Sugar & Rice

Shoots & Giggles!

2010-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a while... We have had a whirlwind of a month (or so) that's for sure. Between a big move, Scarlett's 1st cold (yuck!) and her becoming increasingly mobile, there hasn't been much time for the old blog. The move went very well, all things considered! A few weeks after we were settled in, we had a professional photographer named Monica from Shoots & Giggles come to take some pics! We are so excited to see them all, but she posted a few on her blog...

Bat Girl

2010-07-24T21:49:00.001-07:00

Today we took Scarlett to her 1st (of many to come) Dodger game. It was a beautiful day for a game, sunny and a little breezy to keep us cool. Scarlett seemed to love all of the action of the ball park! And of course, she is a Dodger fan. Although, she was a little sad she didn't get to see Manny (or maybe that was her mother who was upset...) Our seats were amazing, right behind home base, however, being in the direct sun along with an 8 month old who recently learned to crawl and wasn't crazy about sitting still, we didn't make it more than a few innings, but we had a great time all the same.

Break out the Baby Gates...

2010-07-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

Because we've got a crawler on our hands! I will mention again that we are moving in less than 2 weeks, and we were pretty sure it would take her at least that long to really get crawling, so we haven't yet completed our total baby proofing, (eeek!) well she sure showed us!

On Friday afternoon Sam came home early and we went to pick up dinner at a local restaurant, the waiter asked, is she crawling yet? To which I responded, no, not yet! I am quite sure this lit a fire in Scarlett, because when we got home, right in front of Sam and I she took her first hand-knee-hand-knee crawling steps! And as she lowered herself back down to the ground, she looked right up at us, just as proud as she could be with the biggest smile on her face. It was adorable! And she spent the rest of the weekend working it!

Big Girl Grocery Shopping

2010-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Up until now, when Scarlett and I go to the grocery store each week, I wear her in the ergo carrier. She used to sleep right through it, then she started to peek her little head up to see all of the exciting stuff at the market, and then she got a little restless... She wanted to grab for things, and look around more, so I bought one of those shopping cover carts and yesterday was our maiden voyage. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, and I still haven't perfected what happens when its time to ring up the groceries, because the cover fell on the floor no less than 3 times, but boy did she LOVE it! She was trying to pull pasta off the shelves, and loved her new vantage point. We usually go to the store in the mornings, when all of the little old ladies are doing their shopping, and of course, sweet Scarlett has a smile for each and every one of them :)

Annnnnd Finally...

2010-07-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

Scarlett hosted her friends: Lily, Jagger and Sutton over for a play date on Saturday morning.

Even though our dining room is filled with boxes as we are getting ready to move to our new place (!!!) in a few short weeks, we were so excited to see our friends. The last time this group got together our babies were so little, now, they are all sitting up and rolling all over the place.

It surely wont be long until Scarlett is fully mobile... she currently rolls, scoots, inches, whatever it takes for to get herself across the room, and she pushes up onto all fours and rocks back and forth! It amazes me everyday just how hard she works on her new skills.

"Here, let me get that for ya Lil..."
The BABIES are coming!

Summer Fun

2010-07-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

So we have been introducing Scarlett to new foods every day, well, not every day - more like every 3 days to watch for any allergic reactions. She tolerates fruit and veggie purees, and oatmeal, but is not crazy about them. She seems far more interested in what I am eating, naturally. So I was cutting up a white peach we got from the farmers market, and I decided to hand it to her just to see... the verdict? She LOVED it! It was so ripe and juicy that I wasn't totally terrified of her choking, plus I was of course watching her like a hawk. She loves trying to feed herself much more than she likes me putting a spoon full of mush in her mouth. We tried some yogurt melts too, which she can sort of grasp and shove into her mouth and she loved those too (well, the few bits that actually made it into her mouth, as opposed to the floor - directly into Kona's mouth).

We took a trip to Babies R Us a few weeks ago, where we purchased this amazing duck bath tub. This thing is by far the best 15 bucks I think I have spent in a long time. In the bath, and in the living room, hours of entertainment!

We also got this teether - which thoroughly confused our girl, but then she kind of liked it ;)

A lot of catching up to do...

2010-07-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

We have a lot of blog catching up to do around here.... might have to break it up into a few posts...

Sam's parents came to visit at the end of June, and Scarlett had a great time hanging out with her Nanna and Papa Rogoway! We spent the day in Malibu on Saturday, had lunch at Taverna Tony's and shopped around a bit. Then we had them over for brunch on Sunday. It was a great visit!

Shopping in Malibu!

Reading with Papa:
Hanging with Nanna!
For Scarlett's 1st 4th of July, we took her to the parade in Palisades. We were shocked at what a big deal this was! There were literally thousands of people on our small stretch of Sunset. It was really neat to see all of the people and I think Scarlett really enjoyed it. We decided that next year we will need to bring the dogs. We didn't see any fireworks this year, Scarlett had already been asleep for hours by 9pm, but we heard them!

Manic Mondays

2010-06-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

On Mondays, we do the laundry. All of it. I usually let it all pile up all week and then power through it all on on Mondays. Scarlett is going through a tiny bit of what I can only describe as separation anxiety, she gets a little nervous when I leave the room for a minute, which was making my laundry-apoolooza fest a little tricky this monday. So.... I decided to put her to work, and it sure did the trick! She loved sitting in the basket watching me sort through the mess of clothes...

I am pretty sure we are on the verge of getting a tooth too - she has been a little fussy, chewing on everything in sight, and drooling uncontrollably! The freezer treats seem to help, I just hope this tooth shows up soon!

The rhythm is gonna get you...

2010-06-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

The rhythm totally got Scarlett at her 1st ever music class! A girl from our Wednesday baby group offered to host a music class for the kids, and it was a big success. Despite the fact that my little flower was a little tired, and teething, I think she really enjoyed hearing the drums and chewing on the maracas!

Scarves...

Dancing! (I am pretty sure she is already embarrassed by my dance moves...

Sort of a moment...

2010-06-25T10:16:00.000-07:00

I can remember vividly the first time I referred to Scarlett as "my daughter." It might not seem like such a momentous occasion to some, but for me it was sort of a moment.

She was about a week old, and it was early evening on a Tuesday. Sam hadn't been feeling well since we left the hospital, we were there from early Monday morning (like 2am early when we arrived to get started with the induction) to Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day. Our doc took pity on us and let us go home a day early to be able to enjoy the holiday outside of the sterile (or not so sterile) confinement of the hospital. Poor Sam had been sleeping on a lumpy cot for 4 nights, I was still moving slower than a turtle after the c-section and we longed to get our baby home. So on that Thanksgiving Day, we had a lot to be thankful for as we packed all of our stuff into the car, and while we were two when we arrived at Cedars, we were leaving as three, with our sweet sleepy gal all snug in her infant seat.

After a great Thanksgiving meal with my parents, we thought just being home would be a cure all. But even after a few (albeit sleepless) nights in our own bed, Sam still wasn't feeling great. We thought he was coming down with a cold maybe, so he kept his distance from our Scarlett, and just tried to kick it with vitamins and rest. By Monday, he was still feeling pretty lousy, so off to the doctor he went. And then on Tuesday, early evening, he got the call.

I remember looking at him as he was on the phone, somewhat distracted trying to feed or change Scarlett, hearing my mom cooking dinner in the kitchen, and then it got quiet, as he ended his call and looked at me and said: I have the swine flu. At that moment, I almost had a complete meltdown. Going straight into new mommy mode, I immediately called the pediatricians office and as the nurse picked up, I said, "Hi, my daughter is a patient of the doctor, and my husband was just diagnosed with swine flu, what the heck are we going to do!?" And saying that word out loud, in that parental protective context, well it sort of took the sting out for that one brief second. I felt like a mother, I felt like we were parents.

Sam had to go to a hotel for 5 days while he took tamiflu and recovered, because we just could not chance Scarlett, at a week old catching the swine flu. It was heartbreaking to say the least. Poor Sam, missing those days with his new daughter, it was so sad. So yeah, it sucked, and it was hard, on everyone, but we can sort of laugh about it now, and that makes it okay :)

Sleeping Beauty

2010-06-22T20:08:00.000-07:00

I am officially obsessed with watching this baby sleep. There is just something so sweet, so peaceful and so absolutely adorable about watching babies sleep. We have a video monitor and I swear (now) I use it far more to peek in on these sweet sleepy moments than I do to determine when she needs us. We love watching her in the mornings when she scoots around the crib gathering up all of her pacis from the night (we leave a bunch in there so she can always find one). And sometimes, she lifts up onto her arms, and looks straight into the camera, and I am just sure she realizes we are watching her. Right now I am trying to figure out if I can find a way to keep this camera in her room until she leaves for college, or even better, maybe send it with her.

For now, I will just keep peeking in on our sleeping beauty...

ummm...

2010-06-17T19:13:00.000-07:00

I think someone is outgrowing her bouncy chair?! Perhaps this is more comfortable?

A Girl and her Puppies....

2010-06-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Scarlett has a best friend, and his name is Kona. These two have had a special bond since Scarlett arrived, and to be fair, since she was in mama's belly. We got Kona only days after we learned we were expecting sweet Scarlett, and I think this might be where their bond began. I am pretty sure Kona knew his little soulmate was coming! Kona was a handful of a puppy - maybe it was that I was so sick in the beginning, or that Riley was such an easy puppy, but he wore me out! But I would always say to Sam, he is going to be her best friend, he is just the kind of dog who will stick with this kid. (she loves Riley too, but he sort of keeps to himself a lot these days. But he is very sweet with her :) Dogs and babies, doesn't get much better than this...

6 Months, in pictures...

2010-06-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

In honor of Scarlett's 1st 6 months, I decided to put together her "month" pics up until now. It is truly amazing to see how she has grown and changed so much in such a short amount of time.

6 Months!

2010-06-08T08:53:00.001-07:00

Again, she is now actually 6 months and 2 weeks, at least I am consistent ;)

She is growing by leaps and bounds and looking back through some pictures of her 1st days, has really made me see how this sweet baby is growing too fast. I can't believe it has been 1/2 of a year already! At her 6 month appointment, she was 27 inches long, 15 lbs 4 oz. She is now rolling, both ways all over the room. Baby proofing is definitely right around the corner, I can't believe how mobile she is getting.

We spent last week visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Colorado, and we had a blast! Scarlett was a super trooper on the plane, both ways, even with a poop explosion upon landing in Colorado. We took a trip to the zoo, where Scarlett got to feed the giraffes, it was so cool! It was such an action packed trip. I think Scarlett really loves to travel, she just loves being around people, and being the center of attention :) She loves all of her Aunties too! Auntie Mamie is having a baby boy in October, and she can't wait to meet him!

Hanging with Auntie Mamie:
Feeding the Giraffes!
Enjoying the view with Grandpa...

So happy to be in Colorado with her Grandma!

5 Months!

2010-05-07T18:05:00.001-07:00

Wow, time is sure flying by! Our sweet little Scarlett is already 5 months, well, 5.5 months actually!

Her 5 month appointment was a few weeks ago, she was 14 lbs 5 oz and 26.5 inches long! Such a tall little girl, I know she doesn't get that from me. So much has happened since our last blog... She is laughing all the time, rolling from back to front (still working on the other way) and sleeping, UNSWADDLED! It is a miracle really, I never thought it would happen. Literally, I thought I would have to send this kid to college with her miracle blanket, but as time would prove, she outgrew it when she was ready, and has been sleeping without it for 2 weeks now.

We took her on her first trip to the zoo for daddy's birthday, which was a huge success! She was only actually awake for the giraffes, but I'm pretty sure that would have been her favorite part anyway. She really loves being out in the fresh air, which is so nice for us to be able to take her out and about all the time with no problems.

