Monday, July 31, 2006

Beware this could be in your home.

We are often not aware of the hidden dangers that are lurking in our homes. We live our lives believing we are safe and secure in our little bubbles. Then out of no where something happens that is so frightening you never feel quite as safe again. This weekend I had one of those experiences. Please treat this as a warning as this danger could be in your home as well. It all started innocently enough Sunday morning. I clicked on the TV and handed my husband the remote so we could watched Entourage on demand in bed. We watched the show and all was still well. When the show ended my husband started flipping through the On Demand menus and that is when the horrible happened. He found On Demand Karaoke. Not only did he find it he decided to try it. Now my husband has many gifts and is talented at so many things, but singing is not one of them. He picked a song by R. Kelly, yes the pediphile, that he had probably never even heard before and began trying to belt it from bed. It was bad folks and I feel that as long as the cable company keeps this feature my ears may be in jeopardy. So I am issuing this warning, if your cable company offers this feature you could be in danger as well. Also if you keep looking at the screen you may find yourself caught up in the excitement as well. The neighborhood dogs will bark and howl from the shear pain caused by noises coming from your home.

When Brad and I went to register for our wedding we joked about the fact that we were registering for a lot of things we didn't really need but we could not register for the one thing we really needed a new kitchen table. You see our dining set was purchased as a cheap set by my brother when he was in college. It had been handed down to me and was now in pretty poor shape. The other problem was that it was a found table that couldn't expand so the most we could sit at the table was four people and we like to have people over for dinner and often didn't have enough room. The original chairs for the table had long ago broken and so we had a miss match of chairs for the table that weren't really safe to be sat on. So we agreed that we would use some of the cash we got as a wedding present to buy ourselves a new table and chairs. This was no small task because we have a very small area for the table and so we wanted it to be pretty small for daily use but to expand to fit 8 ideally. We also understand that picking a table to fit our current space but not have the ability to expand would be foolish because we will not be living in a townhouse forever and we may need a bigger table when we have a bigger house. So we went to Ikea one day to look at picture frames to start hanging some of our wedding and honeymoon pictures. When we were there we found the perfect table. It folds down and fits 2 chairs like a bistro table and is perfect for Brad and I day to day. Then you lift a side and the table will now fit 4 or 5 comfortably. Then you lift the other side and can fit 6 to 8 with no problem. Granted fitting 8 people at the table in our kitchen will be a tight fit but now on the rare occasion we need to we don't have to pull out the tacky plastic folding table. We bought 6 chairs to go with the table and we figure we can use the 2 chairs that go with Brad's old table if we need to seat 8. Currently though we have nowhere to keep 8 chairs if we had bought them so we will make do. Now on to the shear brilliance of this story. When you buy stuff from Ikea you have to assemble it. Now normally I love this part of the process cause it is like Legos for grown ups. I will volunteer to help people put their stuff together. I know I have a problem. The thing is it was hot this week end. As you all know by now we don't have airconditioning. So we were melting trying to put these chairs and table together, take apart the old table and rearranging the furniture. You know you are loved when your husband tells you, you stink. I am absolutely in love with my new dining set though and I can't wait to have people over for dinner to try it out. I suppose I should have taken pictures of the table before I wrote this whole thing. Well if you are lucky maybe later today I will take some pictures and post them for you.

Ok I never talk about food that I make because I feel a little weird about it. I guess I feel like it is bragging about something I have been trained to do so it isn't fair. Today though I am going to break my rules cause they were just to good not to share. Last night I made burgers. First I defrosted the ground meat and then I put it on wax paper on a cookie sheet and flattened it out to fill the cookie sheet. Then I took diced fresh rosemary and garlic and spread it over the top of the meat. Next I grated fresh Pecorino cheese over the meat in a generous layer. Lastly I seasoned the meat with seasoned salt and pepper. Then I folded the meat layer in half and then sectioned it into burgers. I did 8 mini burgers or you could do 4 regular burgers. I grilled them up and when I flipped them I topped each burger with Cayhill cheddar cheese (a cheddar made with guiness beer) I put the burgers on toasted potato rolls and they were so good, nobody talked all the way through dinner. I am now toying with other ideas on what to stuff in my next batch of burgers. Anyway if any of you come up with some other stuffed burger ideas, that would actually be edible, no booger burgers Susie, I would love to hear about them.

Friday, July 28, 2006

What does a Maid of Honor Really Do?


