sunday sweetness

things that make my world sweeter in no particular order.....

• an entire weekend spent together and with no-one else
• iTunes (i so miss Steve Jobs's brilliant mind)
• red shoes (still searching for the perfect perfect mary janes.... oh Melissa, patron saint of pretty things...?)
• Coco Chanel (and Coco too :)
• homemade apple pie a la mode
• sending a care package of British chocolate to Sam's teacher because she was telling her class all about the Cadbury chocolate factory on Friday :)
• David Bowie - it's a hunky dory kind of night.  i'm going to go to New York every single weekend until i see him :) since the week they were born, i have wanted Sam to marry Lexi and then we will be inlaws and go on cruises together... ehhh, you may say i'm a dreamer ;)
• his son Duncan's twitter... he's very funny and British and an Angelino too :)
• AAA and the really nice man who changed my tire today :) i checked my heart rate right before he showed up and it was 82 :|
• going out to a breakfast place for lunch/dinner (anytime but breakfast time :)
• that my hubbie always shares his french fries with me (you see, you don't get french fries with breakfast....)
• President Obama (he has my vote ;)
• letting go of stuff
• rats - i love their little hands and twitchy noses and they're so much nicer than mean little hamsters ;)
• that tomorrow's a lucky "white rabbits white rabbits white rabbits" morning - i need to make a white rabbits app so even unsuperstitious people can be lucky too ;)
• the Halloween dress-up aisle of Target (and Walmart too!)

sunday things

this morning we watched House Hunters (in bed with coffee and ginger cats) and it was in Massa-fucking-chusetts!!  the accents!  the trees!  and real wood floors!  the house prices!!  holy crap - i can't wait to go house shopping, i am going to look at 10,000 houses just for fun!

fun fact: there are very few states you can seamlessly insert a cuss word into: Cali-fucking-fornia.  Missi-fucking-sippi.  Colo-fucking-rado.  Ala-fucking-bama.  Ari-fucking-zona. Pennsyl-fucking-vania.  annnnnnd Massa-fucking-chusetts ;)

in other ADD news, i am baking two apple pies! and the kids are gone!  and i love my new nail color!  and i ate way too much icecream last night.... and Bumper is going crazy doing his monotone human "meow" over and over because he caught a fly!  and i got an email from the nice lady with the beautiful grey shingley house and it even has lawn service and bicycles (hip hip horray!)!!  and she loves Trader Joe's too!!  and she's an interior designer - so that's why the house is soooo perfect and white and zen!!!  it's (another) beautiful day in the neighborhood, a neighborly day in the beautiwood...

and also... did i mention: it's $2000 less than our mortgage....?  uhuh :|  New York fucking City here we come - every single weekend!

pizza e vino

it's sixteen years since i emigrated to the US of A :)


the best garlic bread in the entire world


does everyone make faces with their oil and vinegar...?


he'd never done it before, but the nice pizza guy put an egg on my pizza :)


and it was ahhhhhmazing - like when Harry Met Sally ahhhhhmazing!!! the nice pizza guy said he'll make the 'Fiorentina' a special, Tarnya ;)  we should get a commission check ;)


reading me the crime blotter for Cape Cod (eye roll - apparently it's full of gangs and sex offenders....)










the selection of denali moose tracks icecream (extreme maximum is the best :)

it's a great day!

i once had a temp assignment for a company that answered the phone with that greeting.  but i had to leave :)  and avoid the phone at all costs until i did :)  because i just couldn't say it :) 

anyway it's a great day because.... i have found the dreamiest, loveliest house with pretty grey shingles and shutters and cafe curtains and everything!  and you know how many miles it is from Trader Joe's: two!!!  TWO MILES!!!  as in a four mile roundtrip stroll for pale pink peonies, a tiny cup of coffee and a crusty baguette!  also: next door is a Christmas Tree Shop :|  i've not even checked proximity to McDonalds - i'm like totally sold already!!  and the lady is an Angelina too (that's a female Angelino) so, it's all going to be OK!!! (repeat 10,000 times)   
 
also this morning i gave everything in the kitchen to Good Will.  because of that Christmas Tree Shop in my future ;)  (they don't just sell christmas trees... in fact, i don't know if they do sell christmas trees at all....)

also: it's date night!

also: there is a new Gallery Girls on the DVR - looove that show :)

back later xoxo

Good Will didn't get the bud vases and the starfish :)

