random saturday thoughts

firstly i must say for the ten thousandth time how much i do not love george w bush (i'm avoiding hate again) the time on my gps has been wrong for the past week and this is all bush's fault for pointlessly changing when the clocks fall back/spring forward without considering that the entire world is still programmed to do it a week earlier. the only stick of work he did for 8 entire years and it's basically a badly screwed together bookshelf :|

speaking of my nemesis (the gps this time, not bush) she told me to go to Vegas via San Diego :| i am no geographical genius but even i know San Diego is south and Vegas is east of here :| so i headed towards Florida instead of Mexico and shaved h-o-u-r-s off her ETA of the next day at noon :|

it's official - finding a specific song when in shuffle mode is more impossible than winning the lottery :|

is it just my eyes failing me or does everyone see rats crossing the road when they're driving? i swear i'm going insane... they're always running across in front of me and then they stop under my car as i pass over them so i don't actually kill them - it's very unnerving :|

why is it that every person attempting to overtake a car traveling at 50mph, by driving in the fast lane right next to it at 51mph always has a calvin praying sticker...? always! always...

this weekend Sam and i went to see bodies. as in dead bodies - room after room full of corpses, skinned, preserved, dissected and posed playing sports for the public's fascination. we thought this was all kind of cool and certainly fascinating, till we noticed every single face was that of a healthy looking asian man who supposedly had died of 'natural causes'. after researching online, it appears these men were likely prisoners executed and sold for $300 each :( the bodies were supposedly unclaimed and used for medical research, but this show was really more of a traveling freak show and for most people, nothing more than an hour's entertainment between rounds of beer pong and all-you-can-eat crab legs, hardly medical research at all... sigh. Sam left saying he felt so sad for those men and would never want to see someone he knew exploited like that... ditto Sam, gosh i love that boy and the way his head/heart work :)

back tomorrow with pics from the trip - too trick-or-treated out to do it tonight xoxo

thursday loves

i love showbiz gossip. especially ridiculous showbiz gossip :) for example.... did you know Barry Manilow is allegedly married with three children under 6 and that's why he's quitting Vegas ;)

i love it being the night before a road trip :)

i love Michael Jackson and finding some 'new' MJ songs for the above mentioned road trip. i haven't seen "this is it" yet but i cannot wait! i'm saving it as a cure for the after-vegas blues :)

i love mcdonald's french fries

i love little girl energy in our very boyish home

i love halloween class portraits

i love carving pumpkins (but not the before scooping-out part or the after cleaning-up part - just the carving part :) mine's the black dog which - duh- isn't black when it's lit up :

thursday is the new friday

at least this week, no school tomorrow!! to quote sheeple everywhere: 'woot woot!' ;)

tomorrow Sam and i are embarking on our first ever solo roadtrip! we are going to las vegas to see dead bodies at the bodies exhibit at luxor and maybe... just maybe.... take in the new csi experience at mgm if time between buffet visits permits :) and stop for a couple of jelly donuts at dunkin donuts before the drive home of course ;) and maybe grab some more halloween candy as we whisk by apple valley (which isn't as romantic as it sounds) winco. quite a lot of the halloween candy went mysteriously missing last night............... blow pops should be a controlled substance, they are SO addictive!

it's my dream that planet hollywood will jump onboard the all day buffet trend. but i have a feeling it wouldn't be cheap like excalibur. but i'd still do it, because who can resist all you can eat cotton candy??! but i have an aversion to staying on that side of the strip, i don't like to do it and there's no good reason why not, but i must stay on Bellagio side of the strip. but.... for cotton candy - the all you can eat variety - i'd step out of my comfort zone for a day or two :)

off for a whistlestop halloween parade tour of OC.... back later xo

wednesday things

became completely addicted
to trader joe's ginger cat cookies

listened to
Let's Dance by David Bowie... i think it's safe to say i'm going through a David Bowie phase :)

watched
flipping out. if Jeff Lewis isn't on any meds i'm a dutchman (which i'm not, by the way) :|

wondered
how celebs never have spit-up/dog hair/spilled ketchup on their clothes - what are they, superhuman or something??? i wonder if there is some celeb scotchgard that you can only get if you're famous....

fell in love with
the bugaboo stroller. it's, like, totally cool!

