President Nixon, President Obama and more!

went
to the Richard Nixon presidential library today... how i looooove presidential libraries - all of them! my wish is to visit every presidential library in the land, even the George W Bush one!

researched
renting a Chevrolet in order to see the USA this summer. seeing the USA in a Toyota Sienna just doesn't have the same ring ;) i wonder if a Chrysler is a Chevrolet... anyway, it's just 28 hours to Graceland, Tennessee!! it's only a day away!! i want to go to there!!! and we will shop at Piggly Wiggly!! and Hobby Lobby!! and other fun places with names that rhyme!

vowed
to create some kind of extraordinary artwork to send to President Obama (a photo hodge-podged onto a basketball might catch his eye:) that he can proudly display in his presidential library someday, and i can take my grandchildren to pose beside :)

ate
cheese puffs for dinner... i looooove cheese puffs! especially when we get the not-store-brand ones, they are so much bigger and puffier than the generic ones ;) they look like carrots but are much more delicious (and you can eat many more ;)

suffered
ALL DAY with the most wicked, glowing pimple thing on my chin - it hurts to even walk and talk :| Dr Oz says to stick a pin in one side and out the other and then RIP it open, releasing all the nasty green infected pus. arghhhhh!!!!!!!! just the thought of it makes me cringle. but i am so desperate for relief, i am giving it a whirl tonight. if i turn septic and die, it's all Dr Oz' fault :|

back tomorrow with more tales of the unexpected and words of wisdom;)

my favorite room in the White House, the East Room - such pertiful light :) i want to build a replica of the East Room onto my house






Danny wanted to take my picture by the American flag :)

hehehe - the kids' letters are my favorite part of the museum :)



snuggling with Dad

Mumbai, blueberries and movie night

had coffee and ginger cats (fresh batch=delicious) and chocolate digestive biscuits for breakfast

watched House Hunters Mumbai - i definitely don't want to move there (chickens in cages waiting to die at the market :| and no shower enclosures :| tiny kitchens too!)

had a very sore neck from falling asleep watching a crap movie last night (i don't remember it's name but it had Ashton Doucher in it, should have known...)

briefly considered leaving home because of the toys left all over the den floor

children cleaned up begrudgingly (must find vacation bible schools for the entire summer)

drove to Temecula and discussed at length why slow people drive in the fast lane and everyone fast drives in the slow lane :|

noticed that more asian people were picking berries than white people which invalidates the notion that it's a white person fascination :)

picked hundreds upon hundreds of beachball size blueberries (and ate thousands upon thousands!)

had more of the leftover pizza from Friday's pigfest (the day we overdosed on garlic knots...)

went to the grocery store and bought red, white and blue popsicles in a moment of patriotic pride

felt very fortunate that the USA has the same colors in it's flag as the UK :)

made banana pudding (with less nillas and more nanas ;)

kittens begged me for some pudding... i gave them a little bowl and they got it all over their whiskers (i think they liked it :)

Danny took blueberries to our elderly neighbor Miss Bra-bra, who has helped him learn to read :)

republican block party on our street (we are technically on vacation today ;)

fire trucks and ambulances raced up and down the block! (i am slightly curious what happened at the block party....)

chili cheese fries for dinner (they smell delicious!)

movie night! (Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 - it has got to be better than 'No Strings Attached'... i remembered the movie from last night;)

quilts, knots, dogs and Big Sur

looking:
for a quilt version of this ruffle duvet (can't get a duvet cover because they are the work of the devil) in a color that doesn't show black dog hair, or orange cat hair, or coffee stains and doesn't need ironing or special treatment on laundry day ;) after an exhaustive search, i am not sure it exists :( ps it should also have free shipping - bump up the price if you must, but i must get free shipping :)



also looking:
for a vacation rental ad that doesn't include the words "off the grid" and has an indoor bathroom... only in drop dead gorgeous Big Sur would i consider vacationing without TV, cell phone reception, microwave and have to shower in an ankle length trench coat and poop in public :| (the answer's still no though ;)


recovering:
from a garlic knot coma.... last night we went out to dinner and the server kept bringing more and more garlic knots... it was just cruel! we had to eat them all.... it would have been rude not to :)

dealing
with computer/phone/people lag... nothing/no-one is working fast enough enough today :|

needing
to bathe our salty old sea dogs after their morning at Dog Beach

missing
Oprah :( 3pm will never be the same again :( especially not when Dr Oz takes over her time slot (the nerve of it). i am unsetting my DVR so she gets the message loud and clear!

