i love......

extra long weekends :)

Monday being a day off school so we can go to John's Incredible Pizza for their $5 spooky special :) (be hang to the diet!)

when Mr UPS arrives at 10am instead of 4pm (and he has a big smiling box for ME!!!)

the best vegetarian indian food for lunch drowning in the creamiest, orange-est tikka masala

bills with minus balances

when soccer practice and golden hour coincide in a perfectly shady park (with huge oak tree bokeh)

easy going moms

a king sized chocolate bar, strong but milky coffee and a George Clooney movie in bed :)

the crinkly eyed smiles of George Clooney, the President and my hubbie :)

waking up to donuts and coffee

mornings spent posing in fake living rooms and kitchens in IKEA

shopping for FAKE sheepskin rugs and picture frames

IKEA pizza for lunch (maybe i'm always really hungry after exploring that huuuuuge store but it's always sooooooo saucy and good!)

finding perfect sized, not too twee, pasta bowls after months (i am soo not kidding) MONTHS of searching - this calls for a celebratory spaghetti dinner :)

the big white driftwood stump we 'reclaimed' from a beach in Northern California

using our white minivan as a huuuuuuge reflector :)

the 135mm f/2.0 lens

hubbies that encourage such wonderful, feel-good, for-no-reason purchases

pictures taken with said lens that need no photoshopping and look like a perfect, slightly prettier than real life, version of real life

cats

dogs

finished baseboards

shelves full of freshly printed pictures

Disney, dieting and dismal facebook updates

woefully wishing
we had gone on the Disney cruise (it set sail on Sunday night....) because i am sooooo soooo tired this week and i just want room service (croissants and coffee) and a cozy bed and the sound of the ocean outside my window :(

noting however
that i am on a diet... so i'd have to skip the croissant anyway :(

obsessively counting the days
to our trip to the beach house. it's 23 to be exact :) so i can't eat for that many days at least :| it's possible! (they do it on that superskinny vs supersized show all the time!)

desperately seeking
a reclaimed wood entry way table for under $790 (well under $790 as a matter of fact... $199 would be much better but this one's just too cumbersome looking....)

= $790
= $199


also desperately seeking
a pretty white plain cork board with a little shelf at the bottom for things to rest on like pencils, stray lego pieces, marbles and pennies rescued from underfoot and miscellaneous postcards. with no embellishments, detail or swirly flowers. simply impossible to find here :| i miss John Lewis and Habitat :( and even Marks and Spencer :(

fully appreciating
flawless fresh paint on perfect sanded walls - perfection is highly underrated xoxo

wondering
what got into facebook... maybe it's that SAD disorder thingie...? between the people who just hate everyone and everything (who should NEVER be allowed to own guns and should have their card key thingie taken away the second they get fired), and the people who complain every single day about having too much to do and too many children to run around after (then quit doing stuff!! simple!), it is just a hotbed of complaining :| except for of course the people so desperate to convince others themselves that they DO love their lives and their kids by repeating it daily ;) and don't get me started with pinterest and nauseatingly twee pins like this (gag):

also this is not subway art :|

still loving
the iPhone cam... i printed some of the pics and they are amazing! not so much loving Steve Jobs after reading jackassy, selfish ahole things about him in that new book ;) (though i dearly love the iPhone and i'm keeping it! i tell Siri what to type and she does it like in one second flat - with nice punctuation and everything!!! still not so good at stuff like "why does David Bowie hate Rod Stewart so much and who hated who first?" i'm on David's side whoever started it ;)

walking
10 miles today. don't try to stop me :|

off to school and beyond... back later xoxoxoxo

damn you Siri

today i asked Siri if she could kindly open facebook as i was far too busy powerwalking to do so with my hands. and she flat out said no....??? i asked why and at first she said she wasn't really sure why, she has asked herself that in the past :| so i asked in a more authoritative American accent and she gave me some tall tale about sometimes waking up from a dream (automated people need to sleep...?) and asking herself 'why not?' but nothing at all about opening facebook (which i KNOW she can do because people on facebook say Siri dictates their updates for them!) :| what the heck... is she like a real person in an Indian call center? and if so, why is my Siri so uncooperative and MEAN??!