4 things

it's our sweet sixteenth anniversary today (the second one, we have two:) i seize any opportunity to wear a swishy dress and shiny shoes so we are going to our favorite restaurant by the fake lake tonight (omg... i bet they have restaurants by real lakes in Massachusetts!!!!)

we neeeeeeed to go to Good Will this morning - we have so much crap to give away. is it wrong to give away build-a-bears....? they have that special hand-picked heart inside them - and birth certificates :( but we have soooo many and we can't possibly take every single bear and bunny and dinosaur and dog.... Bo is coming for sure, because he's family, as is Sunny Bunny... but the rest...? eeeeeee... it is going to break my heart :( what the hell is wrong with me that i feel sad for things that aren't even real.....? i have an empathy imbalance

in other health news, i am slightly obsessed with checking my heart rate since i downloaded that fancy heart rate monitor thingie ;) note to self: trying not to breathe while it's counting does not help :|

in other other health news, i hate Dr Oz. OK that's technically old news but he is such a scaremonger. now i think i have a freaking stupid gluten allergy because of his dumb self-test and i flatly refuse to be allergic to anything! if pumpkin bread and ginger cats are not gluten free then i'm just going to have to pretend i never took that test. acid reflux and migraines are no big deal at all ;)

old dogs, kinky hair and scary basements

feeling
so bad for poor old Blackjack. he tore his ACL again and is on dog bed rest again :( that means no more dog beach - probably ever :( sob...

listening
to Dead Souls, both versions

smelling
burnt pizza - someone really needs to clean that oven but i've kinda checked out now ;)

hating
my hair even more than this morning. i got it cut and it's just awful and i have been pulling it all day to make it grow faster... with no success. those y-e-a-r-s of pressing down the tip of my nose never worked either

loving
conditioner for kinky afro hair - it works wonders on unkinky hair too and hopefully it will make it look a little longer and more relaxed ;)

wishing
that derned pizza didn't smell so good. i'm not even hungry, i had Indian food for lunch

getting
sick of the house search. every house is too tiny or too ridiculously huge or has yucky carpet or is too remote or too central or it doesn't have a fence, or the basement looks like prostitutes and college students have been dismembered in it. we are going to end up with the first one that's 7.7 miles from Trader Joe's, i just know it :|
ps it's adorable and the floor is soooooo shiny (it's the little things that make my heart skip a beat ;)


today's nails - they make Aaron want brown M&Ms and Danny, Freddo Frogs


oh gosh.... now i think i want to live on Wah Wah Taysee Road......... (though that horizon makes me uncomfortable)


seeing Clinton is on my bucket list... that Obama's already checked off ;)

George Michael, Dr Oz and pizza delivery

i kinda wish the people next door never moved in with their matching Range Rovers and their yappy little dog (which isn't a rescue, i am sure of it) i really wanted George Michael to move in next door but sadly he didn't :(  but if he had moved in, i would have been stuck here forever....

i must walk this morning - i have had an invalid excuse every morning and today i am going to stop the insanity and just do it (poosticks, i hate motivational quotes)

today is a minimum day.  and macaroni grill has a free lunch offer.  you know what i'm thinking...?!

i tried that argan oil yesterday as recommended by that lame Dr Oz and today my hair looks horrible.  or maybe i just hate my haircut/color which is truly the worst ever.  whichever it is, it's a very bad hair day :(  thanks for nothing Dr Oz :|

you know what is ironic (at least i hope it's ironic and not just sucky, i always get it wrong)?  that there is no Subway in Sandwich.  i need to open one (my dream!!  and it will also sell Little Caesars pizza!!  and i will deliver my wares on a bicycle!)

back later xoxo

today in pics

i tried a pumpkin spice latte just so i could see what all the fuss was about... hmmmm, not bad (if Starbucks coffee wasn't so scorchy and burnt tasting... is it just me?  it gives me wicked tummy ache....)  anyway, i did drink it all and it did smell heavenly :)  but Angela if you love this, you will looooooooooove TJ's pumpkin loaf - i'll bake you some as soon as i find a house on Sail A Way ;)  maybe i could mix some pumpkin syrup into the cream cheese frosting...  


sent this pic to a friend who has been on the lookout for weeeeeeks for Count Chocula!  now i must try this stuff too....) 


pizza heaven - TJ's is in town tonight and i'm on a diet (my life sucks)


i like to live dangerously :) 


hmm, i wonder if they have lofthouse cookies in Massachusetts... so many wonders these days....


and Cici's... what will we do without all-you-can-possibly-eat pizza and pasta?  yeah we will probably do OK........