wishing
to purchase a large set of Pyrex bowls with lids (note: lids must be in primary colors and i won't pay more than $30 ;)

also wishing
someone would tell Dr Phil that no-one cares about Alexandra :| SOOOOO BORING!!!!

wondering
if wearing SPF 15 moisturizer with SPF 8 foundation with SPF 15 powder equals SPF 38...?

random pics and sooo much more ;)

end of swim classes (and not a moment too soon.... late again last night even though i set off 27 minutes early....)

it's officially Summer when the water balloon fights commence (and we can wear white as of Monday!!)



our sweet loving lap cat Friday


scariest voice e-v-e-r-!-!-!

i want....

to eat more vegetables (they're actually quite yummy)

to wash the dogs in a doggy shampoo that makes them smell like expensive aftershave :)

to get a picture of Weasel and Jerry snuggling (she looooves to bump noses with him :)

to conduct a scientific study (funded by NASA) to find out exactly what percentage of cats bump noses with their loved ones, i heard not all cats like to bump and i need the exact percentage in order to sleep at night ;)

to go to IKEA today (in search of pinterest inspired objects - darn you, little white P!)

to pick blueberries on Friday morning (it's a 4 day weekend of loveliness!)

to plant sunflower and pumpkin seeds

to fix the trampoline (i miss it)

to grow potatoes and onions

to create a photo wall behind the couch of new favorite portraits (yet to be taken - must be vibrant, joyful and full of zeal)

to replace every last picture in every last frame around the house (very tall order)

to learn to cook like humans cook and actually follow recipes and use the right ingredients ;)

to paint Sam's room

to hike in Fryman Canyon on Saturday morning, then get banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery to undo all the good we just did ;)

to ride my bike all the way to the Cream Pan and back (which involves streets, traffic lights and cars... very scary and definitely deserving of a banana croissant at the end of the journey :)

to not give up on Danny's swim classes this summer no matter how painful daily lessons are.... i am thinking private lessons are the only way the class clown will ever learn :|

to go to the beach at least once a week this summer with the boys

to go to Graceland, Tennessee (i sing the song everytime i say it :)

back later with tall tales and pictures xoxoxox

wishes not worth wasting, should a genie suddenly appear ..

i wish i could remember Danny's 6pm swim class. even leaving a pair of swim shorts in a high traffic area doesn't work - every Tuesday/Thursday i forget until 5:58pm, when it's physically possible to still get there by 6:01pm, but horribly stressful to gather up everything necessary/navigate horrible traffic to do so :|

i wish Danny would just DO HIS HOMEWORK without constant encouragement!! he is like a 99 cent store wind-up toy - i have to keep starting him again, his brain putters to a stop after each word he writes. i am sure some would diagnose this as an illness but i prefer to call it just plain old laziness :| and he never ever ever ever ever stops talking either :| E-V-E-R :| (i am so ready for summer holidays. and soooo not ready all at the same time.....)

i wish my hunger pains would just go away :( what the heck?? and it's not as easy as just eating, i tried that already :|

i wish people (not just children - because in my book it's appropriate to remind children to use their manners (unless their parents are present, because if they don't prompt them, there is just no hope...) would be kind and grateful when you're nice to them, because it makes being nice in the future that much harder if they don't show gratitude... and then said person thinks you're just stingy and mean, when in fact you're not mean at all, you just can't face yourself in the morning if you continue to give to overly entitled, ungrateful people :|

i wish the kettle didn't have a mind of it's own and a death wish - it boils for absolutely no reason all day long (most worryingly when it's empty: the thought of the kettle exploding fills me with such fear, i am quite sure the kettle is on a suicide mission to kill me....)