this afternoon she did the unthinkable - she tried to get me busted by the pigs :| i had her in the cupholder (no handheld devices allowed in OC) and i asked her to play 'supernatural superserious' by REM (because it's like my favorite song ever). she put on 'draggin' the line' which yes, technically is REM but not what i asked her for.... so i picked her up and asked in my most American-est accent, please play 'supernatural superserious' by REM (because maybe i'm not polite enough...?) again with 'draggin' the line'. and again :| and AGAIN! argghhh!!! i had to physically press buttons (stabbily, i admit...) to get her to stop and when i looked up, a policeman was next to me, staring at the unhelpful assistant in my hands :| thanks a LOT, Siri :| the policeman followed me for a long time, but ultimately got sick of driving 22MPH at the side of me trying to get behind me and sped off to more exciting crimes :)

seriously i give up with her. the only thing she gets partially right is the weather - i asked her for the weather in Oak Glen and she just ignored the Oak Glen part and gave me the weather here on Thursday :( also i think she is bad luck - since her arrival, one of our pet mice has died (RIP little pet mouse), my headphones only play in mono, Lisa Ling's "Our America" didn't record in full, we can't keep our reservation at Mozza and i keep hearing sounds in the trash can outside like something terrifying is living in it. if i could uninstall Siri and give her a no star rating, i would so do it!!

off to make something with swirls of chocolate and peanut butter - it's just that kind of night :|

pictures from the Pumpkin Patch - we panned for gold

he won three inflatable snakes


twas the day of the disastrous Quest diagnostics blood test fiasco... ps he's allergic to NOTHING, as i suspected all along :)


this is how tall he was LAST Fall... standing on tip toes :|

peacocks, dollar trees and Siri :|

loving
my new iPhone. it's soooo shiny and wonderful!!!! and it takes really cool pictures :) also i don't know how it knows but now it sends reminders to my computer about appointments and such - i have no clue how to set up something so technologically advanced so it HAS to be the phone's doing :)

sort of disliking
Siri already. i knew i would, she has a patronizing tone of voice and seems like she is trying NOT to help because she thinks she's better than me :( i asked her to make coffee and she gave me the number for Starbucks - rude :| and i just asked her advice on how to clean granite countertops and she told me she'd think about it and that i should ask again later... if i invented a perfect assistant, he would be Nate Berkus and he would immediately google how to clean granite countertops if he didn't already know. AND he would also help me clean them, because i would invent a HELPFUL assistant without a big attitude!

shopping
for ornament craft kits at Oriental Trading Co - honestly does life get any better than this?! although i am unfamiliar with the legend of the Christmas Peacock, i am buying the kit because his little face is so cute :)

and this one because it's just adorable (and would look so much better with a nicely posed picture in it)



wondering
why there are no magpies here... i miss them and the curious superstitions about them:

• A single magpie is associated with bad luck
  
• One should make sure to greet magpies when they are encountered in order to either allay bad luck or encourage good luck as related to the number of birds and therefore their place in the Magpie poem. Common greetings include "Hello Mr Magpie" "How is your wife/where is your wife?", "Good Morning/Evening Sir" and other marks of respect.
• Upon seeing a lone magpie one should repeat the words "I defy thee" seven times.
• On seeing a lone magpie one should pinch the person they are walking with, if they are alone they are to pinch themselves. The custom in Devon is to spit three times to avert ill luck.
• If a lone Magpie is seen, one should salute it to show you respect it. This formality can be forgone if the Magpie looks directly in your eyes, which shows it respects you

cock-a-hoop
over this neighborhood development - a DOLLAR TREE is opening right by our house!!!

straight out of the camera. with a PHONE. i love it! (also loving having a cute purse again, because i don't need to carry the huge clunking SLR and various lenses anymore:)


Mr & Mrs iPhone :)

biscuits, traffic and Kentucky

eating
one too many of the layery flaky biscuits filled with nutella that i made for the boys' after school snack :| and the sad truth is they aren't even really that good. this is true of most everything i see on pinterest: what looks like a great idea usually ends up being underwhelming at best :) i like amazing things only

wishing
i could look on the bright side of life. but it's just so impossible! why am i so worried about airport delays and Mr UPS being late bringing my phone, instead i should just be happy that it's coming tomorrow at all! but noooo, now i am worried about the weather in Kentucky and the morning traffic in LA and what if Mr UPS is really really busy delivering 1,000,000 iPhones and he runs out of time to deliver mine, or as usual just forgets me altogether, and i don't get it till Monday :| (note to self: breathe once in a while and try to think about something else...)

wondering
whhhhhy it's in Kentucky???? admittedly, middle America all kind of blends together in my head, but i do know Kentucky is not a logical stopping place between Anchorage, AK to Los Angeles, CA :| unless of course Sarah Palin is doing the sorting ;)

looking
for the perfect lyrics for my new iPhone case. i vow to think about something else another day, but today there is nothing else on my mind. is something like this too terrifying, blood-drinking and obsessive...? (truth is you can't be too scary these days...)