in other news, i'm not obsessed or nothing.... but here are more pretty street names that are scrawled all over my desk with stars and hearts and doodletrees all around them:

• Candy Lane
• Bunny's Road
• Lolllipop Lane
• Piggy Lane
• Dolly Drive
• Black Duck Lane
• Teddy Drive
• Mousehole Lane
• Puppy Path
• Pigeon Lane

back later (probably with more adorable street names... all we have here is impossibly hard to say Spanish names like Calle Puente Estancia Santa Margarita... so i am dying over the cuteness of Cape Cod's street names!!!) xoxo

ps if you are squeamish or easily offended, please look away.  i am ashamed to say Angela, that my favorite bra is from that evil nemesis, WalMart.  but it's sooooo nice and soft and comfy, i don't care who made it... because they did an awesome job with the sizing ;)  i get sad when they are in the washing machine and i watch them go round and round (i am sure machine washing of bras is not recommended, but i live in the real world...)
pps i never said they were sexy ;)

sad stories

i must admit.... the thought of renting a house - especially a furnished one - makes me hyperventilate :|  just looking at the pictures online, i am dying to get in there and get rid of light-blocking walls and have Good Will pick up all the sad furniture and rip up ugly carpets... and i am sure all these things are illegal in a stranger's home ;) 

also all the sob stories from people renting are just riveting - we had the usual missionaries who need the money wired to them in a third world country in exchange for the keys ;)  apparently the pastor's mother who was showing the house was tragically killed - so sad!  and then there is a very nice man whose Russian bride fled back to her homeland and now he's stuck with her (very expensive, but much depreciated) dream home ... i want to feel sorry for him, i do - but i bet he was horrible to live with if things were sooooo bad that she left Cape Cod :| and i bet he has cameras everywhere.... he seems the shifty type ;)  also he doesn't seem to LOVE cats the way i do... and a general rule of thumb is that non-cat people are pretty much always horrible ;)

the first house with the smitten landlady seems the best, but 7.7 miles to Trader Joe's really is a little bit too far - am i too picky...?  also i don't like the street name.... i want to say i live on Sail A Way so bad!!! why did i have to see that street name??!!!

off to walk up to Target - that's another essential: walking distance to Target ;)

wednesday's soup for the soul

the laundry being completely up-to-date, as in not one single solitary stinky boy sock in the hamper

skipping dinner and having pumpkin bread at bedtime instead :)

watching Ricki Lake (how i missed her.... i think she's incredibly sweet)

finding the perfect bra (and buying 2 of every color :)

downloading b-sides i've not heard for 20 years

'falling in love' by philosophy

that it's our (unofficial) anniversary this weekend and it's a kid-free weekend :)

taking the scenic route

Wichita Lineman by R.E.M.

Why Not Smile by R.E.M. (this song is exactly how loved i feel)

finding the perfect rental 7.7 miles from Trader Joe's (with 5 bedrooms so there is enough space for visitors, and a little old landlady already completely enamored with Aaron :)

exploring Cape Cod via google maps and keeping a list of all the adorable street names there... here are just a few (oh yeah, i spent hours ;):

• Blueberry Lane
• Apple Way
• Uncle Jimmy's Lane
• Little Dipper Lane
• Wiggy's Way
• Hot Bottom Road
• Mother Goose Lane
• Handkerchief Way
• Gingerbread Lane
• Sail A Way (cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!!!)
• Raccoon Run
• Wah Wah Taysee Road
• Mink Meadows Road
• Belle of the West Lane
• Hope Road
• Granny's Lane
• Morning Drive
• Spider Web Lane
• Happy Valley Road
• Chickadee Lane
• Huckleberry Lane

berry-banana smoothies (specifically the ones Aaron makes)

the quiet time after the boys are asleep

the Mentalist :)

i'm the luckiest girl in the world

today the boys are off school and it's heavenly because i neeeeeeed a slow start and a day of being with them (am i the ony mum who loves them being home...?  sure, i love the house being still and boy-free, but i love them being here with me so much more :)

i'm taking them to John's Incredible(-y average) Pizza for lunch because they love it there so much (and i love the coffee bar :)

i'm getting more new workout clothes while we are out - best incentive ever to want to walk :) 

the house smells like mint (amazing and calming and it's impossible to not take deep cleansing, jaw relaxing breaths when the house smells this amazing)

i'm shopping for beautiful Capes with weathered shingles and picket fences and hydrangeas and having to cross off the ones on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard because that would just be too far from a Target (officially.the.luckiest.girl.in.the.world)

i get to give everything i don't love away and take only the things that are dear to me

i get to leave behind this house and the people and diseases it reminds me of

we get to go home - as in HOME with mince pies and crackers and the Queen's speech - for Christmas!!! 