She is absolutely in love with the dogs too, especially Kona. When we let him outside, she just giggles non-stop at him, i need to get that in video and post it.

3 Months!

2010-02-23T08:57:00.001-08:00

Embarrassingly, I have let a month go by without blogging about our little sweet pea, and now she is 3 months old! Time really does fly when you are having fun, and raising a baby. Scarlett's sweet personality is coming out more and more with each day, and it is so fun to see her learn new things. She is quite a creature of habit. She likes her bottles just about every 2 hours, and loves her bath time. She sleeps great during the night, putting her down at about 8pm and she doesn't wake up until 6:30am. Although we think its probably time to move her into her crib... She has been sleeping in a bassinet in our room since we brought her home, but some mornings we wake to find her wedging herself into the lower corner of it, her face pushing into the mesh! We are a tad apprehensive about moving her, since she does so well at night now, but it must be done. Naps are a different story for this girl though. She must just get enough sleep at night, because I have not seen her take more than a 25 minute cat nap in about a month. She takes several throughout the day, but never that long. She has settled into a fairly predictable morning nap, which takes place in what we like to call her "snuggle nest" - which is her boppy lounge chair covered with plushy blankies, she loves it! And she is insanely cute in it too :)

2 months!

2010-01-26T15:20:00.000-08:00

Today Scarlett had her 2 month visit to the doctor, which I have been dreading because this is the start of her shots, but Scarlett had other plans. Because she has a little cold, the pediatrician advised that we wait until she is feeling better, phew. But we can't put them off forever, we have to go back next week to get them. I believe in vaccinations, I do, but they still make me really nervous.

Age: 9 weeks, 1 day

Weight: 11 lbs 4 oz

Height: 23 inches

The doctor said that based on my height, 5'2" and my husbands, 6' he estimates (and he was sure to specify that it is ONLY an estimate) she would be anywhere from 5'4" - 5'7". But most likely she would be right around 5'4". I would love to know what my estimates were when I was her age, it will be fun one day to share this with her.

Despite her little cold, she slept through the night again last night, she must need the sleep, poor thing. I on the other hand was up throughout the night making sure she was still breathing! I was so shocked at how soundly she was sleeping given that she had been SO congested all day. I am generally really nervous every night we go to bed, getting up at various time to watch her chest rise and fall. Everything I have heard and read tell me that SIDS is such a serious risk, and the worrying has been making me crazy lately, especially as we enter into the 2-4 month range. I spoke with her pedi about today and he assured me that riding in a car to the appointment was greater risk than her SIDS risk (of course given that she sleeps on her back, in her crib, no stuffed animals, etc). I just feel like new mothers are instilled with this crazy fear that keeps us up at night, even as our children sleep soundly, right next to us. Hopefully I will sleep a little easier tonight, provided Scarlett is still down to ;)

I Love You.

2010-01-25T11:09:00.001-08:00

We have two milestones to report today:

The first is that Scarlett said her 1st words over the weekend ;) She was on the changing table, being her adorable coo-ey self, and I was saying "I love you" over and over to her, and she was sort of singing back to us, and then she repeated it! It sure sounded like it anyway, even Sam thought so!

The second is that I think she is coming down with her 1st cold, booo. Her 2-week sleeping through the night stint ended last night at 2:30 am with a terribly congested little baby nose. And the poor girl just has not been herself today. She is eating well, and no fever, so Im pretty sure its a cold. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow for her 2 month appointment, so if it isn't better by then, at least we already have a dr. appointment.

She is also very close to being able to suck her thumb. She has so much more control over her hands in the past few days even. It is really amazing to see how fast they learn things and how much she grows from day to day. She may prefer her thumb, but the paci is definitely still easier for her, at this point anyway!

Another Week Flies By...

2010-01-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

And Miss Scarlett is 8 weeks old today! Some days I feel like I blink and I miss something, and other days I feel like I can't believe it has only been 8 weeks. I found this little list to keep track of things so we can look back and not forget and I figured this is the perfect place to keep it.

Age: 8 weeks

Weight: no idea - but guessing around 10+lbs

Size: I'm guessing about 23 inches

Eyes: still pretty dark blue

Sleeping: afraid to jinx it - but she has been sleeping a 7+hour stretch, eating around 4am and then sleeping another stretch until 7am. On Friday night she slept for 9.5 hours - straight. I was so proud of my girl! The absolute best part is when she wakes up - she looks around, catches eye contact with me or daddy and the smiles and coos start immediately! She is just so happy to see us, its adorable!

Eating: about 3-4oz every 2-3 hours, hungry girl!

Milestones: This week she really found her voice, and coos non stop at everyone and everything! She also started drooling a lot this week.

Favorite toys/activities: Bubbles the seahorse, and Abby Cadabby, I swear she is in LOVE with this doll! It must be the pink and purple pigtails, she loves vibrant colors. We also got her a new swing, the one we originally purchased was a starry nights theme, which we thought would be soothing and lull her to sleep, not so much. We traded up for the rainforest one, and she LOVES it! She watches the monkey and frog spin in the mobile and along with the swinging motion, sometimes it will put her to sleep for about 20 minutes, but mostly she just loves to see her rainforest friends.

Sounds/words: the cooing is non stop at this point!

This week Grandma and Grandpa D came to visit, which was so much fun! We did lots of fun things, like trips to Montana for Pinkberry, shopping on 3rd Street Promenade and a trip to the toy store in Brentwood where Grandpa and Grandma got lots of cool new stuff for Scarlett! It is so nice to have them visit, it always makes me so sad that they live to far away.

No post would be complete without a picture of my sleeping beauty...

Babysitters...

2010-01-07T12:13:00.001-08:00

I hear it's so hard to find good babysitters, good thing we have Kona!

Baby Bath Time

2010-01-05T07:38:00.000-08:00

Last night we had what I would call our first bath time success. We have had many baths before this, but I think we had a real breakthrough last night. And sadly, I think I was making bath time miserable for Scarlett until last night. I didn't realize that the stopper was open, and so all the water was draining out each time we bathed her, so I would just use a cup to keep pouring warm water all over her, thinking this is what you were supposed to do! Parenting fail! Once I stopped up the tub, and filled it up, she happily splashed around in that warm water like she was at Disneyland! And then daddy bundled her up to race her to her changing table and I captured this gem...

Oh, and she slept last night, she finally SLEPT! She had an almost 6 hour block of sleep from about 9pm - 3am, and I think I heard angels singing when I woke up and saw the clock. And then to ice the cake, she slept again until 6 am, with nothing but a diaper change at 4:30. Just when I thought I might suffer long term neurological damage from sleep deprivation, she really pulled through :)

A Charmed Life, for sure...

2010-01-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Introducing Miss Scarlett Marie! Born on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 8:45 in the evening, weighing 7 lbs 9 oz of pure sweetness.

Of course, being 6 weeks old today, she is no longer my sleepy little newborn babe, she is now my full of personality, charmingly adorable, smiley baby!

After predictions of a 8.5+lb baby, at 40 weeks, 1 day, I went in to be induced at 2am on Monday morning. Sam and I settled into our tiny pre-labor room at Cedars and after being hooked up to a bunch of IV's, and starting what would be multiple rounds of evil pitocin, we tried to get a little rest. Which of course was a joke! But we were so excited to meet our baby girl, who at that point still had no name, but I will save that story for another post.

Our doctor came by in the morning to check my progress, which was nil. Long story short, I continued to make no progress all.day.long. All while we stayed in that ity bity room, waiting for me to progress so we could move to one of the larger labor rooms. I was like Rachel Green in Friends, the episode where everyone goes into labor before her, yeah, that was me. We almost got into one, and then some girl made it to 7cm before I could blink, and that of course beat out my measly 1-2 (and that was a generous estimate).

At about 7pm-ish, I can't remember the exact timeline, my doctor came by again to check in on us. I think he was a little surprised at our lack of progress too. I was getting the maximum amount of pitocin, basically having contractions one on top of the next, yet nothing was happening, and this little girl would not drop below the -3 station. So he decided to do an internal monitor to check how the baby was doing. At that time I told him my fears and premonitions, which were that she would never come out the natural way. See, I had a feeling all throughout my pregnancy that I would not have a normal labor. I had contractions all throughout the pregnancy, since about 20 weeks, and while I know that can be normal, it always felt a little "off" to me. So I told him I was really worried about her, and he assured me not to worry, and that she would be just fine. I believed him, he is such a good doctor, and I knew we were in good hands. He said he was going to get some dinner, then come back, check her charts again and see how we were doing. About 30 minutes or so later, (again, fuzzy timeline) he came back in and announced that Scarlett would be born via c-section, and the sooner the better. He actually said that telling him my weird feelings prompted him to stick around and wait to see the results of her charts, thank goodness! See, I told you he was a great doctor.

Literally less than 30 minutes later we were in the operating room. It was scary and surreal, but I knew I had to be strong for our baby. Before I knew it, she was out! The cord was around her neck 2 times, so she was rushed over the the pediatricians table, which was terrifying because I couldn't hear anything after I heard the doctor say the cord was around her neck. It was like time was standing still. And I couldn't really see anything either. FINALLY I heard a piercing cry, which was the most soothing sound in the entire world at that moment. Sam and I looked at each other with tears in our eyes. It was the single most incredible moment of my life.

So, here's to 2010, what a ride it will be this year! I am so excited for all of the milestones and memories with have ahead of us!

xoxo

Maybe... a Baby!

2009-05-14T15:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a while... but I am back! I guess I needed a big reason to come back, and we got one, a baby on the way!

I am 13 weeks, due November 22nd, and we are just thrilled to be expecting! And pretty happy to be out of the 1st trimester now, everything is looking great with this little bambino. At our ultrasound yesterday, the baby was measuring about 3 inches, and we could see the little one bouncing all around! It is really such a surreal experience. The u/s tech said that she was about 80%+ sure of the gender at this point, but I will save that information until she is more like 100% sure :)

I have been dealing with sickness since about 7 weeks, blech. But I think it does seem to be getting a little better each day, or maybe I am just wishful thinking. Food is my new enemy, i can't wait until eating doesn't feel like such a chore.

We have an exciting 6 months ahead of us, and we could not be more excited for the journey this little one will take us on!

xo

Yes, I Did

2008-11-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

I voted today :)

On my drive to my polling place this morning, I was literally overcome with emotion as I saw a woman on the side of the street outside of a polling place holding a "No on 8" poster. I was so proud of her. She is out there in the last hours trying to educate as many people as she could about this hate filled proposition. I can only hope and pray that people vote this hateful prop down. It would be such a disaster if it would pass. Read WeezerMonkey's entry on this hateful prop, your eyes will be opened.

After my 30-minute wait, I stepped up to the little kiosk, punched a few dots, and got my sticker :) I am so not a political person, but this is such an important election.

I feel good about the candidate I voted for, and I feel good about the direction that I am hoping this country is heading with a new President. I voted for hope and change for the future of this country. Whoever should win the election tonight, I pray for his strength and courage, to get our country out of this mess.

I stopped on the way home for a free coffee at Starbucks, of course :)

Just when you thought it was safe...

2008-10-21T13:49:00.000-07:00

to take me off of your readers, here i am :) haha!

this wont be another post about how i am such a bad blogger, and i got so busy, blah blah blah... (whoops)

things are going great in my life right now, i cannot complain one bit. i finished school, and i am now a certified make-up artist. this may seem a random choice for people who don't know me as well, but is probably less of a surprise for those who are close. i have been in a place of transition in my career over the past year or so. after we sold our internet company, i felt totally displaced, and couldn't find any motivation to go back to what i was doing, which was public relations. i did it for many years, and i would like to believe that i got quite good at doing it, however, i always felt like i was faking it, like it wasn't what i was supposed to be doing. i just couldn't shake the feeling. since graduation from college becoming a make-up artist was something i had always thought about doing, but never had the courage to go for it. until now. i feel so lucky to be able to do this, and to have such an amazingly supportive husband who wants me to follow my passion for this, and is so encouraging :) so that's the update on my life, and where i have been, and hopefully i can update a little more regularly going forward!

i hope everyone is doing well :)
xoxo

Sticky-Icky

2008-08-20T11:11:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks for all the positive comments on my return, you gals are so sweet!!