Apparently they get free rein for crawling up your dress at various points of the day. Oh and not pictured they get to hold your dress up for you while you try to potty while wearing 40 pounds of dress. What then is the payment for being a MOH if they spend their whole day under your dress. Well apart from being the first person to see your bits and pieces on your wedding day, they were not fart upon nor piddled upon when the hilarity of the situation struck the bride. They were given all they could drink of Muscato and other than that just the shear admiration of the bride. So if that is all the payment why in the world would you put yourself through this kind of torture? I don't know maybe she is a lover of pain. In anycase after seeing all these pictures it will be a cold day in hell before I ever where a dress in front of you again Pooh. Ok the next wedding we deal with we will makke sure it has a much better bustling system, sorry I put you through that, but hey you now know how to match colors and tie string, your kindergarten teacher shall be so proud.
 Posted by Picasa

Sunday, July 23, 2006

My husband, Charlie Brown

This was taken at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. THis scene with the kites all stuck in the tree reminded me of the old cartoons with Charlie Brown and always losing his kites to the tree. So with this picture we know what Charlie would have grown up to look like, assuming he ever got hair.

Maybe I am going to go ask Brad to kick a football later for me. Nah it is too hot. Have a great day. I am going to get my husband to take me somewhere air conditioned. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Totally Random Picture Saturday


Back from a long absense is our feature presentation, Random Picture Saturday. Why has it come back after such a long absence, you ask? It is quite simple my friends and bloggers, my husband is at work on a Saturday and I am bored out of my skull. So to try to ward off boredom I have surfed the net, I have napped, I have visited blogs, so now I am posting. In other news someone has gotten a dog next door and it is barking nonstop. I am going a little crazy.

So in other news at 1:45 am last night our phone rang. Now to me if you are calling at that time a night someone better be dead. It was a fax machine. Who the heck tries to fax at that time of the morning? Anyway I hope you are all having a better more exciting Saturday than I am. Maybe next I will actually go upstairs and clean. Yeah right like that is going to happen. Hopefully Brad will be home soon and we will run away to an airconditioned movie theatre.
 Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 21, 2006

Another round of Something


This was stolen from JDRose

1.Have you ever been searched by the cops?
No, but my house was after we were broken into a couple of years ago. In the middle of a Saturday afternoon. These kids were ballsy, but bad thieves. They didn't take anything.

2. Do you close your eyes on roller coasters?
Only on the lamer ones. It is the only way to get any sort of thrill out of them.

3. When's the last time you've been sledding?
Sledding? I went down the snow on intertubes last winter, does that count?

4. Would you rather sleep with someone else, or alone?
I would rather be alone. Heck sometimes I have a hard time even sharing the bed with Brad. If you mean the other kind of sleep with, that is out of the question.

5. Do you believe in ghosts?
No but I don't not believe in them either.

6. Do you consider yourself creative?
I guess so, but the family I married into is so much more creative than I am I feel humbled by them.

7. Do you think O.J. killed his wife?
I really don't care. As long as I don't have to hear about it anymore I am fine.

8. Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie?
Jennifer Aniston, Angelina has always given me the creeps.

9. Do you stay friends with your exes?
No. They fall out of my life like ex's should.

10. Do you know how to play poker?
Yes but I am better at Blackjack

11. Have you ever been awake for 48 hours straight?
Um College

12. What's your favorite commercial?
I really like the HP picture ones. Where they flash between real life and the picture to music.

13. What are you allergic to?
Coconut and Vicodine

14. If you're driving in the middle of the night, and no one is around do you run red lights?
No cause you just never know where a cop might be hiding. Plus all the intersections around here have red light cameras.

15. Do you have a secret that no one knows but you?
Probably but I am not sure what that would be.

16. Boston Red Sox or New York Yankees?
Yuck neither. I prefer football

17. Have you ever been Ice Skating?
Yes a couple of times but I suck at it.

18. How often do you remember your dreams?
Occasionally, it seems like more lately than usual.

19. When was the last time you laughed so hard you cried?
May 21st, 2006 as my husband and I danced in the rain at our wedding. I have pictures to prove it.

20. Can you name 5 songs by The Beatles?
Yes, but I don't want to.

21. What's the one thing on your mind now?
I need to move my car back into the garage

22. Do you know who Ghetto-ass barbie is?
Is it the barbie wantabees they sell at the dollar store?

23. Do you always wear your seat belt?
Yes.

24. What cell service do you use?
Cingular, rollover minutes baby!

25. Do you like sushi?
No, not after the unfortunate incident with sushi and alcohol poisoning. Now the smell makes my stomach turn.