patiently waited
for a free shipping coupon for oriental trading co :(
a) i don't pay for shipping. ever.
and b) who pays $16 for shipping....? ever?????!

also watched
the View for the second time this week. it's just a bunch of women talking, like having coffee with people you have nothing in common with and for the most part, can't stand - especially... Elisabeth. if i wrote law and order scripts, she'd be the victim of a heinous crime every single week :)

tuesday

drinking
hot sweet tea with milk and trader joe's ginger cat cookies (mm-mmm good!)

smelling like
cashmere mist by dkny

loving
hanging out with a smiley brand new baby all day (but not all night :)

making
black bean soup with chicken and roasted corn for tomorrow's lunchboxes

also loving
that trader joe's makes me feel capable of achieving the abovementioned culinary magic

wondering
if the salted caramel haagen dazs in the freezer, is going to live up to the hype...

also wondering
where condensed milk dessert syrup has been all my life - it's amazing!

planning on
being in bed by 9pm to watch desperate housewives with another hot cup of tea... and it's 9:06pm... back tomorrow :)

the songs that play in my head

ie my recently played playlist :) back with pics later xoxo

daybreak - barry manilow
acoustic can't smile without you - barry manilow (he's on ET tonight... must remember to 'tune in';)
hard day's night - beatles
lucy in the sky with diamonds - beatles
i've had the time of my life - dirty dancing (sob)
be my baby - dirty dancing
she's like the wind - dirty dancing (loud uncontrollable sobbing)
panic in detroit - david bowie
queen bitch - david bowie
it ain't easy - david bowie
i'm only happy when it rains - garbage
basketcase - green day
keep feeling fascination - human league
laid - james (in the version that plays in my head, she only SINGS when she's on top:)
stop - jane's addiction
crosstown traffic - jimi hendrix
big yellow taxi - joni mitchell
my sister - juliana hatfield (shhh, don't tell my sister:)
paparazzi - lady gaga
leave me alone - mj
can you feel it - mj
smooth criminal - mj
thriller - mj (played many many many many times... i have to work on the dance daily:)
i just can't stop loving you - mj (for obvious reasons:)
ben - mj
sexplosion - my life with the thrill kill kult
stardust - nat king cole
closer - nine inch nails
deal souls - nine inch nails
suburbia - pet shop boys
digging in the dirt - peter gabriel
cream - prince ( i have only recently been able to even play this song... the line "you will cop" makes me feel nauseous:)
try not to breathe - rem
sweetness follows - rem
nightswimming - rem
find the river - rem
pop song 89 - rem
fall on me - rem
talk about the passion - rem
bittersweet me - rem
binky the doormat - rem
beachball - rem
electrolite - rem
at my most beautiful - rem (which mysteriously plays at the most randomly beautiful moments in life)
pride - u2

i'm happy, hope you're happy too :)

feverishly downloaded
'ashes to ashes' by david bowie after realizing the huuuuge oversight that i don't yet have it as an mp3 - gulp :| i love how stuffy and english his voice sounds and had to hear it again this very second and couldn't even wait to walk next door and see if "the hubbie" has it

the next person
who asks me a dumb question is really really really not going to like the answer :|

dragging
ricky martin's 'la vida loca' onto my vegas roadtrip playlist. gawsh, i just love it and i'm not too embarrassed to say it out loud :)

when i click
'don't ask me next time' why does it still ask me next time? if i had a penny for every yes i clicked today, i'd have enough to buy another whole itune :)

the best day
to go to hometown buffet is monday, it's cajun chicken and dirty rice night :)

finding stripy socks
is even more fun than making creatures out of them :)

the black eyed peas
are the total of everything i hate about this decade

the only catalog
i don't shred for rattie bedding is paper source which i tuck behind my speaker for rainy days:)

taking care of four children
today made me feel extremely fortunate to be giving two back to their Mama at 3pm :)

i wonder
if Bono ever gets sick of wearing black jeans. i've never seen his real legs and now i am hellbent on finding a picture of him in shorts :)


romeo by Danny (i am sure my child is a genius photographer and i need a bumper sticker to tell the world...? my kid is a better photographer than your grandchild, that kind of thing? my 4 and 5/6ths year old takes better pictures than your basset hound.... hmm, still thinking ;)