Yesterday, I managed to spill an entire glass of coca-cola on my laptop... UGH. It happened SO fast. I should have known, I am somewhat of a clumsy person, and I should really know better than to bring a sugary beverage anywhere near any type of electronics. I immediately ran into the office to get the external hard drive to back everything up, in the event that the computer crashed. I have been meaning to back all my pictures up, but have been too lazy to do it, its amazing what a state of panic will get you to do. Other than some sticky keys, the enter key in particular, all seems okay.

The Olympics are wreaking havoc on my sleep patterns lately! I am totally obsessed, especially with the gymnastics, and have been staying up way past my usual bedtime to watch our gals tumble. I was so happy when Shawn Johnson won the gold last night, she so deserved it. And Michael Phelps, well what can you say? It was such fun to watch him win all those gold medals. I will miss the action when the games are over, but i will be happy to get back to bed at a reasonable hour, especially since I am starting school next week... more on that in a post to come :)

xo

Remember Me, Me, Me?

2008-08-05T12:44:00.001-07:00

Wow, February was my last post. This is embarrassing.

Well, the truth is that I got sidetracked, and then didn't know where to pick up. This spring into summer has been pretty crazy for us. We sold our condo (YAY!) It was a stressful process as we had a terrible buyer who made our life hell during the process. And we bought a house. All within a 2 month time frame. It was stressful, and it was FUN! And totally worth it, because we are in a house that we truly love and appreciate each day. We loved our condo, but it was time to expand a little, stretch our legs, get a little grass under our toes. And while it was a bit of a transition going from city living to slightly a more suburban neighborhood, we just love it.

We also added a new member to our little family... Introducing... Riley! He has been the sweetest little addition, and we love having a dog.

(Yeah, I know, the t-shirt, I don't usually dress him in doggie clothes, he just has a t-shirt for when he gets cold :)

So upon the urging of my mother, who pesters me just about every time I speak with her about getting back on the blog, here I am.

I have been keeping up with all of my favorite blogs (although my commenting sadly has slowed to a hault due to my google reader...) and I caught a tag and little note from my friend Paved with Good Intentions telling me to get back up and posting! So that is where I will start!

1. Last Movie I Saw In A Movie Theater?
The Dark Knight – good, but sorta over-rated…

2. What Book Are You Reading?
Harvesting the Heart, Jodi Picoult

3. Favorite Board Game?
Scrabble

4. Favorite Magazine?
InStyle

5. Favorite Smells?
Clean laundry

6. Favorite Sounds?
Cold Play’s new cd

7. Worst Feeling In The World?
Hmmmm… feeling like you have failed someone, or yourself

8. First Thing You Think of When You Wake?
I’m still sleepy!

9. Favorite Fast Food Place?
McDonald's, classic and classy

10. Future Child’s Name?
No idea yet

11. Finish This Statement—“If I Had a Lot of Money,"
Sam and I would travel the world, by private jet of course so we could bring Riley along!

12. Do You Drive fast?
Nope

13. Do You Sleep With a Stuffed Animal?
No, not a stuffed animal, but a blankie (so embarrassing)

14. Storms—cool or scary?
Cool

15. What Was Your First Car?
Ford Explorer

16. Favorite Drink?
Alcoholic would be a Molokai Breeze, which was a staple on our honeymoon, Mmmmmmmm. Non-alcoholic would probably be classic Coke.

17. Finish This Statement—“If I Had the Time, I Would…"
I don’t really feel all that pressed for time lately.

18. Do You Eat the Stems on Broccoli?
Sometimes.

19. If You could Dye your Hair Any Other Color, What Would It Be?
I don’t even know what my natural color is at this point… sad.

20. Name All the Different Cities In Which You Have Lived -
Wayzata, Malibu, Florence, Westwood, Brentwood, Encino

21. Favorite Sport to Watch?
Basketball

22. One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You -
I love getting recipe ideas from her blog!

23. What’s Under Your Bed?
Nothing, bed goes all the way to the floor.

24. Would You Like to Be Born As Yourself Again?
Yeah, I think so.

25. Morning Person or Night Owl?
A mix I would say…

26. Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
Scrambled, although, I am not a huge fan of eggs.

27. Favorite Place to Relax?
In our new pool!

28. Favorite Ice Cream Flavor?
Ben & Jerrys Cherry Garcia

Hopefully my next post will be in a more timely fashion.

xoxo

Ooops I did it again...

2008-02-15T16:04:00.000-08:00

I slacked on my blog... (I still love Brit)

A LOT has happened in the past few weeks, but a las, I have been too busy and too lazy to blog about it! Where to begin... I'll try to sum it up in highs and one big low...

High - my dear friend Julia had her baby! YAY! Emma Katharine was born on January 31st and she is just too precious for words! S and I are heading up to San Francisco next weekend to meet her, finally! I am so excited, I cannot wait to hold that little baby!

High - we had dinner with our friends Kate & Mark at The Penthouse in the Huntley Hotel in Santa Monica. We always have a great time with K&M, and this time was no exception! The food was very good, it is a steak-house-esque type of place with great atmosphere. The restaurant is located on the top floor, and has floor to ceiling windows with great views of Santa Monica and the ocean. One tip, when you make your reservations, request a table by the windows.

High - I finally got my hair cut (like my friend Kidultery, we like to wait 6 months in between cuts!) and colored. If anyone is looking for a great hair cut, Kate (of "our friends Kate & Mark") is a FABulous stylist who works in the Juan Juan salon in Brentwood. She is seriously amazing!

Low - my childhood cat Stuart passed away on Monday morning. He was 16 and a half, and the sweetest little cat there ever was. I flew to Colorado last week to help take care of him, and I was so lucky to get the chance to spend a few more days with him. He lived a long and great life, and we will really miss him so much.

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day! Yesterday my sweet and thoughtful husband sent me these...To me, they look like beautiful art! I am very lucky, he knows how much I love fresh flowers, and he always sends the best ones!

And very lucky for me, he also knows how much I love shoes, another piece of beautiful art...

I have had my eyes on these for a little while now!

Craft...

2008-01-24T10:51:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, completely out of the blue my husband said to me, "Baby, I am going to take you to a fancy dinner tonight, we are going to Craft!" I was ecstatic! What a sweet, romantic little surprise! I am a huge fan of Bravo's Top Chef, and especially a fan of Tom Colicchio, the shows host, and have been wanting to visit his new LA post Craft since it opened in Century City last year. We first sampled the chef's food at his NYC restaurant, Craft. We loved it! It is sort of an upscale steak house type place, where you order your protein, starch and vegetables all a la cart. He serves the food in little roasting dishes, which is so much fun.

When we were in Las Vegas last summer for the Michael Buble concert, which was held at the MGM Grand, we had dinner at Craft Las Vegas, also located in the MGM Grand. I actually have pretty amazing photographic evidence of this evening... You see, right after we sat down, and woman came over and offered to take our picture, and we happily posed away...

When she came back right before dessert, she handed us this:

Which opened into this:

Please notice the lion super-imposed into our photo, and the location/date stamp. And this my friends, is why I LOVE Vegas! HA! So cheesy I can barely stand it! I insisted we buy it, if for no other reason than I didn't want this just floating around if we didn't buy it.

So we headed over to Century City to try Craft LA, I am sort of a Craft groupie at this point...

The style and decor of the place were very similar to NY and LV, I guess, if it ain't broke...

We had to wait a minute or two to be seated, so we sat in the bar and had a cocktail. I was a little disappointed in their cocktail list. One of my favorite things is the signature cocktail list, and this one was limited and strange. They did have a list of flavored vodkas, so I tried blueberry with 7-Up. The drink was tasty enough, but it was served in a tall clear glass with ice and a straw. Hmpf. So plain. I think a little sprig of mint, or some real blueberries would have been nice. I suppose this might be a tad nit-picky, but oh well.

When we were seated, we perused the menu and everything looked good! Double edged sword. I started with the endive, bacon and candied pecan salad, which was delicious! The bitterness of the endive paired with the smoky bacon and sweet pecans was amazing. I sort of could hear Tom Colicchio saying that was his intention, in my head. S had a mixed green salad, which was equally yum. We shared two entrees - the prawns and the roasted chicken. For sides, we had pureed potatoes for moi, and fingerling potatoes for him. So GOOD. The portions were a little on the small side, but it was all so tasty!

For dessert, we had caramel roasted apples with vanilla ice cream and coconut sorbet, which were both very good!

I have photos of the food - but stupid blogger is not allowing me to add them properly! Does the photo uploading process of blogger annoy anyone else? Is there something I am missing? It uploads them upside down, all at the top, and they are nearly impossible to move around the page. I will leave you with this shot that the valet took... sorry that my husband's head is cut off...

Comme Si, Comme Ca

2008-01-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to dinner with two of my best friends, MK & Splashie. We dubbed the evening "Sex & Smog City" night and vowed to get together at least once a month to try a new fabulous restaurant. So to kick off the series, we headed to Comme Ca on Melrose. I parked somewhat far away, as I was resisting the valet since I had golf clubs in my trunk that I was afraid would go missing in a valet situation. But it was pretty easy to find street parking if you aren't afraid to walk a little bit. I was a few minutes late and the girls were already seated when I walked in. The restaurant is bustling to say the least. The decor is very chic french bistro, white tile, black wood, quaint chalkboards and cozy little tables pushed closed together. MK had a cocktail that looked like a snow cone The food was very tasty. I had the steak frites, and the fries were delicious! The steak was cooked very nicely and served with an herbed butter melted atop, mmmmmmm. MK had the salmon, which was equally as delicious, and I am not really a big fan of salmon. Splashie had the sole, which I didn't try, but she said was fabulous. We had a lovely dinner and I can't wait for the next one!

Thank you for the kind words about the incident yesterday, knowing that I was not alone in my grieving for this creature was so comforting :)

So sad...

2008-01-16T13:21:00.000-08:00

I was driving home this morning from my spinning class, along Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, and I saw a seagull fly down to pick up some food that was lying in the middle of the street. Then, before I knew it, the guy in front of me hit the seagull. ugh. It was the single saddest thing I have seen in a long time, and I am absolutely heartbroken about it. It was more than I could handle and I just stopped my car and bawled my eyes out until the other drivers on the road started to go around me. I was paralyzed in the middle of the street. I had no idea what I could do, if I could do anything to save this bird. And it was like everyone just went about their day, especially the guy who hit the bird, he didn't even look back. I know this is not the most pleasant blog entry, and my intention is not to bring this sadness onto anyone, but it has been on my mind all morning, and I thought writing about it may be cathartic. I realize that these birds are not endangered, and there are hundreds of thousands of them, but this just knocked the wind out of me. I have a very soft spot for all animals. But I will say this: that bird may not have been killed if someone hadn't littered up the streets with their garbage. Santa Monica is such a beautiful city, but it has gotten so gross if you ask me, and it needs to be cleaned up. It is always littered with crap. I am sorry if this makes anyone sad, I know I am not the only one who gets upset by these sorts of things. I do promise a more uplifting post tomorrow, because tonight I am going to dinner with 2 of my best girl friends and this time, there will be photos :)

A few days in the desert...

