far to Berkeley ;)

most important reason for leaving town memorial weekend: the annual memorial weekend neighborhood block party :

it sounds fun right? a party full of stodgy republican doctors and lawyers? (ps there are no Trey MacDougals in the real world) that you can't escape from because it closes your entire street :

and besides i having been wanting to go up north stop at a cherry farm that is on the way to San Fran - so i'm technically already going that way!

today we picked blueberries - it was the start of the Temecula Berry Co season on friday, and i haven't been able to sleep at night waiting to go ... anyway the berries were as big as footballs and SO SO SWEET!!! we made a pie, naturally...

off to do wii fit before dessert - i tried my fitness coach and it's bad... bad!!!

nothing, blueberries and shadows

thankful for

a very much needed day of absolute nothingness tomorrow. something, don't you dare come along and take away my nothingness :[

hoping to

pick blueberries this weekend... it's good for the soul and not so bad for the tummy either :-)

hating on

stupid mean DVDs that you need to keep pressing >> to get to the 'play movie' screen. JUST PLAY THE FRICKING MOVIE already!! seriously i want to bind/torture/kill the person who invented the need to go to a menu in order to press play... don't they know helpless parents are stranded in rooms with small children, who are busy thinking of more things to delay their parents' escape - what the hell were they thinking????? don't they have kids too????

waiting for

my camera to hurry back from Canon... it's getting work done because it started doing this strange ghostly business:

wishing for

a cotton candy machine. preferably a gold medal one :)

loving
things that are doing it - i wonder if Barack Obama ever goes to that website... it is just so funny, he must, right??!

off to climb the wooden hill to bedfordshire xoxo

kohls cotton candy and cornflake cakes

yesterday i went to Kohl's - a place i don't like to go unless it's an absolute emergency. which it was - i neeeeeded more of those Vanity Faire bras and i have even upped my price limit.... i will cheerfully pay $20 for them now, i am so desperate to find them... i wonder if there is an overstock.com for intimates? oh i must check....

anyway, they were nowhere to be seen but upon leaving Danny suggested we look for a 'seastar' necklace. i scratched my head "a what???" well, apparently according to the Ocean Insitute of Dana Point, Patrick is no longer a starfish but a sea star :| (Gawd help me, i am in correctness hell) we looked and BAM!!!!!!!!!! there it was - a perfect little silver "sea star" on a perfect simple little chain. was that the problem all along... i was looking for a starfish and not a sea star....?

next mission: a cotton candy machine!! i have decided to give in to my inner child and just buy one already. heck, i deserve it! if i had bought one 6 months ago when i first wanted one, think of all the fun i could have been having.... and if i have a cotton candy machine, we will always have one for parties! but which one to get... i really want a gold medal one, i hear they're the best and anything with gold in the name must be good quality. i am trying NOT to buy a pink one, since a pink one seems like it may be less sturdy and reliable. anyway there is one on a little cart at amazon - i could actually take my cotton candy machine for walks and whip up a cotton candy for delighted children along the way! oh but i wonder if it needs a plug...? probably, huh... back to my endless research....

next mission: make a delicious pecan pie! i found a recipe on Dear Abbey and after printing it (and 4 pages of lame comments from people whining that recipes shouldn't be on an advice column - take a pill, people!) i finally have a recipe with things that i actually know what they are. though i get hopelessly confused about unbaked pie crust and graham cracker crust... i wish they would show pictures...

off to make more cornflake cakes - i am seriously addicted to them and they are simple to make! a handful of coconut, some melty milk chocolate, some rice crispies and the magic ingredient - cornflakes. i put them in mini muffin cases in a futile attempt to be healthy ;)

back later :)

my mothers day treats from the cream pan... soooooo sooooo soooo sooooooooooo good!

psst

i don't really get pictures of....

• babies in fruit bowls
• families in jeans and white shirts and flip flops at the beach
• couches sitting in the middle of fields for no apparent reason
• slightly unstraight horizons
• dull greyish random body part collages especially belly buttons and ears that look like police evidence photos
• people with their heads chopped off on purpose
• fake mustaches (ok mustaches in general - Dr Phil sans mustache... sooo much better!!)times 100 for finger mustaches - how i hate them with a ketchup frowny face on top
• babies looking about as comfortable as a pound of bruised apples in a net shopping bag
• newborn babies propping themselves up with their hands while sitting on their feet (because don't all newborns do that naturally :)
• the backs of families when they aren't even turning to glance back
• babies on bookshelves.... (whyyyyyyyyy?????)
• kids with airbrushed vinyl-looking faces and over brightened eyes

but i do really love pictures of...

• shiny beaches (with absolutely straight horizons)
• parent and child love
• kids with bare shoulders
• nose wrinkles and gap-toothed smiles
• anything that spells anything sweet except twee things like hope/faith/live/laugh
• comfy babies snuggled in awesome snuggly blankets in snuggly beanbags with curled up toes
• children and their pets
• baby toes
• kids sitting in big oak trees with magnificent swirly bokeh
• contrasty kids against white backgrounds
• kids being very animated against brightly colored brick walls
• kids reading their favorite books
• pretty much anyone/anything sleeping - but especially kids :)
• insane close-ups of raindrops on roses

ok back later... off to joanns for fabric. for real this time - i am not not going!!!