26. Have you ever narrowly avoided a fatal accident?
Yes, several times. I think my guardian angels had to work double time just to get me to adulthood.

27. What do you wear to bed?
tshirt and sweatpants, yeah I am sexy!

28. Been caught stealing?
No, my brother did and it was enough to scare me into never wanting to face that wrath from my Mom. I decided there was nothing I wanted worth that risk.

29. What shoe size do you have?
8 1/2 or a 9

30. Do you truly hate anyone?
No, because in the long run anyone who hurt me bad enough to hate has gotten bitten by karma more than my hate could harm them.

31. Classic Rock or Rap?
Rock

32. If you could sleep with one famous person, who would it be?
Julia Roberts. But again sleep with in the sense that we are sharing the bed and sleeping. I think she would be fun to have a slumber party with.

33. Favorite Song?
Puff the Magic Dragon

34. Have you ever sang in front of the mirror?
There is a good chance as I am always making up songs and singing them to the cats. They have probably been in front of the mirror at some point.

35. What food do you find disgusting?
I will spell this wrong but Kim Chi

36. Do you sing in the shower?
Yes

37. Did you ever play, "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours"?
Yes with Blaine Sherman, a boy I grew up with that lived two doors down. That was as far as we ever explored sexually with each other though. For the most part we were just good friends.

38. Have you ever made fun of your friends behind their back?
Yes, and I have felt really bad about it afterwards.

39. Have you ever stood up for someone you hardly knew?
Yes. Sometimes You have to stand when no one else is.

40. Have you ever been punched in the face?
Yes and it broke my nose. The girl that punched me grew up to be a crack whore. Now you see what I mean about Karma.






Thursday, July 20, 2006

Hungry hungry hippo

Ok so I would like to talk a minute about some blogging manners that are getting on my nerves lately. First of all if you get lots and lots of comments everyday consider yourself lucky because there are some of us who have very few commentors dispite the fact that we comment daily on over 20 blogs. Please if you are coming by leave me a note I do so for you. If I am not commenting on your blog it is probably because I don't know you are coming by so again leave a comment. Number two if something I say hurts your feelings please let me know. I don't ever mean to hurt someone with the things I say so if it is hurtful tell me. I promise I will tell you when you hurt mine. Three just because someone is offended by something doesn't mean they should grow a thicker skin. Everyone has at least one thing that pushes their buttons and telling them to man up is not going to help the situation. Four please for the love of all that is good and wholey in this world a lot is two words not one please write it as two. I have a thing about grammer but I am willing to let most of them go so please just change this one thing for me.

I guess that is all the big ones for now. I am not meaning any one of these things to any one person. There are lots of offenders out there and I am being general. Oh I would also love it if you have music on your website if you would have a way for me to turn it off. ALso if that way was somewhere towards the top of the page so I don't have to scroll all the way through the page to turn it off that would be great. I know there is a small problem here as the way your page looks to you may not be how it appears to me, but if you could try I would love it. I think mine is just to the side and easily paused but let me know if it isn't and I will adjust it.

In other news I am tired of my background on here and shall be shopping for a new one any ideas will be greatly appreciated. At such time I will also be doing adjustments to my links so if you aren't linked and would like to be let me know. If you are linked and you haven't commented in the last month or so I may remove you since I assume you do not care to be friendly. So again if this is incorrect just let me know. Posted by Picasa

Monday, July 17, 2006

Why My Husband is The Best.

Well I suppose that the obvious reason is because he is my husband but there are many many others. Yesterday when he came home from the very hot Las Vegas our home was very hot as well. My husband turned to me and said call the man to find out about air conditioning. When I forgot to buy pasta to have with dinner he went back to the store and picked up pasta as well as dessert while he was there. These things make him great on there own but here ladies I am about to give you the king daddy of all reasons that my husband is the best. I am not really a rose girl, don't get me wrong I think they are pretty but they are so predictable. I mean really roses are what you give a girl to make her happy even if you don't know her very well. A better way to give flowers is to find out what your specific girl likes and buy her those instead. To me it says not only that I love you but that I listen and want to make you happy. Now for me my favorite flower is a red sunflower. Tonight on his way home from work, for no particular reason my husband stopped at the store and bought me long stemmed red sunflowers. Then since I was outside talking to the neighbor he gave them to me in front of her thus making her jealous. Then after that he made the trip back to the store for the aforementioned pasta. Yes ladies and gentlemen he is indeed mine and I am keeping him. Dream all you want the best is already taken.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Vegas Baby