2008-01-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

This weekend we went down to Palm Desert, one of our absolute favorite places to get away for a little break. We got engaged in Palm Desert, so it is near and dear to my heart. The reason for the trip was to see our friends Adrienne & Joe, who live in San Francisco. Joey is my husband's best friend from growing up, they have known each other since they were very little, and have managed to keep up their great friendship through the years, despite having lived on opposite coasts for most of their adult lives. Joe & Adrienne got married last summer in Napa, and right before their wedding they moved cross country from NYC to San Francisco. We are very happy that they are at least on the same coast as us now! We had a great time, shopping around, enjoying the nice sunny weather, playing scrabble, and driving around.

The good news is that my camera is back in the game! The bad news is, I sort of forgot to take a lot of pictures of us doing any of the fun stuff we did, oppps. But we did take a few shots before we headed home.

Belated Holiday Post...

2008-01-10T15:59:00.001-08:00

I realized that I never blogged about our fantastic trip to Colorado for Christmas, so although belatedly, here it is! We went to Colorado Springs, which is about an hour outside of Denver to visit my family for the holiday. I didn't grow up in Colorado, I grew up in Minneapolis, but when I left for college in California, my parents picked up and moved to the Rockies. I can't complain, I love visiting there, and I much prefer Colorado to the ice box of Minnesota! We had a fabulous Christmas Eve dinner. My mom does all of the cooking, and she is am amazing chef. What I really love about Christmas Eve at our house is that what ever your favorite food is, you get to have! Usually she will make beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, the whole deal. But years ago my littlest sister Marie wanted lasagna instead, so lasagna is always on the menu. My husband loves french fries, and hates mashed potatoes (blasphemy) so he got french fries! It is so much fun!

(please excuse the small size of the photos, my dad's camera was set to a really low resolution on accident!)

My Parents:

My husband and I with my sister Haley: (pretty sure I had a mouth-full of potatoes in this one)

My mom, and sisters Haley & Marie: (interesting photo :)

On Christmas Day we left "the springs" (as the locals call it!) to go skiing for a few days. I grew up skiing, although I have not done it in a verrrrry long time. And my husband has never been skiing, so we were both a little nervous about the adventure. It turned out to be a great success! After a few lessons, he was up and skiing like an old pro! He is very athletic, so I never had any real fear that he wouldn't be able to do it. We had so much fun, and we are definitely looking forward to the next time we can hit the slopes. We only got in 2 days of skiing, because on the 3rd day - it was -7 degrees. Umyeah, no thanks!

Brrrrrrrr!!!! (us in our helmets - I had no idea but helmets have become the must have ski equipment)

With our instructor Steve. (I wanted to ring Steve's neck at the end of day 2 - but that could be a whole nuther blog entry!)

At dinner...

We had a great trip to Colorado, and can't wait to get back there!

213/Ribbon Mission

2008-01-09T14:13:00.001-08:00

This morning MK and I headed downtown to Gold Lea Trims on a ribbon finding mission. She is getting married in June, and her gorgeous save the-dates need a little embellishment. We had no trouble maneuvering around downtown, and we actually met a few interesting characters along the way, including Miss Lea herself! The ribbons were abounding, and beautiful. Such inspiration! We also visited a spot a few blocks down called Michael Levine, although far more organized than Gold Lea, the selection was not as impressive.

We were looking for a very specific ribbon, which proved a little bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. So we headed back to the west side to good old F & S on Pico.

They really have some beautiful ribbons, unfortunately, quantity is not their thing. They never seem to have more than a few yards of anything. But we were able to find what we were looking for, so it was a very successful trip! And a fun one too :)

These pictures are courtesy of my new iPhone, which I got for Christmas! Yay! I really love this thing, it takes some getting used to, but I do love all that it can do.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it is 2008 already!

So much happened in 2007, we got married, sold a business, subsequently became unemployed, attempted to start a new business, started a blog :) it was a.lot. I am a little sad that the year has passed, although I am excited and invigorated about the year to come. I was spinning this morning with MK and we were chatting about new year's resolutions. I have a few, but upon further reflection, I suppose my resolutions for 2008 are very simple, really. I would like to live each day to the fullest (to vague?). I want to get up a little earlier each day, maybe go to bed a little earlier too. Spend more than a few minutes with my husband in the morning before he rushes off to work. I want to be more positive. I am a pretty positive person by nature, but I tend to get brought down by stupid things like traffic, and malfunctioning technology, argh. I want to practice a little more patience when dealing with these things. I tend to negative about Los Angeles, instead, I want to embrace it (for now) and take in the things that make this city special. The traffic is terrible, the smog is unbearable, the home prices are astronomical and it might not be the easiest place to consider raising a family, but it is our home. And the weather doesn't suck either. I want to make each day a little more productive, and try to be more efficient. I want to go to the grocery store 1-2 times a week, instead of every day because I can't plan ahead. I want to blog more, I want to be more aware, I want to try to make it to spinning 3 times a week. I want to be more focused on my new business. Overall, I want to be more motivated. And if there ever was a time for motivation, it is the new year.

My camera is still broken, so this will be a picture-less post, although I am hoping to get a few pictures from my Dad that I can post from our trip to Colorado for Christmas. We had the best trip, and I can't wait to share it!

So much to blog about...

2007-12-17T14:29:00.000-08:00

So little battery power. Honestly, my heart is broken because I can't find the charger for my camera battery! Hence, the lack of recent posts. I wanted to take a picture of the brown chair that we had delivered on Sunday, which so completely clashes with everything else in our living room, that I honestly wonder what we were thinking when we picked it out only a few weeks ago, really. It must go back. Sigh. I wanted to post photos of the fabulous Christmas party we went to on Saturday night, as well as the reason we missed we missed the second party of the evening (a very scary red flashing light in our car, which could have been a sign of the apocalypse itself, it was that scary). Car trouble in a new car, say what? But sadly these memories will have to live in my heart, because they were not documented on digital film. All of this will change though, because this afternoon I am heading to best buy to get this situation sorted out.

I will end with my own little LOLcats.... (I recently stumbled upon this site, and I love it!) I am sure there could be some pretty funny captions on this photo :)

A little mememe!

2007-12-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

I have been a slacking blogger lately. Sometimes, if I let more than a few days go by, I think, eh, what's a few more days, and before long, it has been too long. Plus my mom calls me and says she is tired of looking at the sandwhich explosion, which is a fair argument.

A few weeks ago Weezermonkey tagged me for this fun mememe, so here goes!

1) What were you cooking/baking 10 years ago? Ten years ago I was living in a dorm room, so I wasn't doing a whole lot of cooking. More snackin in my dorm room at all hours of the day, and night.

2) What were you cooking/baking one year ago? One year ago I had just learned that I had Celiac disease, so I was trying to figure out a way to make gluten-free cupcakes taste like the real thing. Still trying.

3) The snack you enjoy the most: movie theater popcorn, it is hard for me to go to the movies and not eat popcorn. I also love chips and guacamole, or with the salsa from chipotle, soooo good!

4) A culinary luxury you would indulge in if you were a millionaire: First I would pay someone to develop a pill that would allow me to eat wheat, and then I would take a private plane on a culinary tour through Italy and France. I would take my husband with me too :)

5) What do you bake the most? I don't do a whole lot of baking, I would like to do more. I do more cooking, and I would say I cook chicken and rice the most.

6) Five recipes you know by heart: Teriyaki chicken, pasta with fresh pesto, roasted chicken, rice krispies treats, tacos.

7) One thing you cannot/will not eat: gluten. And clams, mussels & oysters, eeew.

8) Favorite culinary toy: mini-cuisinart chopper. It's perfect for making a batch of pesto!

9) A must on your "last meal" menu: Mashed potatoes, cupcakes, really good bread with butter, too many good things to list! I would have to have a buffet.

10) Happy food memories: My Grandma Marie teaching me how to bake an apple pie. She made the best pies ever!

Now I am hungry, great.

Sandwich Explosion...

2007-12-03T13:35:00.000-08:00

Hey y'all! Many of you know, I am allergic to wheat. Usually this poses a problem during the lunch hour. All I want is a nice turkey sandwich, sans the bread. So today, I walked up to the sandwich counter at Whole Foods, and asked for a roasted turkey on... lettuce. I really prefer my sandwiches and burgers "protein style" on lettuce instead of bread, but they are a little difficult to eat. This is how my sandwich ended up...What a disaster!

Oh well, it isn't the most pleasant thing to eat, can be a little messy, but it is still really good!

This past month we celebrated my birthday! (too paranoid about the Internet to post on the actual day, ha!) We had a very lovely dinner at my favorite restaurant, BOA in Santa Monica. This place is to die for, in my opinion. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it was all delish! I had the petite fillet and my husband had the roasted chicken, both were amazing. We also had a field greens salad and shrimp cocktail, YUM! And cotton candy for desert! And since it was my birthday, they brought over a sparkler! It was pretty cool. My favorite thing at BOA is a special drink they have called the blackberry smash. I am not quite sure what is in it, besides blackberry (hence the name) but it is unreal. I am not a big drinker at all, but I can never resist this cocktail!

After dinner, we went home to watch my favorite movie of all time:

And my sweet husband sent me these! They are from Empty Vase, and I swear, they have the most amazing arrangements at that place. And the flowers really last, and last. The last arrangement we got from empty vase lasted over a week.

It was the best birthday a gal could ask for!

Dancing with the Stars!

2007-11-28T16:23:00.000-08:00

I like the show. I think it drags a little throughout the season, and I certainly do not watch every episode in its entirety, mostly because I can't commit 4 hours a week to watching Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris (who annoy me to no end). However, I like to follow it, watch a few of the dances, tune-in in time for the elimination, and pick my favorites until the end.

And as we watched the last hour or so of last night's season finale, I was so excited that Helio and Juliann won! Juliann is such a talented dancer, and Helio was such a great competitor all season. Even though Bruno questioned their chemistry, I think they had a ton of chemistry, especially when he laid that big kiss on her at the end of their dance... in fact, maybe too much chemistry, sadly I read today that his engagement to his girlfriend of 6 years is over. Maybe he and Juliann will live happily ever after...

Thanksgiving Recap...

2007-11-27T18:06:00.000-08:00

We are back from our trip to Portland to visit my husbands family for Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time, some good laughs and great food. My mother in law, Lori, cooked everything and hosted about 14 people at their home. She is a great chef, and she definitely taught me a few new cooking tricks.

While we were finishing up all of the last minute food preparations in the kitchen, I looked over at Lori who opened up the oven door to flames! The sweet potatoes were on fire! We had put the marshmallows on at the last minute, you all know the drill, but we forgot about them. I was seriously looking for a fire extinguisher.

Oooops......

After we put out the flames, we scrapped off the char, added a fresh layer of marshmallows, and kept a closer eye on it (although we did almost forget about it again!).

My brave and handsome husband carved the turkey, and shocked everyone with his mad carving skills (which were a lot better than his pumpkin carving skills).

We also saw 3 movies over the long weekend. BeoWulf, Enchanted & American Gangster. I really enjoyed all three. BeoWulf was great because we saw it in 3-D I-Max, I think it would have been less cool on a normal screen. Enchanted, well, we ended up at this movie because No Country for Old Men was sold out, but I actually thought it was pretty cute, for a children's movie. And American Gangster, I think Russell Crow is one of the best actors, and Denzel is almost always great (see Deja Vu). But it was nice to go to the movies, we get so busy that most of them come and go before we can get to the theaters to see them. We never saw Ocean's 13 (wha?!).

The Mysterious White Gummi Bear...