i would kill for you
i will steal for you*
i'd do time for you
i will wait for you
i'd make room for you
i'd sink ships for you,
take the cross for you
make me a part of you
because i believe in you
i believe in you
i would die for you

because this is exactly how i feel about my iPhone :| also: Garbage = 1996 when everything in the world was jinky-colored and perfect and gas was cheap and we got married and lived happily ever after :)

off to bed to watch a little "too fat for 15" over a nice slice of pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting :)
ps the iPhone is in Albuquerque now :| who knows where it will pop up next...
pps *i have never stolen anything for my iPhone :)

not that i'm obsessed or nothin.....

but it's currently 9:54pm in 'Chek Lap Kok' China and my new iPhone left there at 4:20pm their time... is it too early to set up a chair on the porch and await the rumble of the UPS truck, as he roars around the corner on two wheels with Tom Jones blaring out....? i need to keep a bucket of crabapples on the porch to gently toss, should he accidentally miss my house as he always does when he has a very important package. "no such address", he jests.... but i don't hear anyone laughing :|

i looked at google earth, 'Chek Lap Kok' is a little island with an AIRPORT ON IT!!! only 13 hours 10 minutes by air... so if it left 5 hours ago (i am allowing 34 minutes for runway taxiing and such annoyances).... it could easily be here by tea time!!!! it's possible - it could totally happen!! this is going to be a changing day in my life :)

i can't wait to take pictures! and talk to Siri and ask her to convey a very complicated tongue twister message about Sue sewing socks to Aaron and then see what she writes to him. oh the laughs we will have with our phones talking back and forth :)

in other news, i really don't love Rosie's new show... i hate the stand-up and the bursting into song (maybe i dreamed this part... i fast forwarded through it in my dream anyway) but i did like Russell Brand about 20% more than i thought i might (previously, i couldn't have liked him 20% less;) because he doesn't eat meat. this weekend we drove past many many dairy farms and saw trucks full of precious, wobbly baby cows with the most beautiful eyelashes, separated from their moms and off to somewhere absolutely horrible all by themselves (sob) and as always it made me sick and want to hijack said trucks and take all the calves home (in our minivan...? yes! i'd move some stuff around and make it work!) but now there's less guilt and self loathing about loving animals dearly but being a total hypocrite and still eating them. or claiming to be practically vegetarian but sneaking a burger because they taste so good. they ARE sooooo good but one meal should not take one life... it's just not right or kind or fair and for the first time, i felt like i was doing what's right for me, so i can sleep at night*

*still can't sleep... now i'm worried about delays in Chek Lap Kok, and not finding the camera dramatically better, and how to transfer everything to the new phone without losing my mind in the process... and what if the case doesn't fit and i have to carry my phone around in a sock... because that would be AWFUL)

ho hum - off to drop off children, walk, shower, watch Lisa Ling's show about American oddities, and pick up children. same crap, different day (although if the phone comes, it will be slightly different)

our weekend away - imagine the coolest, freshest, faintly cedar scented air, soft but crunchy earth underfoot, amazingly clean soft light and nowhere to be by any specific time... and that was our weekend away :) ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

is it the 14th yet.....?

falling
asleep from staying up far far far too late ordering one black and one white iPhone. now to choose a case, the new Speck has rectangles instead of squares and clearly that just won't work for me :| and the one that does have squares doesn't cover the button on the front - and that's a deal breaker ;)

hoping
oh hope of hopes that Danny is NOT allergic to cats as the doctor dared to suggest he might be :| because that is one of my worst parenting nightmares: keep the child or the cat. i've already decided: if he's allergic we're keeping everyone, but moving to a mid-century home with a cat atrium or a farmhouse with attached cat barn :)

wondering
how someone who can barely speak English and has zero people skills gets a job at Quest Diagnostics drawing blood from terrified little 6 years olds' arms :( if i've ever wanted to strangle someone with that rubber strip they tie around your arm, it would be that woman at Quest Diagnostics yesterday (the one opposite Trader Joe's - it's awful! the waiting room alone was migraine colored) also: if someone is going to draw blood for a living, they should be somewhat good at it and not need to try different spots before finding a vein.... stupid woman/poor Danny :(

hoping
there is still snow in Sequoia this weekend... snow or not, we're going on a roadtrip!! we are also to Hobby Lobby as i just can't wait a weekend longer for the Temecula store to open :|