We are running away to Las Vegas this weekend. Brad, our soon to be married friends J and M, and I will be wreeking havok in sin city all weekend. Gambling and drinking and partying oh my! Hopefully when I come back I will have some new better pictures of Vegas at night. So if I don't respond until Monday you will know why. Have a great weekend everyone. Don't worry I will play a little Black Jack for you all.
 Posted by Picasa

Icons of Youth

Today yet another of my childhood heroes has died. Red Buttons who was one of the stars in my all time favorite movie passed away at the age of 87. I began thinking of the icons of my childhood who are no longer with us and how their loss effected me. When Jim Henson died I cried. I will never forget that day and just what a blow it was to know Kermit would never be the same again. A few years ago we lost John Ritter and visions of Jack Tripper swarmed my head. I could go on a list a long slew of names of people who were my hero growing up and the sadness I feel for their loss. Today losing Red was sad, but at least he led a long fulfilled life. I began to think about who the icons of today are for our children and I was saddened by the first strong name that came through. Could Brittney Spears really effect the lives and hearts of children like my heroes once did for me. I hope not. I did come up with some more hopeful choices and I was hoping you could add to my list. Mike Myers since he is the voice of Shrek as well as having a long list of very funny movies that I believe will stand the test of time. John Lasiter who is the creative head of Pixar, a man I believe can one day stand besides the likes of Walt Disney with a head held high. I am drawing a blank here but I am sure their are others out their that can stand the test of time and be worth being a hero to today's generation.

I suppose upon further thought of the whole Brittney thing though my parents thought the same of Madonna. We will see if time allows her to mature gracefully as Madonna finally did, or retreat farther into her redneck, trailer park, toothless heritage. I am afraid it will be the latter.

So anyway it is with a sad heart that I say good bye Red Buttons, I loved you! I hope that you are in heaven now with your own dragon to protect you.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Wedding Pics


Just when you thought it was safe to come back to my blog I hit you with more wedding photos. Today I finally got the thank you cards from the photographer and 2 of the 3 disks of pictures. Of course some of the best pictures are on the disk I didn't get but such is life. The middle picture is of me and my best friend Susan. She is a fellow blogger so feel free to drop by her site and say howdy. I have lots and lots of pictures now so beware I could post them at anytime. That is all for now I have lots of pictures to look at and dinner to cook.
 Posted by Picasa

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Z and Pixel are waiting for you!


My friend the Mad Hatter is having a really crappy year and she needs some good pussy love to cheer her up. This is the best I can do. The Sunflower is there to remind you of your beauty and love, and that the sun will come out for you soon. I am praying.
 Posted by Picasa

Friday, July 07, 2006

Pre-wedding week

Ok so the truth is that part of why I haven't really posted lately is there is somethings I wanted to say but I wasn't sure that I should. Ultimately today I decided that all I have to say that happened leading up to our wedding happened and if you don't like what I say than perhaps you should act differently in the future to prevent things from being said about you. Over the next couple of posts I will be laying out all the events of the week leading up to the wedding as well as the wedding and honeymoon. I am not really sure how long this will take to get everything out so just bear with me ok.

Saturday May 13th, 2006: Early that morning Brad and I went out and had breakfast and went to the Culver City Car show. It was a good morning and it was nice to spend the morning alone together knowing that in a few hours I would be flying in to Napa and would be preparing wedding details. Brad would not join me in Napa until Thursday so really this was our last morning alone together as singles. We came back from breakfast and Brad went off to get his hair cut and colored for the wedding and I finished packing called and taxi and went to the airport. My flight in was pretty uneventful and I landed and turned my cell phone back on as I headed toward baggage claim and my parents. Immediately once I turned on my phone it began to ring. I answered the phone to a very devastated Brad. A groomsmen had just backed out of the wedding saying he couldn't afford to come to the wedding so sorry he wouldn't come. Let me take a break for a moment here to explain that we paid for all the attendants clothing for our wedding and we had offered to make arrangements for people to stay at the house with us or to help out with the rooms if they needed. Brad and his family again offered to help this guy out so he could make it to the wedding but he would not hear of it and so we were all of a sudden minus one grooms man. Brad was very hurt that this friend backed out of our wedding at the last minute, but Brad is a lovely and forgiving person and will get over this with a little time. I am not. I understand that finances are hard and you don't want to take handouts but he was asked to be in the wedding more than a year in advance and he had plenty of time to arrange the finances or to back out gracefully with enough time to not be so hurtful and last minute.