2007-11-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

A few months back I saw a news story about the "secret menus" of nationwide food chains, and besides the obvious In-n-Out "animal style" burgers, they mentioned a Jamba Juice flavor that supposedly tasted like White Gummi Bears, although it is not on their regular menu. So this weekend when my husband mentioned on Saturday morning he wanted a Jamba Juice, I found it a perfect opportunity to see if I could track down the elusive White Gummi Bear at our local Jamba Juice. When it came our turn to order, I looked at the guy, and said "Ill have a White Gummi Bear please" and low and behold he didn't look at me like I had horns, instead, he rung up our order simple as that. My husband had been convincing me the whole walk over that they would laugh in my face, and I would look like a fool, but no! I googled it and evidently the flavor was created by a Jamba Juice employee in San Jose a few years back. It is basically a mixture of all flavors of their sherbet, mangos and soy milk (although I subbed non-fat fro-yo because soy milk creeps me out). It is SO YUMMI GUMMI! I bet it is not on the menu because it is probably entirely sugar, and sooo bad for you. But the way I ration it, it can't be worse for you than a milkshake, so I can have it as a treat. (shhhhh - i actually had another one on Sunday morning, I couldn't help myself, it was that good!)

Fancy, Shmancy...

2007-11-16T18:18:00.000-08:00

My husband has a rather strange nickname for me. I will not divulge this nickname, because I shared it with my sisters and best friends (all bridesmaids) as we were waiting for the ceremony of my wedding to start, and they were all painfully mortified for me. Seriously, I told them, and there were crickets. It is just a weird made up word that somehow over the years has morphed into something really strange, and not that I think you would judge, I just don't want to put you in the position to have to. So when my husband re-entered the entertainment industry last summer, and he would come home to talk about all these high-fluting things, I came up with a little nickname for him, I call him Shmance. And he hates it! Ahhh, revenge :) So now when we go to one of these industry type dinners, I refer to us as the Shmancersons. (The irony is that we are so not fancy-shmancy at all!) I know, we are like 2-year-olds, but it's fun!

So the Shmancersons went out to a big fancy event last night, and it was actually not the typical snooze that these things can become. It was actually a very entertaining evening! When we sat down at our table, I sat in aww as the tables immediately surrounding us filled with the entire cast of one of my favorite t.v. shows, "The Office"! I kid you not, I was starring at a table with Meredith, Creed, Kevin, Kelly, Ryan, Andy Bernard, Toby, Jan and of course, Michael Scott! No Jim or Pam (boo) I kind of wanted to switch our seats and sit at their table! I so wanted to pull out my camera, but my husband was shooting me "don't you dare" glares as we were sitting with two of the big partners of his firm, and that would probably not have gone over too well. I don't really tend to get starstruck, I worked in the entertainment industry for many years, but I still love seeing the characters I love on TV/in movies in real life. Well, I may get a little starstruck if I saw Michael Buble... but that is another post.

Ohhhh, which reminds me, I have sort of a funny story about Toby from the office. I am pretty sure he thinks I am his stalker! I saw him in my neighborhood like 3 times in one week, totally by some strange coincidence, and the third time, I think he was on to me. He gave me a really strange look, and I think I may have looked a little guilty because I was so shocked that I was actually seeing him for the 3rd time that week! Haha.

The coolest part of the evening was knowing that they raised a ton of money for the Cedars-Sinai Hospital's Cancer Research efforts. They auctioned off a Lexus, and raised over $500,000 on that item ALONE! Very cool!

So, no pictures of the Shmancersons, but here is a picture of the swag! A very classy deck of Tiffany playing cards. And now that we have Tiffany playing cards, we officially live up to our name ;)

Let There Be Light! Almost...

2007-11-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

The other day my mom called and said to check out this website that carried these new state-of-the art lamps, something she most likely saw on HSN (more on this later), and to tell her which ones I liked so she could order them for us for Christmas. Lamps. For Christmas. I guess you know you are married when your gifts shift from make-up and clothes, to lamps. (Ha! Just teasing mama!)

But we could use a little light on the subject... Two real estate agents that have been here both said we have got to add some great lighting to entice buyers. A few years ago, my parents came to visit, and almost every one of the light bulbs in the condo was burnt out. It was rather embarrassing, and my parents still kid me about it. So when my mom saw these new lamps, she decided we should give them a try, and today they arrived. The style selection is fairly limited, they are more function than fashion, but they are pretty "classic lamp" looking. The cool part is that they use a special light bulb that can last up to 3 years and they use about 1/2 the amount of energy as other lighting sources. Very cool! The only problem was that in addition to the super-fancy bulb, they also require two 25-watt bulbs, which they say add a soft ambient glow, which I do not have right now. And you can't turn it on with empty sockets, so until I get the other to bulbs, the darkness will remain.

I am really excited to see how well they work, my family has been known to believe a little to easily in good advertising. When I was growing up we were proud owners of many infomercial devices, including, but not limited to: juicers, sandwich makers, food dehydrators and rotisserie contraptions. I am pretty sure that we kept Ron Popeil in business for a short while.

Turkey Talk

2007-11-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't been having much luck on the employment front. Ho-hum. I had a phone interview last week with a large company, but I have not heard anything since then. And I am starting to think that maybe there is a reason that the employment fairies are not surrounding me with their dust... Maybe I am really not supposed to be returning to that industry.

So in between interviews, I have been starting my little side business, trying to get a website going, doing projects for friends, etc. And I am very happy to report that I have my first official client! Thank you to my dear friend MK for the amazing introduction! So I am very excited about that. More to come on this when everything has been finalized.

Is it me or is everyone getting kind of excited for the holidays? Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday of the year. I love it. I love the turkey, the mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, pumpkin pie, (drooling) I love it all. Last year we went to Colorado for Thanksgiving and to Portland (my hubby's family) for Christmas, and this year we are swapping. So we are heading to Portland, and I could not be more excited, I got really lucky in the "in-law" department :)

I just wish the weather would stay cool out here for more than a few days. It is back up into the 80's again this week!

I Heart i-Chat!

2007-11-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

i-Chat is one of the coolest things I have stumbled upon in recent months. I got a mac last summer, and I have to say it has been one of the best experiences. It took some getting used to, but I definitely love my mac far more than I ever loved my PC, heck, I swear at it a lot less, and if that is a barometer... Macs don't get viruses, (that I know of) and it doesn't take two years for the thing to turn on! And it has all sorts of cool things, like i-Chat. (I know you can use i-chat on a pc - but my dad does and it never works) I just ordered the new operating system, and it should be here in a few days, and then my mac will be even cooler! I still have to convert all my photos and music onto the mac, so until then, I still do need to keep my pc around (so I shouldn't bash it too much, for fear that it will turn on me) but hopefully one day all my shiz will be on the mac.

My sister Murr-Dog introduced me to i-chat and I have been addicted ever since. I only i-chat with her, my dad (when he can get the camera to work) and my other sister Hail. Hail is way advanced, she has the new os - and so she can use cool effects, like making the background look like she is in Paris, or on a roller coaster. Anyway, aside from the silliness, it has been a very cool way to stay connected to my family in Colorado.

Here are my sisters and I in a group chat:

*On a side note, I highly recommend the soundtrack from "Into the Wild." It is all Eddie Vedder, and it is one of the best cd's I have heard in a while. Great movie too, I really hope this one goes far when it comes Oscar time.

A Random Post of Silly Things...

2007-11-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

I hate when I get lazy and slack on posting, because I wind up with all of these things stored up that I want to share, and I get disoriented. So shame on me, I will try to be better!

This past weekend (yes, I realize it's Tuesday) was very chill and that was much needed, especially for my terribly over-worked hubby. He works in the entertainment industry and things got pretty busy for him last week trying to scramble to get certain documents signed and completed and such before the writer's strike. Although, things will not necessarily slow that far down for him since he does a lot of reality work. What will be really hard is when the strike is over, and he has to work over-time to get all of the contracts re-written and re-signed, all.at.once. This strike is bad all around, and I really hope that they can all figure it out soon.

On Saturday, we went to T.O. (thousand oaks) to "kick some tires" as my mom used to call it. The lease on my old dinosaur of a car was up and it was S's turn to get some new wheels! As anyone who has leased a car recently knows, this is an all-day-consuming event. We were at it for most of the afternoon, and finally drove off the lot in the dark...

Here is my hottie hubby in his new ride, yay!

Let's just hope he lets the misses drive it once in a while, right? So far, not so good. I asked if I could drive it to meet up with some of my new e-friends on Sunday, and it was a big no-go.

Sunday morning I had a lovely brunch with some of my new blogging friends at Tiara Cafe. Thank you to weezermonkey for putting it together! The food and the company was fab and I can't wait for the next one!

Yesterday I had the carpets in our house cleaned, and I had also washed the sheets (hang on, I am getting to a point here - or rather - a funny story). So when my husband came home I was trying to make the bed, but I couldn't put anything on the carpet because it was still a little damp, and i needed somewhere to put the blankets and pillows while I put the fitted sheet on, so I asked my husband to stand still... and 'The Creature from the Bedding Lagoon" was born!

(*if you look closely, he is giving us the native greeting of his land, the one finger salute :) I don't blame him - as soon as I loaded him up with bedding, I was laughing SO hard and I had to run and get the camera! And if you knew my husband, making the bed is one of the things he hates most in life, he was not amused!)

My family is a little batty....

2007-11-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

For Halloween that is! I mean, they REALLY get into it. So much so that my mom actually wore her Halloween costume to lunch with her girlfriends yesterday....

I give you... ~~Superwoman~~ WONDER WOMAN!

~~Superwoman~~ Wonder Woman and her sidekick Rainbow Bright (my little sister Murr-Dog)

Even the cat Stewart gets into it! (yeah - he looks really into it, doesn't he?!)

Clearly the pumpkin carving talent gene missed me...They carved those, free-hand.

Edit: Thank you weezermonkey for showing me how to do the cool slash through thing, oh and also pointing out my blonde moment :)

Weekend Update...

2007-10-28T19:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, this weekend FLEW by me at mach speed. I cannot believe that it is already Sunday night! On Friday night we went over to our friends K&M's place for dinner and pumpkin carving. We had some really good laughs and a great time carving pumpkins, although their pumpkins were significantly better done than ours. My husband called them "ringers," like they were pretending to be novices like us, but in reality, they carve professionally. I mean, they had stencils and everything. I consider myself fairly crafty, however, I found out that pumpkin is not my medium. Here are their pumpkins:

A Spooky Bat!

A Haunted House...
Here are OURS: Just your typical trouble-making Jack-o-Lanterns:

On Saturday I co-hosted a very lovely baby shower for my favorite mommy-to-be Jules! I mentioned in my post from Friday that I spent the better part of the day working on the centerpiece for the brunch, which was a diaper cake. This was the 1st baby shower I have ever attended, can you even believe that? The brunch was so much fun, and I just can't wait for this little bundle to arrive! She is going to be the best dressed baby in the Bay area, that's for sure!

What baby wardrobe would be complete without a little Juicy??

Most of today was spent relaxing with my husband. We went to Chevy's for lunch, one of my favorite places :) And then we drove around in Sherman Oaks and went to a few open houses. We saw one place that I LOOOVE, it's just a tad out of our price range for now, but who knows, they may end up reducing it soon.

Turn that frown upside down!

2007-10-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

That is exactly what I am doing today. Yesterday I was pretty bummed... thank you all for your kind words about my rejection, it made me feel a lot better :)

I had a second interview with another company yesterday afternoon, and it was a total disaster. By about 2:30 PM my day was in a downward spiral. I got so emotional about it, my poor husband had to hear my cry into the phone. This guy who I interviewed with was such a jerk, he was purposefully trying to humiliate me. Trying to accuse me of inconsistencies on my resume, quizzing me on AP Style guidelines like he was some deranged English teacher. As my dear friend MK says, PR isn't about writing rules, it's about relationships and connections. I have to agree. I mean, I know how to write a press release, I have done it many times without incident, this guy just would not let up. Needless to say, I sent off an email saying, thanks, but NO thanks on that one.

