goldfish and sharks

woke up waaaaay too late and waaaaay too tired for walking in L.A. so we stayed in bed and had breakfast instead ;)

shopped online at Garnet Hill  - because 6 camis with built-in bras just isn't enough...

zoomed to Target with my new real plastic red card!!!  horray!!!

couldn't decide between all the different kinds of oatmeal: low sugar, weight management, high fiber, low cholestrol - seriously what's with all the overwhelming choices none of which overlap???  i need an oatmeal that addresses ALL my issues and such a miracle product doesn't exist ;)

hoped and prayed and crossed my fingers as i looked along the bread aisle for Goldfish bread (but it was all for nothing....) 

found Angela's favorite Essie nail polish and painted every nail a different shade and ultimately decided that 'dive bar' was indeed the nicest shade of all:)

then changed my mind and got 'over the edge' instead ;) 

started to wonder if my flagrant trying-on of all those nail polishes is actually kind of stealing...?  and if Angela would be sitting in her office with her armed crossed following me, if i were in Wareham, Massachusetts' Target. note to self: never ever steal from that particular Target.  not that i do steal from Target, but let's just say if the cashier doesn't scan the big bag of dog food under the cart that i already told them about and they still don't do it, i don't tell them a second time :|  nope, and it's completely OK because they once (in 1998) overcharged me for diet coke and were all pissy about reimbursing my money.  so i'm just getting even for that nastiness ;)     

had garlic croutons for lunch and watched Shark Tank (it was soooooo boring except for that cool surf board thing!!)

cleaned the entire house - now it smells like fresh minty toothpaste (which is good, right...?  i hope it doesn't smell like there is spearmint gum stuck somewhere... because it's actually a very fancy aromatherapy spray ;)

arggghh!!  going to Costco.  and stopping overthinking for a while ;)

puppy love

dear Angela, is this allowed in Massachusetts???   painting your nails in the store?

  

Blur, buddha beads and baby birds.....

listening
to Blur.  fun fact: i once went to see them at the Milton Keynes Bowl and Chris Martin was there too ;)  and it was awesome!  (though i'm officially too old for stadium concerts these days :) 

going
to Los Angeles tomorrow.  but not on the GTA tour - Aaron has decided those areas of L.A. are off limits ;)  so instead, i want to walk from Griffith Park to the Hollywood sign (shh, don't tell the boys :) and then maybe stop at 800 degrees for pizza.  and maybe get a Dole Whip at the House of Dole.  and maybe stop at Diddie Riese for ice cream sandwiches.  because we'll be stahhhhhving after walking all those 14 miles ;)

lamenting
the death of the sweet baby bird :(  R.I.P. Fluffy Feathers....

wearing
my magical make-everything-OK buddha beads from Cape Cod.  they were only 50 cents (i would have paid up to $15 ;)

loving
the sweet thoughtful treats i got today :) feeling lucky xoxo

the day the space shuttle flew over our house :)

no big deal - just the freaking SPACE SHUTTLE on top of a 747!!!  it turns out it was worth running outside for after all!!  so very cool - it flew over OC at 12:30pm on the boys' lunchbreaks and went right over their schools (which made school pick-up today very exciting indeed!!)

my crappy picture from the house

David's AMAZING pictures from Griffith Park :) 

Gila monsters, librarians and homework :|

loving:
finding the laundry mysteriously all done this morning (how on earth did i get this lucky...?)

also loving:
the 135mm f2 lens - it is amazing and i'm sooooo lucky that it's all mine every day forever more

drinking:
the darned fine coffee (without the fancy creamer which i really want to have grown-up enough tastes to like but just don't...)

hating:
the stupid library. i returned the book about Gila monsters already - they ask me every.single.day where it is... what, do i need to take a picture of me putting it in the dropbox?? because this happens all the time!! one time i returned a pile of books and watched as the lady just stuck them on the cart to go back on the shelves without ever checking them back in. i gave her my stabby eyes look and she smacked her head and grabbed them like it happens all the time...? seriously, like it's so hard to remember to actually do your job??? i have a confession: i kind of hate librarians ;) and also the library: even the pretty one with the 270 degrees of natural light

also hating:
that Danny finds every excuse under the sun to be distracted from his spelling test. seriously boy, just do it already!!!! arrrrghhhh!!!!

wearing:
my sweet piggly wiggly teeshirt from Memphis. it seems to make 35% of the people i meet in any given day homesick for the South (sorry you guys....i know how you feel....)

wondering:
if i'll see the space shuttle this morning - it's doing another flyover for the people who missed it on Wednesday because they were too tired to run outside ;)

our morph boy image that we made in 1996 - he looks like Sam, right?  minus the huge jug ears ;)


baby pictures of Sam, just because xoxo

friends

making
baked ziti for dinner - with garlic bread of course. and it smells sooooo amazing, i want to hold it up to the flames so it cooks faster (but i generally don't have such good luck with stunts like that ;)

baking
an apple pie too.  who am i???!  not working at all and having the boys back in school is awesome - like being Martha Stewart, kind of  (but i can't fold a fitted sheet -i just roll it in a ball and stuff it away :)

visiting
Theresa tomorrow :) she has pumpkin loaf from Trader Joe's!!!!   