On the phone with Brad, I suggested that maybe he should ask one of our other really good friends to be in the wedding instead. Honestly we should have asked him to be in the wedding from the start. Minutes after I hung up with Brad, the friend that I suggested called Brad and invited him out to dinner, not knowing any of the turmoil that had just occurred. That night Brad asked him to be in the wedding and he gladly accepted. Now it was time to make all the changes that this change would cause. Brad's Sister and Mother had made our chupa and had embroidered the names of the wedding party on it. The quilting would have to be undone and the panel taken out and replaced. This is no small task at the last minute. We would also have to get the tuxes changed to fit the new grooms man. We had made programs that had to be changed and printed and the vendors would have to all be called and notified because the names of the bridal party was part of what each requested. All in all things that could have been avoided with some common courtesy.

Sunday May 14th, 2006, Mothers Day: My parents and I left early and went to the mall and to Costco. We took my Dad's truck because we were planning on buying yard heaters at costco so we needed lots of storage. I sat in the jump seat in the back and it was a tight squeeze to get back there. Once in the back I asked if the truck had doors in the back and both my parents were very insistent that it did not. I was convinced that it did so when we got to the mall and my mom opened her door I reached around and pulled the handle inside the door and sure enough it opened revealing that the truck did indeed have back doors. My parents were in shock, they have owned this truck for six years and didn't know until that moment it had back doors. They felt really stupid thinking of all the times they squished stuff or the grandkids back there when they could have just opened the doors. We got the shirts for my Dad at the mall and my Mom got some jeans and I got sunglasses and we left and headed to costco. At Costco we bought lots and lots of stuff including the patio heaters, you can see from the pictures just how full the truck was.




later that night we had a nice steak dinner and the three of us drank two bottles of wine with dinner. We sat out on the patio and talked and laughed and as the night progressed my Dad got out the brandy glasses and the new bottle of Grand Marnier. We sat out on the patio and continued to drink and talked and the next thing you know the bottle of Grand Marnier was empty. We were talking and laughing and all more than a little drunk and I fell out of my chair and scraped up my forehead, only one week before my wedding. We stayed out on the patio until almost 2 am and then went into the house to go to bed. As I was in the kitchen turning off lights and preparing to go to bed, my Mom was in the laundry room getting out the sheets for her bed, there was a knock on the door. It was the police, a neighbor had called and said that they had heard voices. Not disturbing the peace mind you, they heard voices. The police came in and searched the house, luckily my Dad still had clothes on since he had already gone back to my parents room. The police left and told me to have a good wedding. So yeah I am such a rock star I party with my parents and get the police called. Sadly though I feel it was one of the best conversations my parents and I have ever had, I only wish we didn't have to be drunk to have it.

Ok so this is getting long so I shall post more later.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

And the rest


Here is the view from the couch with a little bit of Z. And the french doors and the turtle. Join us tomorrow when we stop teasing you with pictures and actually get around to a real post. Ok I won't promise no pictures but I will promise that there will be a real post to go with them if there are pictures. Please ignore the weird circle things I left the red eye thing on which makes circles in flash pictures. Posted by Picasa

Living room redecorated


Since I do not wish to have Susan kill me I am posting pictures of the living room now that it is all dressed up. Since Picasa will only let me do 3 pitures at a time I will have two posts this evening.
 Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Happy 4th of July


I took these pictures tonight at the beach where we and friends watch the fireworks the city displayed as well as other smaller ones locals shoot of from the beach. The sunset was amazing and the fireworks were brilliant. These pictures do justice to neither but they are what I have. I got myself a tripod this weekend so I was able to get some better shots. Stay tuned tomorrow for the updated living room pictures.
 Posted by Picasa

oops

This picture fell off the last post. Now you can see the other immature Knex structure I created to hog our living room. Posted by Picasa

I didn't die

So an urgent plea has been made for me to update my blog. I thought I would show you were I have been. These are before pictures of my living room. This is just a taste of the toys and craziness our living room had become. When we came back from our honeymoon we also had this room full of boxes and presents that all needed homes. So while it has been to hot to spend any sort of time in the garage where my computer is I have been redecorating and finding homes for all the wayward presents. Tommorrow evening when I am more sober and less tired I will post the after pictures. I am sorry I haven't posted more but before midnight it is hard to spend more than a couple of minutes at a time where my computer is. Hopefully this heat spell will pass and my computer and I can be friendly again. If not I will have to find internet connection in the living room. Ps no I don't know the people in these picture except L and I in the last picture. We had a Passover dinner a few years ago and these are L's friends and coworkers.
 Posted by Picasa