I called my sister Haley and she insisted I come to Malibu to meet her for lunch. Ahhhh, this was just what I needed. She had me looking at the bright side in no time. (And the burned side, Malibu is pretty scorched, but luckily not as bad as San Diego or Orange County. Being a former student at Pepperdine, it was sad to see the Castle reduced to rubble. And the hillside scarred with ash.)

The rest of the evening was spent licking my wounds from the day, and putting myself back together with the help of my sweet husband. Isn't it an a amazing thing that husbands do, to make you feel better no matter how bad of a day you just had? Within a few hours, I was scouring the internet again, looking for new opportunities and firing off resumes.

This morning, I wanted to stay in bed, but I dragged my butt up to meet MK for a YAS spin. It felt SO great! The music got me so pumped, and I had the best work out I have had in a long time, really helped clear my head. Then we walked down the street for a little coffee and girl talk. Which is always the best!

I ran a few errands and got home to get busy. We are going to a pumpkin carving party with our friends Kate & Mark tonight at their new place. So I made a batch a gluten-free chocolate cupcakes! It is from a fabulous mix that my mother-in-law sent me, it's made with hazelnut flour and tastes deceptively like a real cupcake, yay! I decorated them for Halloween, natch.

I also managed to pick up a little housewarming gift for K&M, what else but my favorite garlic chopping machine, and a little spat couture :) (I realize that the spats are too big for the gift, but oh well!)

After this was all squared away, I began on my project for Julia's baby shower, which is tomorrow, yay! I can't say what it was just yet, in case the mommy-to-be reads this today... Ill post pics tomorrow.

And then, to put a cherry on this day.... they arrived.... The boots I have been dreaming about, Frye, Adrienne Button Up Boots, my mom ordered them for me when I was home last weekend, Thank you mama! They fit perfectly, and I LOVE them!

Did My Hair Go Flat?

2007-10-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

Did I stumble into some bad lighting? (Clueless, anyone?)

I did not get the job at company B. Boo! She said that the other gal had more experience than me. Not a whole lot I can do about that. Eh, her loss I suppose. But I can't help feeling a little sad and dejected. Not sad not to not have that job, but just sad to be rejected in the first place. It's really hard to put yourself out there, so vulnerably, essentially selling yourself to a work place, to then be told, you are not the one. I know, I am being a little bit of a cry baby, people get turned down for jobs all the time. Someone has to not get the job, and that someone was me this time.

I have another 2nd interview this afternoon for another gig.... so I'll keep y'all posted. (And I'll try to keep my hair from going flat again)

October is National Celiac Awareness Month!

2007-10-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

I just found out that October is National Celiac Awareness month... Granted, it appears that only the states of Nebraska, Michigan, Colorado, Iowa & Oklahoma have signed proclamations declaring it as such, but still, it's a start!

About a year ago I found out that I have Celiac Disease, which is defined by the Celiac Disease Foundation as: A lifelong autoimmune intestinal disorder, found in individuals who are genetically susceptible. Damage to the mucosal surface of the small intestine is caused by an immunologically toxic reaction to the ingestion of gluten and interferes with the absorption of nutrients. About 1 in 133 people in the United States suffer from this.

Wha?!

Well, at the time of diagnosis this disease wasn't exactly news to me. My mom suffers from it, and ironically, so does my mother in law. (Coincidence? Or proof that the disease is far more prevalent than we all think.) My husband thought he had it when we first met, then had more tests to discover that he was lucky, and does not have it. But to quote my doctor upon hearing the diagnosis from my gastro-specialist: "You kids are screwed." Yeah, thanks.

Basically what this means for me is no wheat gluten. No flour, no cupcakes, no bread, no pasta, generally anything totally yummy, is pretty much off limits for me. And it is really surprising how many foods you would not think of include hidden gluten - like soy sauce for example. Malt flavoring, salad dressings and many preservatives. It has been a rough year trying to manage this, but at least I have a great support system, and I can basically control my symptoms with my diet. But the gluten always seems to get in, and cross-contamination is a big part of the problem. I am not supposed to have even a crumb of wheat, so this means I can't even use a toaster that has had regular bread in it. It's a lot to take sometimes. Especially for someone who used to LOVE cupcakes, cereal, pasta, bagels (sigh) I used to be a bread head! But it became not worth it to me to suffer the symptoms, just for the instant gratification of what ever it was I was eating.

There are some, um, interesting gluten-free bread products. Let be the one to tell you that a cupcake made with tapioca and rice flour, does not come close the dreamy confections from Crumbs that I recently read about on Weezermonkey's blog. But I recently heard about a bakery, called BabyCakes, which offers gluten free baked goodies that was supposed to open this fall, but I just read that they have pushed the opening to late 2008, boo. Oh well, I hear scientists are working on a pill that would allow people with this problem to ingest gluten with no problem, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Otherwise, I can always sneak it on special occasions, like the night of our wedding, when we got back to the hotel room, to find a few slices of the most delicious looking cake I had ever seen, I couldn't resist it.... I can't say I felt great the next day, but I was on such a high that whole weekend that I didn't let it get me down :) Although out cake baker, Cake Divas, made the top layer gluten-free, (hence, why were cutting into the little top layer) They gave it a great effort, but the gluten-free top layer tasted like cardboard, yuck! All the rest of the layers were regular cake, so our guests didn't have to suffer!

And now you know the meaning behind the name of my blog... Since rice is a popular substitute in a gluten-free diet. ;)

Ooops!

2007-10-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess I have again fallen behind on my blogging efforts. My trip to Colorado was great. The dinner for The Home Front Cares was a huge success, and I was so proud of my dad and all of the hard work he put into it! He helped raise a ton of money for a lot of families, and that is a great thing!

The weather in Colorado was so nice, until Saturday night. Sunday morning I woke up to 3 inches of snow. I was a little afraid that my flight was going to be delayed, or even cancelled, but luckily it wasn't. I also awoke to hear about the terrible fires in Malibu, and with Haley living on campus at Pepperdine, we were all really worried. She evacuated campus with no problem and headed to a friends house up north, but it was so scary not hearing from her! I am so worried for all of the people being affected by these fires, I hope and pray that they can put the flames out soon.

It was so nice to come home, I missed my husband SO much!

I had a 2nd interview yesterday for Company B. They are down to 2 candidates, and I am one of them...woo hoo. She said they would be making a decision in the next few days, so we shall see. I also have a second interview with another company, on Thursday. Interviewing is wearing me out. I get all of this nervous, anxious energy and and I dont really like that feeling.

Judgy Wudgy...

2007-10-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had 9 realtors tour through our condo, the "pricing committee" as my realtor calls them. See, we wanna move into a house, and so we are taking the 1st steps towards that goal, which would be seeing what we can get for our westside condo. Ugh, the real estate market in the greater Los Angeles area is so frustrating. Sellers are stubborn and wont reduce their prices, and buyers are entitled and wont pay, being on both sides, I can completely understand both sides. It was a little intimidating having these people parade through our home, judging as they walk through each room. I mean, I like to think our little place has style, but a page from a pottery barn catalog it is not. What, you mean not everyone uses their 2nd bathroom as a storage closet? Well, where else am i supposed to keep the luggage? And the yoga ball? And how was the news? Um, not terrible, not great. Probably not what we could have gotten for it 2 years ago. But there's the catch - two years ago we could have sold for top dollar, but could never have bought a house at top dollar. Oh well, as Michael Buble would sing, That's Life!

Tomorrow I'm taking this blog on the road! I am going to Colorado to visit mi familia. My husband is staying home (boo) to work. I am really excited to see everyone. And the reason I am going is to support my Dad (yay). See, he has been working really hard putting together this dinner for The Home Front Cares, which is an charity organization that helps our troops and their families get back on their feet after they come home from the war. He does such amazing work for this organization, putting this dinner together and helping to raise a ton of money for their cause. He reads me the cases sometimes, and I can't help but get a pit in my stomach to hear their sad stories, it gives incredible perspective. I stay out of the political madness of this war, because just honestly, I cannot wrap my head around it at all, but I do believe strongly in supporting our troops and their families who are sacrificing so much. I am so incredibly proud of the work that my dad has done and I am excited to be a part of the dinner tomorrow night!

Ding Dang Y'all!

2007-10-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

I am afraid that our darling Britney may have finally reached ROCK bottom. This may not be breaking news to anyone who has turned on a television or picked up a glossy tabloid in the past ohhhh, year or so, but I just read something which leads me to believe the girl has officially hit the bottom. She has pink eye. Yup, need me to say it again? PINK EYE. Ewwwwwwww! I know she has kids, and thus can be exposed to it easily, but come on, she doesn't even have custody of those kids y'all! I guess when you have children things like pink eye and lice (ew, just saying it makes me gag) become more of an occupational hazard, and not that big of a deal, but I am sooo not there yet. This summer I had a bad allergic reaction, my eye got so pink and I called my doctor in hysterics because I was sure I had the plague, er, I mean pink eye. Luckily, it wasn't, phew.

Well, the good news Brit Brit, is that you can only go up from here! I am rooting for her to clean up her act and return to the pop sensation we all knew and loved. Gimme More!

Call Now! Operators are standing by...

2007-10-15T10:29:00.000-07:00

I have fallen in love with a gadget that I think belongs in every kitchen in America, and beyond as far as I'm concerned. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial... Last month, while my mom was visiting, we made a trip to one of our favorite places, Sur La Table. Since the wedding I have been cooking more, really getting into and really enjoying it. My one major complaint? I looove using garlic, but HATE the way it makes my hands smell for days! I get that faint garlic smell that just wont go away. I have tried rubbing my hands on stainless steel, but honestly the only way I have found to avoid it, is to not touch it all. Which is fine, except that requires me to handle garlic with surgeon like precision. I end up using two forks, a knife, at times rubber gloves, all of which can be totally clumsy. So my mom suggested this little device called the Garlic Pro E-Zee Dice.

See exhibit A:

See, you put your peeled garlic into one side, fit the two pieces together and then twist! Viola! Oh - and to make life even easier, I buy my garlic pre-peeled in this handy little jar from Pavilions. It last in the refrigerator for a few weeks, and I have fresh garlic at my clean smelling fingertips! And you can put it in the dishwasher. It really does a great job mincing:

Oh, and I also got these really cute spatulas - one with pumpkins and one sparkly/glittery!

I call them "Spat Couture." The girls of Juicy should get on this!

2 months later...

2007-10-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 2 month-a-versary! I mentioned our 1 month-a-versary a month ago (duh) but I have yet to share a lot of the amazing details of our day. Our wedding day was the most amazing day of my life, I have never been more excited, happy, anxious, passionate about something ever! Everything went so smoothly, and everyone had the best time! We were so lucky that all of our friends and family from all over the country were all able to be with us here in southern california to help share in our celebration. We were married at Shutters Hotel on the Beach in Santa Monica, and it could not have been a prettier day. I remember waking up so early because like a kid before Disney Land, I was too excited to sleep! The day went SO fast, I was so sad to see it passing by, but so enjoying every moment that came and went. And at the end of it all, I ended up married to my best friend, the most amazing husband ever.

Here are a few pictures...

*Photo credits to our AMAZING photographer Becker and his talented 2nd photographer Marisa Holmes.

2 interviews in as many days...

2007-10-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Job interviewing is hard y'all!

Well, back up... Getting to the point where you get a call for an interview is hard first. I have sent countless resumes to different companies, and I have said it before, but most of them go to a black hole where resumes and time consuming custom-tailored cover-letters go to die a slow death. (Not to mention the fact that I wanted to do something more creative, but the more practical I try to be about that, the more I realize how difficult it would actually be, and it wouldn't pay the bills :() But a light shown threw the clouds last week when I got emails from not one, but two of the companies I had sent my resume to. I had one interview yesterday, and one today, both at 9AM. Luckily, I am a morning person these days. (I say these days because I used to be a "rise at noon" kind of gal, but somehow in my old age I have started to get up earlier and earlier, something I always thought would never happen to me.) Let's call yesterday's interview Company A and today's Company B.