watched
the dark shocking secrets of the beatles this morning... it was shocking to say the least. those inhalers for noses - they used to eat them :| and they have secret 'love children' and everything. and (lowers voice) they even had the clap :| but i bet George didn't - he was the nice one :)

ate
a breakfast burrito (the best one in orange county no less), chili cheese fries and a chocolate milkshake for lunch. now that's what i'm talking about :)

came across
two wild tortoises, some fluffy chicks, some sweet puppies, one domestic tortoise, baby guinea pigs and bunnies, one kitten and some hermit crabs on our morning out... it was all very random and totally fun :)

bathed
Jerry, our white, but occasionally off-white, rattie. he did much better, i think he is starting to like bath-time.

learnt
(a fraction of) the zombie dance from Thriller ;) sure i have to say 'step shoulder, step nothing, zombie arms, feet together, swim pull, booty bounce booty bounce' to get it right but i'll get there eventually :)

off to watch U2ube live from Pasadena! it starts just in 18 mins! i get to sit in my heavenly bed, sipping my entirely free diet coke in a glass with 3 chunks of ice, it didn't cost me $20 to park 3 miles away, i don't have to wait 30 mins to use an overflowing grotesque restroom and ahhhhh, i'm not surrounded by obnoxious drunks who whoop all the time..... it's a beautiful day (don't let it get away :)





he gets by with a little help from his friends :)

making black dog christmas shrinky dink ornaments (gawsh i love him:)

saturday things

it's official, afternoon tea in america truly sucks. i can say this with conviction as i am english and have a passport to prove it. today we tried for the SECOND time to have afternoon tea at the dumbass rose garden tea room in Pasa(insert expletive)dena. firstly i really don't like the Huntington Library, it's not in Huntington Beach and it's not even a library really. it's just full of really slow people, taking ultra dull pictures of stamens in glaring full sun. when you enter the library, they make you wear a sticker and i hate wearing stickers... i am NOT a crazed fan of the library and refuse to be labeled as one. but the security guards are all total nazis and insist you wear that damned sticker :| it's like a low security prison, but with flowers...

next the tearoom. they serve tea that smells like old ladies' perfume, namely jo malone 'red roses' which is very pretty as an air freshener but i just can't drink fragrant tea, it's like drinking air freshener and seems like poison. i like weak orange pekoe with a splash of milk. i had to request it as they only had the old lady smelling tea and pink lemonade... oh and the selection of cream cakes made me realize one thing: hometown buffet has spoiled me SO MUCH - it's so much better and it's not even that good! sigh... no more trying to recreate england in america. it just doesn't translate :(

we were just "booed"... the dogs heard a leaf crinkle in the driveway and went nuts and when Aaron sprinted to the door, he saw a dark colored sedan tearing down the street at 50 mph. he looked down to find a plate of cookies on the doormat :) firstly, we don't know anyone who owns a dark sedan and secondly, is it safe to eat cookies left by complete strangers if we don't recognize the car? i think we will feed one to the dogs and see if they are still alive in the morning :)

off to climb the wooden hill (we have no stairs... i just love to say it though) and watch some Criminal Minds with my snookie bear :)

our fancy tea with essential boring picture of flower :|


making/flying paper airplanes at 7am this morning :|

i gasped when i first saw 'him' standing there with my grater plater. Billy Mays i miss you :(

golden hour last night

i believe...

... crashing in rush hour, causing everyone behind you to be delayed indefinitely, (with a dead ipod i might add) should be a felony

... i need an iphone (white) on 9 november even though i know i will probably hate it 85% of the time...

... a freshly baked jelly donut from the county kitchen in walpole, ma could totally fix my sore neck this morning

... in making a wish at 11:11

... and praying for the repose of lost loved ones' souls at 4:44

... and buying things in even numbers

... but never leaving behind one lonesome can of soup

... in never leaving home without my camera and 50mm lens

... that a trip to the 99 cent store can help soothe any child ailment

... in always kissing my boys goodnight

... i have never seen Agent Hotchner and that makes me sad :(

... the jingle from the fisher price 'play laugh grow' commercial is the work of the devil

... that women that act like men and men that act like women are at the very core of what's wrong with the world (men who drink frothy coffee in particular)

... i h-a-v-e to see 'this is it' at the imax theater on wednesday :)