we're about to make our last mortgage payment

i'm driving cross country with my beloved japanese maple tree and my husband doesn't think i'm insane because he's sentimental too :)

i get to actually shop at the Atlantic Spice Company for my everyday cooking needs (be still my heart - i looooooooooove this store)

back later with pictures of the day xoxox

happy-ish tuesday

drinking
coffee with a little extra whipped cream love in it :)

making
meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner. i don't know who i am anymore.... but this is definitely not me ;) i don't even eat meat....

listening
to '24 hour party people' the original soundtrack ;) i watched the rest of it last night and was completely riveted. it brought back soooo many vivid memories of that place and time, and a very very very bad girl that i used to hang out with, who loved the Hacienda and always drove at 110mph in her matchbox-sized Mini (i had one too!!!) she even ended up robbing the bank we worked at... those were fun-ish times.  she always always always bought lunch and i didn't think anything of it at the time, i just thought she was super duper generous ;) but anyway, it was a fascinating movie (but maybe more so if you lived through that era...? :)

wishing
however that 'loose fit' would stop playing in my head on a never-ending loop.......

wondering
do men really wear bras....? i read this review and it confused the heck out of me....

"this bra should be marketed as a mans bra. it supports well and doesnt accentuate your endowment. very comfortable"

huh??????

paging
Annie! please please talk some sense into me, i am scared of leaving Orange County...... please tell me there is life beyond the Orange curtain... they have golden hour in the rest of the country, right......? and fireflies....? and good Mexican food.....?


oops i did it again - but i just can't help myself.  these are all ELF polishes and i liked them all but did i buy them all...?  no!! even though they were only $2 each :|

tired eyes held open with invisible matchsticks ;)

school pick-up song today which you can't possibly sing along to in anything but a cockney accent :)

the Gila Monster in my head

the library is still asking about the Gila Monster book :|  i am going to go in there today and find it on the shelf and march up to the mean people who work there and confront them with it.  and if it's not there, move to plan B.... tear the house apart and check every nook and cranny of the car, in case we actually didn't return it yet... (i am sure i did... but i've been wrongly sure of things before :)

so our house is in escrow :|  as in we need moving boxes because someone else will be moving into it (that nice smiling family) and we will be moving out of it :| and my dumb tummy hurts so bad, i might die from anxiety and stress and acid reflux.  maybe i should double up on the prilosec for a while :|

suddenly i have a million doubts:

• what if we really really miss our Mexican restaurant and they don't have good slimy Mexican food there...?  what if they just have that weird East Coast hybrid with chocolate sauce....
• will the snow get old?  i bet it's going to get old, right....?  after the first snowfall and making of snowmen...?
• what if there only being one Trader Joe's means it's always sold out of everything like that scary one in Manhattan that had Space Mountain-esque lines at the checkout...?
• what if the Walmarts aren't the nice clean ones with big aisles and unsticky floors...?
• will we still be able to come 'home' every new year to go on our Hollywood sign hike...?
• gasp, will this still be home....?  as in, homesick for TWO places?
• do they have British grocery stores?  like the African Hut?
• i'm going to miss the Science Center in L.A.... and Griffith Park Observatory.... and the beach house...
• and being able to go and peek through George Clooney's fence on a Sunday when he's playing basketball....
• is it even possible to drive 50 hours nonstop...?  with 2 dogs and 5 cats and 2 rats and an elderly little mouse who is like 5 years old now who refuses to die....?

i just can't think about it anymore :|  so i'm going to Target for nail polish to take my mind off things for a while ;) 

4pm monday

managed
to walk 10.05 miles without ever waking up - please don't tell me the calories don't count if you're sleepwalking....?

wore
a new sunblock and it's pretty good!  i'm obsessed with finding the perfect, non-stingy, non-stinky, non-pasty white, non spray sunblock and Neutrogena's wet skin lotion is it :) 

watched
half of '24 hour party people' over lunch.  i went to school with one of the actors in it and it made me a little bit homesick...

snuggled
with the hubbie and decided we should definitely move to Massachusetts - maybe :) 

started
planning our first road trip from there to Cocoa Beach (where the hubbie was born :)

bought
goldfish - the orange cheesy variety (shopping hungry is never good....)