i wish i had never chosen dark granite for the boys' bathroom vanity. covered in soap scum, hard water stains and toothpaste spatter, it's just not pretty - ever :|

(cue: sad whiny voice) i wish Oprah wasn't going away :( i know i have complained once or twice about her distressing opera voice and her saying 'we'll be right back' twice before every commercial break and her being kind of clueless from time to time and how boring it is when she has celebs as her guests (esp Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Chris Rock) and how she really fumbled the ball picking Dr Oz as her resident doctor (can't stand that wiry depressing little man) but what on earth will we do without her? i would waste a genie wish on keeping Oprah around (and for her to move her show to L.A. so i can be in the audience :) and for everyone to get a new minivan that day :) also for said minivan to be a mica grey Toyota Sienna :) and for Nate Berkus to make over my entire house while i'm at the show but still be there when i get home so i can smell him and hug him and show him my picture of a joshua tree that was inspired by his picture of a joshua tree :) (all one wish)

off to bed for a nice cup of mint tea and Jersey housewives... i sure hope this season is better... they are my least favorite (after Miami obviously) xoxox

school pictures, boring actors and chocolate biscuits

taking
the fifth year group portrait tomorrow. no rain! and no whammies or whiny ''cool'' kids who refuse to smile either ;)

eating
ginger cats and hoping they will work their magic on my horribly sickly upset tummy... it's all Oprah's fault, getting me worked up and anxious about Wednesday already :(

wondering
if anyone actually finds Tom Hanks interesting... he's soooooo boring, i'd hate to sit next to him on a long haul flight - he's not even cute either. ditto Tom Cruise :| if i were Oprah i'd have demanded to have George Clooney! and David Bowie!! and Julie Andrews!! (oh i think she had her already...?) and Bill Clinton!!! all people i would LOVE to sit next to on a long haul flight (though sitting next to David Bowie would make me sweat profusely and he'd probably make an excuse and move seats to escape the stench ;) i once sat next to some big boss from Heinz going to Heathrow and i am pretty sure my love of heinz ketchup and baked beans was sweet music to his ears :) anyway... i'd also have R.E.M. and George Michael and Barry Manilow... i am the only person on God's green earth who doesn't like Beyonce or any of those other people who were singing today who i don't even know the names of...

knowing
however, i am soooooo going to miss the old girl :( i feel a trifle verklempt just thinking about how empty and barren Thursday's viewing is going to seem............... even though she's madly annoying at times, i do so like Oprah's show, and she has the coolest freak-esque guests that no-one else could even dream of getting :( it's like soooooooo sad.... no more horribly disfigured faceless people or hopelessly overdrawn housewives accused by Suze/Oprah of being the ruination of their families because they bought school pictures and Cover Girl lip gloss (yes it happened...) or amazing goosebumpy miracles or fabulous undergarments that make you look thinner instantly. it's the real end of the world as we know it (and i have a very upset tummy over it and don't feel fine at all...)

hating
*le sigh* - yuck!

thinking
some people all too often confuse being ''busy'' with being too full of their own importance ;) grounds for murder in my book, or at the very least being ignored right back ;)

wanting
to make scones. but i lost the recipe and can't remember any of the amounts and it's imperative i get it right as my palette is so refined. Martha has it somewhere on her site, i just have to wade through the thousands of returns for 'Martha Stewart scones" to find the real one without buttermilk/cranberries/cheese/other freak ingredients that have no place in english scones :|

off to bed with a nice cup of tea and a couple of chocolate digestives (purely for the digestive benefits :) back tomorrow with stories of insolent tweens and, hopefully, partly cloudy skies xoxoxo

favorite things

pinterest...
people weren't kidding... it's so addictive! and i swear my blood pressure drops at least 10 points by just clicking on that little white P :) today i made this, complete with crisp emergency one dollar bill :)