Let's start with A, because I knew pretty much the moment I walked in that it was not somewhere I could see myself working. You know, sometimes you just get a feeling. And as I walked into this place, I was stunned by the mess and clutter. Now, I have been in this field for a while now, and I know as much as the next gal that clutter happens, but really? Even on my worst day in my last office job my desk never looked liked that. I mean boxes, papers, wires, coffee cups strewn across the place. Not to mention the walls were painted the brightest shade of fuchsia pink I have ever seen. And then the woman who I was having the interview with said the strangest thing to me. It went something like this: "I am divorced, with a two-year old, and the other partner here is also recently divorced, but don't worry, we wont rain on your married parade." And she followed that amazing statement with this gem: "So, I imagine you have a thick skin, and if things get crazy and we start yelling you understand not to take it personally?" Ummkay. Ohhh boy. The minute she said it, I want to run for the door. This was the sort of place that sucked the life out of you, I know because I have seen it before. I have been in it before, and I ain't going back. The girl (who I would be replacing, she is high-tailing it back to the east coast) emailed me and asked if I could come in for a 2nd interview to meet the other partner. After sleeping on it, I am going to politely pass. That is just not the place for me.

Now, Company B. Very cute, chic office, in a great neighborhood not far from my house. Small company. Almost Zen-like. A candle burning during the interview, pale blue painted walls and a starfish on the table. And the owner, one of the nicest, most down to earth women I have met in this industry. I felt a real connection with her and her company. It genuinely seemed like a great place to work. She asked me to come in for another interview to meet another senior person there next week, so I am excited about that. I sent her thank you email as soon as I got home, and also a handwritten one mailed today, hopefully that will set me apart from other candidates. So everyone keep your fingers crossed and send me positive vibes, hopefully I will be gainfully employed soon! Then my husband can stop calling me the desperate housewife of brentwood county.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes...

2007-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, I did it... For two years I have telling my stylist, (who after spending all day with me and my bridesmaids on my wedding day earned her nickname, Spritzy) to make me as blonde as she possibly could. I was on a mission, my Blonde Ambition tour, as I called it. I wanted to be blonde, blonde, blonde for the wedding. So blonde that you may need shades to look at my blonde hair. And truth be told, I got it. People that I hadn't seen in a while at the wedding were saying to me, "this is the blondest I have ever seen you!" Ahhhh, music to my ears. So then why did I feel compelled last week to ruin what I had worked so hard to build up? I don't know, call it my version of the "wife chop" (think Katie Holmes-Cruise post wedding) where girls cut their hair really short immediately after getting hitched. Me, I added low lights, and bangs. Ummkay. Did I fall victim to the Reese bangs? (which I am sure every stylist in this country loathes... She comes out one day with short side-swept bangs and for some reason, we all think we can do it.) Let me tell you, if you have never had bangs before, trust me, they are a little hard to manage. That's the conspiracy, we see all of these celebrities in magazines and think we can have their hair... and believe me, if we had a $4000/hour stylist doing our hair every morning, maaaybe this would be true. But we don't. To compound matters, my husband comes home, and in the sweetest possible way, he makes it pretty clear that he preferred the blonder hair. I don't fault him, he has only known me as a bottle blonde. Scarily, I am not even sure what my natual hair color is anymore, isn't that sad? I have been heavily highlighting my hair since the 9th grade, and before that it was a sort of dirty blonde, mousy brown shade (attractive, I know). One time, many moons ago, I tried to go more natural, and I just didn't feel like myself, so I was back on the bottle in no time. Here's the thing: I get restless with my hair, the color, the length, and I want to change it, and almost immediately after i make the change, regret ensues. I am trying to get used to it, but I think I am definitely going to add a few more highlights around my face shortly. And the bangs, well, I am going to stock up on bobby pins and wait it out... as my mom says, they should be grown out by Christmas! Great. Without further adu....

Tag... I'm it!

2007-10-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

A special thanks to my friend Weezermonkey for tagging me, this is my first time being "tagged"!

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life:

(1) Gift wrapper at a kids store
(2) Receptionist
(3) Sales at Abercrombie & Fitch (which lasted precisely one 6 hour shift before I quit)
(4) Publicist

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:

(1) National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
(2) Steel Magnolias
(3) Office Space
(4) The Notebook

Four TV Shows I Like to Watch:

(1) CSI:Miami
(2) The Office
(3) Lost
(4) Hell's Kitchen (both BBC version & Fox's)

Four Places I Have Vacationed:

(1) Hawaii
(2) Israel
(3) Europe
(4) Puerto Rico

Four of My Favorite Dishes:

(1) P.F. Changs Chang's Spicy Chicken
(2) Rice pasta with pesto and parmesan cheese
(3) Chicken Tacos
(4) Cupcakes (gluten-free, natch)

Four Websites I Visit Daily:

(1) Gmail
(2) Perez Hilton (embarrassing I know)
(3) Drudge Report
(4) Yahoo (my homepage opens to Yahoo)

Four Places I Would Rather Be:

(1) Hawaii (Lanai to be specific)
(2) Having a nice dinner with my hubby
(3) At the spa
(4) At Thanksgiving dinner...yum I can't wait!

Four Bloggers I Am Tagging:

Well, I don't actually know 4 other bloggers, (hey I'm new!) so I will tag two that I do know...

Silly Colorado
Stumptown Blogger

Rut-Ro...

2007-10-03T17:59:00.000-07:00

I am constantly trying to improve my cooking repertoire, but it is very easy for me to fall into the chicken and rice rut. I usually make stir-fry with my own homemade teriyaki sauce, and steamed white rice. My husband thinks I am the best chef in the world... and that is why i love him. He could eat chicken and rice every single night and never grow tired of it. But lately I have been craving a little more diversity in my diet, and I like to try new things for the fun of it. I like cooking, and hope to become better, and they say practice makes perfect... So I collected a few recipes, and I am gonna start trying them out, starting tonight! Tonight I am making Tandoori Chicken. I know, sounds like chicken and rice again, but baby steps! At least it is an interesting way to cook the chicken. I have the chicken marinating right now in a mixture of yogurt, curry spice, paprika, ginger and garlic. Then I am going to bake it in the oven and serve it with basmati rice and steamed broccoli. Sounds yum, right?! I'll update later tonight to tell you if it works, and share the recipe if it's good!

This is sort of a strange thing to share on my blog, (especially considering some of my friends who read this blog will know exactly who/what I am talking about) but I had my feelings hurt a little bit today. An old friend, a friend who due to a loooong story, is no longer really a close friend, did something that made me very sad. And I have to quietly wonder to myself, why? The sad part is that I will never know why things are the way they are between us. I know this is so ambiguous, to the point where one would wonder why I even shared it, but I needed to get it off my chest. I guess what I really need to do is let it go, and move on from it. It's just hard sometimes to lose a friendship that you once really valued. That's all.

Weekend Update...

2007-10-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

I could have been a good little blogger and not let everything pile up until today, but I was too busy having fun this weekend to jot it down. So here it all goes...

Friday night I went to see Super Bad with my husband. I know, we are way late on this one, but it was pretty funny. A little disgusting at times, in my opinion, not quite as funny as Knocked Up, but overall entertaining.

On Saturday I met up with MK, Grandma and Splashie to look for bridesmaids dresses for MK's wedding. It was so much fun! Especially as a recent bride, it was really fun to be on the other side, not having to be the one making the decision! All I had to do was try on a bunch of really cute dresses! We went to Thread on Melrose first. I had never been there before, so it was cool to see what all the fuss was about. We didn't really looove any of their dresses though. So we headed over to our group staple, Jenny Yoo. My bridesmaids wore Jenny Yoo, and we wore them for Grandma's wedding two years ago, so it was like going home. Without further ado... a few pictures...

After that I went home to get ready for our blind date... yep, you heard me right, my husband and I had a blind date with another couple last night. Some of our friends, who live in Northern California have friends that live in Santa Monica, and thought we would all get along smashingly, so we made plans to meet them for dinner. It was too funny, S and I were there early, and every couple that walked in the door that looked a little aimless, we immediately made bets on whether or not it was them. When they actually did arrive, we had a lovely dinner. They were a really nice couple, and they are planning their wedding for June 2008, which is exciting.

Overall, it was a very nice weekend, mostly because I actually finally got to spend some quality time with my husband! He has been working SOOOO much lately (think 80 hours/week) and I miss him. Now we have another 5 days until we can do it all over again...

Got My YASs Kicked...

2007-09-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I met MK for a morning ride, at YAS - stands for Yoga and Spinning in Venice. I was nervous to say the least because I usually tend to get really intimidated in athletic classes, I feel like everyone has been doing it for years, and I am the freak who doesn't know what she is doing. Luckily I met a very nice woman before MK got there who gave me a big pep talk and my fears were eased. So we strapped into our bikes and off we went! It was tough. Really tough. Not to gross anyone out, but I seriously don't think I have ever sweat so much in my entire life. I am not much of an athletic girl, coming from a family of 5 girls, sports were never really a big deal in my family. I played a lot of golf, and maybe a little tennis (JV all the way, never once made the varsity team...sad). I have never liked the act of working out. You know those people who say things like "I run to clear my head"? Yeah, not me. I have belonged to 2 gyms in my life, both I joined under the pretense that if I am paying for the membership, it will force me to go. Not true. All I did was waste that $$ each month while I continued to sit on my butt. When my husband and I go the little gym in our building I usually just walk on the treadmill, I am so lame. But this YAS class is something I could see myself getting into. They played awesome music (JT, Timberland, Rhianna) and you kind of pedal to the beat, which is fun. Everyone gets really into it and you can burn 750 calories in one class (50 minutes) which is not bad. We went to the all spinning class, but they have a combo class where you can go 1/2 spinning 1/2 yoga. Surprisingly the time flew by and I actually really enjoyed it. Hmmmm, finally a workout I liked, its a miracle! Well, I also really like the Bar Method too, that is a fun one.

A Few Things...

2007-09-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

My new toy... behold.... the ghd styler... "our most advanced heat-styler yet"... I know, it sounds a little intimidating, but my mom said it was genius, so I had to try it out. (that and she offered to buy it for me at Sephora, thanks mama!) While I am normally trying "fight the straight" (as I like to call it) and give my hair curl, volume and umph, the polar opposite of what this tool is made to do, I was surprised to see how great it works. And supposedly you can use it to curl too, although that may be risky with my frail hair... I'm afraid if I left that hot iron on my ends for more than a swipe through they would break off for good.

Last night we were watching the last few minutes of America's Next Top Model before (my favorite show) Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares started; the assignment for the week had been to "model" the terrible health affects of smoking. The girls were made up to look really scary, to demonstrate the dangers of this nasty habit. At the end of the show, Tyra was giving the remaining gals a little pep talk, and in it she told them all that after tonight there would be no more smoking in the house. Period. All of the girls look shocked. I have to applaud Tyra and the producers of the show for doing this. With so many young girls looking up to Tyra and these aspiring models, it really drives the point home that smoking is so bad for you, your health, etc, etc. Good for Tyra... You go girl! (really? sorry about that...)

One more thing. I went to try to find this place called Jewel Art today - supposedly on Pico? Anyone know what I am talking about? Anyway, I couldn't find it, but I did find the coolest little bead shop across the street from Intuition on Pico. Picked up a few things and made a little stop at F & S Fabrics as well. I am making some baby shower invitations for my girlfriend, affectionately known as Grandma Jules. She is having a baby - YAY! and we are throwing her an sweet little baby brunch at The Ivy on the Shore near the end of October, and I am in charge of the invitations! I hope to post some pics when I get them done, but since Grandma is one of the only ones who actually reads my blog, I may have to wait until they are mailed and received!