saved
a terrified lizard from the evil clutches of Friday - he was OK and no bite marks at all!  i suspect she was responsible for the baby bird incident last week too.... she doesn't actually kill things, she just carries them around in her mouth like a lioness (and it's soooooo gross)

made
corn bread and unfried chicken for dinner.  it smells goooooooooooooood!  but i'm not eating it ;)

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

yeah so apparently even a half of a half of a sleeping pill is too much.... this is why i don't drink ;)

dreamt i read an entire book to Danny - i must admit to being horribly disappointed that he wasn't actually listening to any of it, so i could skip the painful awful dreadful reading segment of the morning :| 

gave up thinking about the dumb offer - oh yeah, i'm sure they want an answer... those people with their nice picture of their nice happy family... but i'm sooooo tired and and my lower lashes and upper lashes are stuck together and i'm still totally on the fence about living in a cold place.... (though i kinda don't love the warm place either ;)  hmmm, what to do.  more coffee.  and then more coffee.... repeat till offer expires

bought new workout clothes yesterday.  they were the only reason i got out of bed this morning, so excited was i to wear my fancy new pedal pushers ;)

off to walk and wake up (hopefully during the walk) and be happy :)

yeah i didn't see that happening....

major major major cold feet

now there is a viable, acceptable, decent offer on our house... it's going to be a loooooooooong sleepless night of heartburn, itchiness, tooth-grinding and tossing and turning

i can't even think about it anymore - my brain is so maxed out from looking at pretty little houses on private beaches.... and gorgeous executive homes in the 'burbs with indoor pools.... and all the miscellaneous crap in between :|

pics from the day.... i'm not one to make pretty lunches or brag about them... but i'll make an exception when the sandwich is this adorable ;)




today we went to a San Salvadorian birthday party :) i have tummy ache from eating way way too much and drinking too many obscenely sugary apple sodas :)


we were the only non-family, non-San Salvadorians at the party so we sat all by ourselves and did what white people do: took lots of self portraits with our iPhones :)

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

a neighborly day in the beautiwood!!! because....

it's officially pumpkin season at Trader Joe's!!!!!

the first store we hit up in the less fortunate part of town (by the Walmart;) had absolutely none left - all sold out by 10am :| but the one by our house had stocked up in anticipation of the crazies who live in the neighborhood :) note: i showed self restraint and kindness to others and did NOT buy them all ;)




this should do for now - until we move! also quadratinis and ginger cats... hangs head in worst-dieter-of-the-year shame


getting all Lewinsky-ish with the POTUS (well kind of... clearly she did not attend St Joseph's Catholic school for nice girls ;)


that guy on the right is Mitt Romney... AKA "what was that Mormon guy's name again....?" 


this is what our kids wanted to be LAST Halloween....

off to bake pumpkin bread, enjoy it over a lifetime movie, then repeat and be happy :)

pizza pumpkins and polish

had leftover pizza for dinner - boo.  i hate leftovers!  especially pizza - eww!!  it's so not worth the calories - surely it being cooled down and reheated kills off half of the calories because it tastes half as yummy....?)  anyway it never ever tastes good even when i do exactly what the box suggests (which is rare)  also: having leftovers in the fridge means we can't go out to eat the next night because that would be immoral :(

had Trader Joe's pumpkin loaf with cinnamon cream cheese frosting for breakfast, which was much much much yummier... and healthy, right?  pumpkin is a vegetable............i think?  this is the best frosting recipe:

• 2 packs of cream cheese (obviously at least one should be fat free)
• 1 stick of butter (i use 'slimming' butter for obvious reasons)
• 2 cups of powder sugar that i never sieve because i hate washing that dumb thing
• a dash of vanilla
• a shake of cinnamon 
• whisk it all up in the mixer until all the little stones of sugar are gone/you can't wait another second to eat it - whichever comes first ;) 
• put a 3 inch layer over the pumpkin bread and eat the rest with a spatula (handy hint: tell the children it contains two blocks of cheese and they wouldn't like it at all ;) 

watched Gallery Girls.  i can't stop staring at that Amy - she is sooooooo 1980s looking and tragic, like a female Donald Trump :(  and her apartment is so garish and gold-leafed - possibly the ugliest apartment i have ever seen.  and also: she has a Tonya Harding mean-girl kind of face.  but all that aside, i am sure she's very nice ;)

off to Target to buy something with angry birds on it for a birthday party and check out (nice friend not gallery girl) Amy's favorite nail polishes this time.... how i love us silly frilly girls and our pertiful sparkly nails xoxoxoxo

saturday in pixels