Jo Malone fresh mint cologne....
i tried all the other tea perfumes, including impossibly hard to find sweet lemon cologne mailed all the way from England... and fresh mint is curiously the only tea perfume i like... and i like it soooo very much i have three bottles of it dotted around the house/in my purse for i-need-to-breathe emergencies :) also: i am now addicted to mint tea sweetened with honey sipped from a glass cup :)

Target on a Sunday morning
heaven is a place on earth and it's Target on a Sunday morning :) (everything in stock/on sale/totally empty store/no kids - ahhhhhhhhh!)

bargains....
i am soooo not an extreme couponer (sick sick people).... but we forgot to use our coupon at the Home Depot (Hope Depot i prefer to call it...) last week and today they gave us $75 back, no questions asked :| that's enough money to go to Vegas! (any excuse - like i need one :)

Trader Joe's lavender dish soap....
yes i know it's called DISH soap... but sometimes when i fill my little soap dispenser thingie up, i 'accidentally' put too much in so it overflows and then i clean the entire kitchen countertop with the lavendery soapy bubbliness and it makes the house smell heavenly (and the countertops ridiculously shiny!

banana pudding....
i make it with less and less calories everytime... at this point it is mostly whipped air, fat-free vanilla pudding and bananas but still absolutely creamy and yummy.... and surely minus calories :)

silhouettes
we made them at Knotts Berry Farm as a cheesy anniversary gift and they took mere seconds to create... but i absolutely a-d-o-r-e how she perfectly captured their little boy profiles, in under a minute with nothing but scissors and black paper and two very twitchy can't-sit-still kids?! amazing :)

kittens
Violet was adopted in Beverly Hills yesterday (i hope she has a charmed and lovely life) so we just have Megan and Weasel left.... i love how tender and precious baby cats are to hold and cuddle, and the loud enthusiastic purring from such tiny fragile beings - they love everyone they meet: dogs/other cats/rats/kids with overly squeezy hands :)

picking fruit and making pies with it
it's that time of year i loooove starting Memorial weekend - blueberry season... then cherry season... then raspberry season... then pear season... and then apple season :)

Mondays with nowhere to be by 8am
after a million years of miserable Monday morning car/train/bus commutes to miserable offices, Monday morning spent speedwalking or shopping or just browsing new bedding online with no risk of paper cuts/cranky bosses/super busy phones, is just bliss and very much something i am grateful to my wonderful hubbie for :)

Martha Stewart
no explanation necessary :)

off to school, then Walmart for crepe paper and glue (pinterest strikes again).... back later xoxox

Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs

ok so it wasn't the end of the world as we know it, after all :) we had french fries for dinner to celebrate!


Danny went to jail yesterday at the carnival... it was a stink bomb/bubblegum jail and he wanted to go back three times :)

without even realizing they made snow cones that matched their shirts :)

favorite booth ever - silly string wars


don't worry, he was just pretending to run :)


he still looks like a squishy baby when he's asleep :)


i love Blackjack's underbite :)


today we all got a little sun-kissed :)

and Danny struck a pose while playing soccer with his cousins :)


i think he's soooo handsome :)

ditto Mr President (especially sans tie:)


this is what a nerf gun sounds like in the hands of a 6 year old


how come little boys have the shiniest, most awesomely bouncy, highlighted hair... and is it totally wrong to want that exact haircut/bounce/color...? :)


Mr Bumps loves bumping noses with Weasel (and the feeling is mutual :)


:)


Violet claims Mr Bump's favorite red chair (he is such a gentleman :)


a typical Weasel predicament (she couldn't get down...)


every little boy should have a dog he can hug like this, who just stays still and enjoys every moment of affection... Romeo is the most loving dog ever - hence the name :)


Blackjack -... most patient dog ever :)


back tomorrow xoxox