wishing
we were going for another delicious moms only lunch at the Indian restaurant tomorrow.  we stayed for THREE HOURS until a) school was over and b) the place was closed ;) 

also wishing
the baby bird would just miraculously fly back to his nest and live happily ever after.  because i am filled with the worst guilt ever knowing he is out there suffering and i can't do anything to help him.  did you know baby birds need to be fed every 20 minutes?  and 95% of them die anyway?  sigh - the internet is a very depressing place :(

loving
the 'after' feeling of the ten mile walk.  not so much the 'before' or the 'during' which totally suck ;)

kind of hating
on the cub scouts... they have something going on every single night and i hate being over scheduled :(

also kind of hating
that Joe Biden.  i am sure he didn't email me personally but his latest email is just too mean, and it starts 'Look, Carol --" and then accuses me of not trying hard enough to help Barack, when i am working out like a dog (see above) to get that man re-elected and i - of all people - have his back.  grrrr!!!  i don't like his attitude - freaking Scrantonion :|  but i still like Barack, even though he's from Chicago, which is even worse than Scranton* :) 

*i have never actually been to Scranton but if it's like the rest of PA, i already know i don't like it ;)

wanting
to go and see Barbra Streisand at the Hollywood Bowl.  but it's oprah money (i think $700???) and will we even be here on 9 November?  i bloody hope not!!!  but i do love her dearly - she's in Vegas too, i want to go to Vegas again :)

hoping
to meet Amy for lunch/redcard shopping next week - anywhere!!!! (that has a Target nearby :)

going
on a date tomorrow.  i hate hate hate the name...... but we are going to BJs again - three cheers for pizza, pizookies and the sweetest, cutest company!!!

sweetness follows

the worm whisperer - he has to move them all off the sidewalk to safety

today's feelgood necklace

back to school



the sweet baby bird we are all worrying about... still no sign of his mum :(

NIN, GTA, PJs and BJs

listening
to H songs.  namely 'Heresy' by Nine Inch Nails, 'How Soon is Now' by the Smiths and 'Human Behavior' by Bjork

eating
PB2 & banana on GG crispbread.  you know your food is officially gross when you try to give the dog some and he spits it out ;)

wishing
i was eating deep pan pizza and pizookies again.... last night was sooooooooo gooooooood!!!!

planning
a Grand Theft Auto San Andreas tour of L.A. for this weekend with Sam :)

waiting
to go to back-to-school night.  so i can come home again and put on my PJs and watch the Mentalist :)

hoping
the little baby bird we found earlier is OK... i'm too scared to peek  (pleeeease let his mum come and get him!!)

pizookie

spelling words

every teardrop is a waterfall

wondered all morning if Barack Obama ever wears glasses.  and kind of hoping not, because i really like him glasses-less (and tie-less ;)  same with Bill Clinton, when he wears his glasses, i just can't like him anymore... he looks like an old knitting granny when he wears them

walked 10 miles this morning powered entirely by coffee and aleve.  i got home more dead than alive and the second i sat down, the newslady on TV said to run outside - quick as a fox with your camera - because the space shuttle is flying overhead!!  did i jump up and grab my camera and run outside?  nope... because i'm too lazy ;) 

cursed my stupid female hormones for making me cry in Target.  i am a cloud.  most of the time i can drift around pretty lightweight and fluffy but somedays i feel so weighed down and heavy and then everything gets grey-ish... and then the heavens open and every teardrop really is a waterfall.  so anyway, i'm crying in Target (totally normal) hoping oh hope of hopes, pleeeeease don't let me see anyone i know.  and who did i see?  uhuh, my new mommy friend from Danny's class (who i adore and admire) who is also a freaking therapist.  so now i am sure she thinks i'm insane and will probably have a book she wants to lend me at back-to-school night tonight ;)

back later with pictures (maybe) xoxo

wednesday's soup for the soul

Cathy Kidston
i admit i'm kind of an anglophile even though it feels slightly wrong.  she makes me ridiculously homesick and wistful....

the never-ending search for the perfect pair of mary janes:|

pumpkin pie
reason #1 i can never move back to England: they don't have pumpkin pie there and i love it (anything pumpkin flavored though i've never ever had a pumpkin spice latte because i have a 'thing' about starbucks)

Jo Malone
not the lady herself, who i find mildly annoying and a little bit too cockney, but the store, the packaging, the perfumes and the way Fresh Mint keeps me breathing on the roughest toughest days

angel hair marinara with fresh parmesan

Danny
after reading Horton Hears a Who, adding that a person's a person no matter how small OR big they are

walking.   i hate to exercise - with a passion - but walking gives me time to think and process and turn all that awful angst-filled energy into sweat.... and the cool minty shower at the end of the ten miles is heaven on earth

16 sweet things i love about you

... one for every year we have been unofficially, but geographically married ;)

you curse a lot, and so do i, and you don't mind that, and neither do i :)

you are charming, handsome, smart, charismatic, gentlemanly, kind and a good Dad - Atticus Finch gold standard, only cuter and maybe a little bit badder than he ever was :)

you always tell me, every single day, that i'm pretty and i always reply "yeah right - pretty ugly" and you never ever stop telling me anyway ;)

you always always always smell good (which is really important to me and my delicate nose)

you can fix broken things and you don't even need instructions

you're a true blue democrat too ;)

you let me buy whatever i want and you never ask the price and i never have to hide shopping bags under the stairs like those women on talk shows :| (which is good because we don't actually have any stairs :)  (i should add that i am the least spendy person ever...)

you let me play Coldplay in the car (even though you think they're whiny and lame ;) 

you never take the last slice of pizza without checking with me at least three times

you are always on time or a little bit early

you always always always drive and you are never too tired

you let me have the window seat on planes

you stand between me and the annoying child/stinky person/total nutter in lines, to protect me from harm :)

you make darned fine coffee - and hot too. and the most awesome slightly burnt boysenberry toast that can right any wrong

you do laundry and dishes and make beds and run baths and deal with icky things that would make me barf like stitches and dead birds and vomit (not to mention traveling salespeople and religious people who come to the door)

you engrave the words to 'at my most beautiful' on my most beautiful iTems.  and you're not jealous of me and Michael at all ;)