loving
that the projects i was saving for a rainy day got finished this week... namely Danny's 6th birthday book and Sam's 11th birthday book from blurb.com :)

waiting
for my latest batch of Trader Joe's pumpkin bread with best ever cream cheese frosting to cool down already! i am sure putting warm things into the freezer isn't the best idea, but it smells too good to wait. of course now Dr Oz will claim that cooling down cake in the freezer so you can eat it faster causes cancer or something that will take all the sweetness out of my pumpkin bread :|

wondering
if my thumb is infected... it's just been one of those weeks - i accidentally trapped Friday's tail in a drawer yesterday and when i tried to say sorry, she bit me SO HARD, i am sure half her tooth broke off and is now embedded in my thumb festering in bacteria :| i read online that 80% of cat bites become infected as oppose to only 20% of dog bites. i bet Dr Oz wrote them ;)

off to eat a plateful of veggies for dinner - french fries, onion rings and fried zucchini... this vegetarian thing is SO COOL!!!

thank you for the music... xoxo

• and for giving me the ability to check my email 555 times a day :)
• for freeing my friends from having to live exclusively inside the computer :)
  
• for putting amazon in my pocket so i can price-check everything with my fancy scanner ;)
  
• and for yelp (how did we ever find wonderful new places to eat without it?!)
• for maps that tell you "you are here!" and how many miles/minutes it is to Graceland no matter where in the world you are (walking or by car :)
• for always having a camera with me when something wonderful happens by surprise
  
• for the video camera too at school award ceremonies :)
• for shazam and tune wiki
  
• for access to an encyclopedia, no matter what my kids want to know
• and for giving me the answer to all my lame celebrity questions at 3am :)
• for always having the correct time (even when the clocks change and i can't remember if it's fall forward or spring forward...)
• for the weather report (in all my favorite cities :)
• for the calculator
• for tetris in very boring waiting rooms
• and for helping my littlest son learn to write his number and letters neatly
• and for those angry birds he loves so dearly
  
• for fascinating and inspiring Sam (he's a fan.. a trip to the Apple store is the ONLY way i get him to come with me to the mall:)
• for iTunes - 5460 songs in perfect alphabetic order
  
• for iPods in beautiful white boxes with heartfelt words inscribed on the back and free apple stickers for the kids' pencil boxes
• for 7 years of wonderful music in my ears and at my fingertips - life post-walkman was so very quiet - the iPod brought music back into my everyday :) and the iPhone, so much more besides :)
  

thank you Steve Jobs: creator of my beloved red iPod and my cherished white iPhone*... what are we going to do without your amazing inventions....?

"The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device* he invented." — President Obama

NYC, best friends and wild parrots

listening
to very quiet Simon and Garfunkel songs very loud with my noise-canceling headphones. because i have officially answered my quota of pointless questions for the day :|

missing
New York today (and not just because of the 59th Street Bridge song ;)

wondering
if i just dreamed that whole REM break up thingie...? they're coming back, right....? they'll get sick of being broken up, just like the Beatles did...?)

loving
rice crispie treats for dinner. no marshmallows allowed, just swirls of melted peanut butter (it's got to be a vegetarian thing, this mad peanut butter craving...? )

loving
that my phone has a CALENDAR on it! i put all the appointments in it that i used to keep in the notes, and it is going to remind me of each one two hours then one hour before they happen! which means i will probably end up getting a new phone next week (with f/2.4 aperture 8 megapixel camera) and all that hard work will go to waste ;)

also loving
getting an unexpected refund check in the mail so we can get those new phones next week :)

always loving
Sheye's words - almost as much as her pictures. she expresses her emotions so eloquently, and there's just something about Aussies that feels so familiar and lovely (maybe it's growing up adoring 'Neighbors' and 'Home and Away'...?)

drinking
far too much diet coke today :| four cans :| homeschooling a first grader will do that to you (even though Grandma did the homeschooling part today :)

thinking
tomorrow's homeschool will include a trip to the park to ride the little train, visit the pumpkin patch and then stop for lunch at McDonalds (truth be told, i really really really love having Danny home.... endless questions and endless coughing aside)

what a sick feverish little boy looks like :(

his essay about his friends, they look like the Beatles (clearly Danny is George Harrison :)


arranging the new pet pics (because children are, like, soooooo 2008)


did i ever mention my beloved wild parrots before..? there are hundreds of them squawking around OC each evening :) we had at least 100 of them in our trees last night :)