(warning: cheerful people please do not click)

"urgh" is all i have to say about this morning.... why in the Sam Hill is it MONDAY already? wasn't it Friday like a day ago...?

thank you stupid overstock.com for selling sheets, that reviewers swore were soft and cool.... but are SOOO not soft and cool thus causing me sleepless nights.... i should sue all those reviewers and take their homes! see how they like not being able to sleep at night :|

thank you whoever decided to make George Clooney have an AWFUL Nick Stokes pornstache and a very unsexy girl's name (Lyn... LYN??? how do men with women's names EVER find girlfriends...?) in that boring staring at goats movie... i couldn't watch, i wanted to but i couldn't...

thank you netflix for accidentally sending 'inglorious basterds' instead of 'twin peaks' this weekend.... fanks a WOT!! (to quote an adorable small child)

thank you dunkin donuts for advertising your fine wares each morning on tv here when the nearest dunkin donuts is 268 miles east of us :|

thank you 'hipstamatic for iphone' for littering facebook with yawnsome detailed descriptions of how the attached picture was created.... it's an iphone picture, oh deary me - is anyone actually printing them...? yeah i'm crabby alright ;)

thank you stupid burnt right arm for making it impossible to carry a shoulder bag (i can't carry a bag left handed...)

thank you children for eating all the pains aux chocolats (yes i have no clue how to make pain au chocolat plural.....) from my box of delicious mother's day treats

thank you stupid me for making plans i don't want to keep for next weekend when i really want to
a) go to the Long Beach flea market
b) go berry picking and cherry picking
c) go to Vegas :(

thank you stupid jet blue for having $10 flights today and tomorrow ONLY, instead of just sharing the love and giving everyone 10% off their next flight :|

thank you wii for making wii resort require me to buy even more plastic crap in order to play it... i refuse to drink any more of the koolaid :|

ok going to photoshop myself happy(er) and go shopping at k.mart... it always always works it's magic!

stars, stripes and puppy dogs

• spent 2 hour sunbathing at baby beach yesterday.... and i have a sunburned shoulder to show for it - i wonder how i missed an entire bodypart :|

• spent this afternoon at huntington beach playing under the pier

• watched 3 episodes of 'peep show' on bbc america. i can't decide if i like it yet... i don't dislike it :)

• ran out of duckling food and had to find a recipe online and make some with the baby food processor at 9pm last night

• took the boys to Ruths Chris. they loved it (and they behaved - phew :)

• had fresh cream cakes and coffee for breakfast this morning :)

• decided to start growing grapes and bought a grape vine thingie

• pondered becoming a vegetarian... i wonder if you can survive on pizza, chocolate and yogurt.....
  

• sent Aaron to the redbox with instructions to pleeeeeeease rent anything with George Clooney in it :)
  

• didn't eat anything but cream cakes and half an order of mcdonalds french fries today
  

• he's back with a movie AND double berry cheesecake icecream too... i could so be a vegetarian :)
  

it's mother's day weekend eve!!

and i want to see this baby movie this weekend. but we probably won't seeing as it doesn't have singing squirrels or axe-murdering turtles in it.

yet another reason why elizardbreath hasselback is foul and despicable - i am so glad for gossip sites, they save me ever having to actually watch the view :)

i cannot think of anything more grotesque than watching katie holmes do a sexy dance for tom cruise - oh gawd help us, they make dirty dancing animatronic Jackie O dolls now :| do NOT click if you have a weak stomach, it's icky :|

and finally.... i wonder what God would think of his dear son, spencer pratt ;) he must be like, sooooooo proud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok back later....

oh no she di'int :|

audible gasp. Sam's teacher yesterday told him that Mr Bumps is some fanciful breed of cat named a 'maine coon' :| firstly, we don't do pedigrees at our house :| and secondly... could the sweet docile house cat in the first picture be ANY relation, however distant, to the tamed mountain lion in exhibit B???!





though how CUTE is that humungous cat....? ok i want one... but a rescue, cross breed, one-eyed version that can't get a home otherwise :)

i am so enraged that i feel compelled to write a letter to the mayor of Tustin today (if they even have a mayor - i bet they just have a robot like Teddy Ruxpin but not a nice storytelling robot like him... just a robot that says 'no' in a no eye-contact gruff voice all the time). anyway, i am not sure if Tustin has a city motto, actually i think it does and it is something lame like: "work where you must but live and shop in Tustin" (huuuuge eye roll)

anyway - i am writing to the mayor to get it changed to 'the city with no soul' then people will be forced to change their awful soulless ways, or their property values will plummet. yesterday i was at Tustin Ranch Costco (yes... hell on earth- still waiting on a letter back from Obama about getting that place closed down) an elderly lady was pushing her cart across the very busy parking lot, with bitchy mean people in SUVS driving all around her at 80 MPH to get good parking spaces. her cart hit a bump and her little container of cherry tomatoes fell off the cart and they rolled around in a 3 feet circumference. NO-ONE stopped to help her :( they just kept rushing past her looking irritated at the inconvenience of having to squash her dinner :(

Danny ran over to gather them up for her and that little old lady had tears in her eyes that someone in soulless Tustin Ranch actually had a heartbeat and a pulse and a soul! it's time for change!!!! and i don't mean in the form of greasy overspiced food, i mean in the form of being kind to each other... so i'm writing a letter. but i refuse to go on Oprah about it :| unless she moves the show to Hollywoood, then we'll talk ;) but only if Nate's on the same show. then we'll definitely talk!!!

ok i MUST go! lunches to make - children to wash - songs to sing.

ps Diego is asking Danny to "say esprella" and Danny is replying " esprella, you butthead" i should NOT laugh. i should NOT. but ohhhh how he makes me laugh :)

pps T.N.T. - you want a snack cup? i'll get you a snack cup today :)

ppps Clare - i'd happily move to be your local/nocal friend :)