I am on my own tonight as my husband is on his firm retreat for the night in Santa Barbara, wine tasting and team building, what a fun combination. Boo for no spousal inclusion. Maybe I'll do a little tasting here myself. Who am I kidding, I'll be doing laundry and watching tv. Is there anything even on tonight? Ohhhh is The Office back on? (running to check NBC.com)

C'est Bien...Errrr...

2007-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

I had the best morning! I met one of my best friends at this little coffee shop in Venice called Jin Patisserie. (http://www.jinpatisserie.com/) It is such a pleasant, quaint little place to have a cup of coffee or pot of tea. We stayed away from the sweets, but they looked divine. Better than the environment though, was the company. We chatted about life... work, future plans, wedding plans! MK is getting married on June 28, 2008, and I am beyond excited! It is so much fun to check in get all of the planning updates. This weekend we are going bridesmaids dress shopping, which is going to be so fun. My group of girlfriends is so fun, when ever we get together we laugh non-stop and just act generally silly. I will take pictures, so check back Saturday for an update.

Lately I have really been struggling with my future, career wise. I feel like I am in a really weird spot, and my poor husband has to hear it all the time. I have been sending my resume out like a mad-woman and to mostly no avail. My dad always said that looking for a job is a full-time job, and he isn't wrong. But it all just feels like such a waste of time, searching for these jobs, filling out all the info online, etc, and then it's like you sent it into outer space, a black hole - with no return address. I guess a part of me feels like I have worked so hard for so long in my previous field, that I would be silly not to try to get back in - but truthfully, I have no interest in it at all. What I really want to do, is do my own thing. Having a taste of being your own boss is intoxicating. Plus, I had it really good for a while there. Working with my husband, we were such a great team. Now he works 80 hours a week in an office and I miss him. I am not sure how this post went from a fun, happy coffee, to sad and mopey (I feel like such a Debbie). I am sure that everything will work itself out in time, I suppose it always does. Ho, hum...

Here Comes the Rain...

2007-09-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

My mom arrived last Thursday for a little weekend visit, and we had the nicest time while she was here. I always love when family comes to visit, it is hard sometimes living so far away from your family, it makes me sad. I wish that I could meet my mom for lunch on a random Tuesday, but I can't because she lives in Colorado. So it is always nice when she comes to visit, we always have some really good laughs. And this trip was no exception!

Here's the funny thing... As anyone who lives in Southern California knows, it rarely rains here. And I mean, RARELY. It's almost nauseating, and I know anyone not in so. cal will call me totally spoiled, but sometimes I wake up and think I just cannot take one more sunny day. (blasphemy, i know) But it gets really boring. In the same way that rain every day in Portland gets old, so does the sunshine. But every time my mom comes to visit, it rains. No fail! (with the only exception being my wedding, and I was happy she didn't bring the rain clouds with her that time) So "we had a little weather," as she likes to say. Friday night the thunder kept waking me up, I can't remember the last time I heard thunder here. So thank you mom, for bringing the rain once again, you know how much I crave and love it :)

On Friday night we went to a little restaurant in our neighborhood called Toscana, hands down the best Italian food ever, it is run by Italians who know what they are doing. Amazing. If you live here, you probably already know this.

Sadly, I have no pictures :( So this one will have to do...

Slackin...

2007-09-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... I am a bad blogger. But I am back!

Last weekend we took Splashie out for a little belated birthday celebration! We were on our honeymoon on her real birthday, and MK & Lannie were not in town either, so we all went to dinner at The Border Grill in Santa Monica. We had some mexican food, margaritas, some giggles and an all around good time.

Here are a few pics...

No One Else Could Love You More...

2007-09-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked our one month anniversary of being married. Being married is so fantastic! When I asked S right after our wedding if he felt different, he said no, not different, but more settled, which is such an amazing feeling.

And my dear husband sent me the most beautiful flowers, pale pink roses, my absolute favorite! They were just gorgeous.

We will never forget...

2007-09-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today S and I have been married for exactly one month, and I had originally planned on writing a lovey-dovey, gushing post about our wedding today, but it didn't feel right, not when I realized what day this month-a-versary would fall on.

As we remember the tragedy that struck us all 6 years ago on this day. We will never forget the brave men and women who lost their lives on that day, my heart sincerely goes out to the families and loved ones of those whose lives were taken so unnecessarily. Our nations heart will forever ache from the loss.

Oh no...I am in trouble now

2007-09-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

I just discovered that Martha Stewart BLOGs! Okay, not Martha herself, but Darcy from Martha Stewart Weddings, which is honestly the next best thing. I have long been a fan of Martha, even when my mother was spewing conspiracy propaganda about how Martha was secretly hoarding up all of the antique green glassware in this country (although quite suspiciously, Martha does have a lot of it...). Anyway, even though my wedding is over, I still love pouring over the pages of beautiful wedding magazines for everyday inspiration. I mean, the perfect garden wedding table set up would very easily scale down to an afternoon tea for four on my tiny patio. (As if...) Even though I have been banned from watching repeat episodes of Bridezillas and Platinum Weddings on WE, they can never take away my Martha Stewart Weddings.

I give you, "The Brides Guide" From Martha Stewart Weddings:

http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/weddings/

Mmmmm...

2007-09-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

We have had the best time this weekend!

On Friday night we went to dinner at Boa with our friends K&M. My heart broke when I asked the waitress to take our picture (for blogging purposes) and the battery was deadles! Shoot! The picture was going to be great too! The food was amazing, the company was even better, and the dessert, well, who can resist a mound of pink cotton candy!? Yum! (ill remember to charge my camera next time guys)

Saturday S & I decided to make fresh pesto for dinner. I love nights like these... we go to Whole Foods, S gives me the "let's make this quick" line (which i dread because I like to spend my time leisurely trolling the aisles to see what's new and get ideas for new recipes). Its fine, we are in and out with a couple of bunches of basil, some Parmesan cheese and pine nuts. Then we come home, put some music on and we cook, together :) (and by "cook together," I mean, he sits at the counter and keeps me company while i cook, which is really all I want, I love his company). The pesto turned out amazing, maybe our best batch ever, but I think I say that every time... but i really does keep getting better every time we make it. Which I suppose is true with most things.

Sunday we got up early to take a bunch of wedding gifts back to Pottery Barn before it got really busy. I drove, and accidently ran a red light, oops.. I let S drive home. We then headed over to Coast for brunch. Coast is the newly renovated restaurant at Shutters Hotel on the Beach, which is where we got hitched a month ago this Tuesday. It was very cool to be back there, and on such a beautiful day. We had a very lovely breakfast, the food is YUM, and the decor is so chic and cozy you wish it was your living room.

Now we are home, I am meeting up with my friend KS, a.k.a. Splashie for coffee this afternoon which I am very much looking forward to.

The Great Debate...

2007-09-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here in Los Angeles, one must pick a side, and stand firm, because there really is no in between.

Coffee Bean vs. Starbucks.

I know this because I have seen perfectly happy couples on Saturday mornings, divided. I have seen the boyfriend with a coffee bean ice blended in hand (for the lady) ordering a venti drip from Stabucks for himself, only to meet back up in some weird middle ground, a type of parallel universe, if you will. (Oh, you wont? Ok, maybe that was a little dramatic) Luckily I don't have to worry about this, as my dearly beloved hates coffee (blasphemis, i know).

I used to love Coffee Bean, but I have switched horses mid-race and I now pledge my allegiance to the United Starbucks of America (not that much of a stretch, I mean, with one on just about every corner, it is practically an institution).

In my younger days, I used to be a Coffee Bean no sugar added vanilla latte 1/2 powder kind of girl. (I swear coffee lingo is a strange sub-culture type phenomenon - but if you know coffee bean, you know what I'm talking about.) Now, I am a 1/2 caf vanilla latte - iced if its hot, warm if its cold. I recently added the 1/2 caf - mostly because the caffeine was making me jittery, and partly because my order wasn't complex enough, and I wanted the barrista to know, i meant business. What I wont ever be is the woman, on her cell phone, ordering a 1/2 cafe, no foam, 2 pump, 1 splenda, extra hot latte with a sprinkle of cinnamon. I mean...

The sick part is that I have a fabulous coffee maker, that grinds beans and brews great coffee, but as my father in law would say, it is the ritual of going to the Starbucks that draws you in. I like taking a walk, and seeing the bustling coffee shop, filled with people all going in different directions that day, but meeting up for a few minutes before they start their day. Its pretty cool actually.

Here is the evidence (please notice the 1/2 marked of in the decaf box - i am so complex...)

Career Day...

2007-09-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

Back in July, S and I sold our company, TripUp.com to SideStep.com. Our little company, that we built from scratch, just the two of us (along with a very talented programmer and a few fab designers)! It was really amazing to start something together and then watch it grow, and ultimately turn a profit. A very cool experience overall. Now that the company has been sold, the wedding is over, and S is back to a full time career at the law firm, it is time for me to get back to work. I could go right back into PR, but i think i might try something a little different. I have clearly caught the entrepreneurial bug, and I want to explore it a little further. I am contemplating starting a little design business, designing custom cards, general correspondence, placecards, menus, invitations, announcements, etc, basically anything you can think of paper wise. I have always had a really creative side, and after taking a few illustrator and photoshop classes, and designing all of the paper products for my own wedding, I discovered that I have a real passion for it.

You know what they say, if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life...

"The Grid"

2007-09-04T16:42:00.001-07:00

For those of you unfamiliar with "the grid" - here you go... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_energy_storage.

Now, back to minding "the grid"

Mind the Grid...

2007-09-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Man it's been HOT here in Los Angeles! Over the weekend we saw record breaking temperatures all across the southland (don't i sound like a weather girl?). I don't think in my 10 years of living here I have ever felt heat like this. Especially where we live, in the valley maybe, but only a few miles from the beach, I don't think so. I hear on the news that "the grid" is working overtime, and we are in serious danger of power outages, so I am trying to do my best to conserve energy (although I am using my computer to write this blog, I am also doing it in the dark, sans AC, every little bit counts right?)

We had a lovely long weekend here. S and I finally got our place organized and all of our wedding gifts put away, and the boxes thrown away, which felt really nice. We actually managed to get down to HD Buttercup and Crate and Barrel to look at some furniture as well. This is our new dream purchase... the Cannes Chaise Lounge, in Silver Sage...

I also had a very lovely brunch with some of my girlfriends on Monday morning. We went to The Coral Tree Cafe in Brentwood. I am normally not a fan of this place, but we had a really nice time! The food isnt the best, but it is a fun, happening little breakfast place. It was really nice to catch up with the girls :)

Just another married couple...

2007-08-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

I keep joking to S that now that we are back from our honeymoon we are just "another married couple." We are not a couple about to get married, we are not a couple on their honeymoon (coo) we are just another couple who said "I do." And while we had the most beautiful wedding a girl could dream of (more on that later), and I would love to hit the rewind button and do it again, I am loving the idea of settling into our life together. I love that the hustle and bustle of the wedding is over, and life can resume some sort of normalcy. I love that when we go to dinner, we talk about things other than seating charts and linens! And once we get all of these boxes out of our front hall, I will be loving it even more. It has been such a process since getting home from the honeymoon trying to get everything organized. Bottom line: we have too much stuff for the size of place we live in.

Here is a picture of another married couple... my grandparents right after their wedding in Las Vegas, circa 1940 (?)

And so it is...

2007-08-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog! I have long wanted to create a blog, but never really got up the guts to do it. After reading several blogs, and becoming affectionately referred to as a "blog stalker" I have decided to throw my hat into the ring and get one started. I plan on posting a variety of things here, it may just be a rambling account of my life, we shall see.

The title of the blog shall reveal its meaning in time... Stay tuned! (is that cheesy ot what?)