Wednesday, May 5, 2004 04:40 p.m.

Today is my thrid anniversary, yes, we were married on Cinco De Mayo (which pales in comparison to the thirteen years we have been together). We don't have anything really special planned. Probably just grab some dinner together but then we'll have to head out to LAX to pick up my brother-in-law. This will be the first time he's out to visit. I don't thinks he's been to SoCal since he was a kid and that was limited to Disneyland. I think he's mostly into doing touristy stuff while visiting. We haven't planned a whole lot but tomorrow is the only day we'll be crunched as I have to go to work to continue with a training course. Friday I may work a half day, seeing as though he is a late sleeper I can at least work in the morning. Saturday is dinner at T's bosses house down near Redondo Beach or something. Sunday is off to the boy's cousins Bob's house. Monday the bro-in-law leaves. I believe we'll be finished with the visitors for the next few months.

During mom's visit I was eating rather poorly and it was reflected by my crakiness and irritability. Once I switched back to my normal, boring diet I had a resurrgance of energy. I think I'm going to stick to my diet and throught the remainder of my preganacy and after. Whatever I'm doing it makes me feel ten times better and much more happier.

We got the house re-appraised today. We don't get the final results until friday but it sounds as though we'll be meeting our target number. I'm really excited about that because then we'll be able to get our home equity loan and update the freakin' old electrical in this house. As much as I love old homes, these modern day upgrades can be a pain. Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration. We don't live by candle light but we need to get our electircal to at least have a circuit breaker rather then these weird glass fuses. Once that's done we'll be set of A/C! Yeah!!! Perfect timing.

This past weekend was horrendous. It was so hot you didn't want to move. The doggies were horrified. They had no energy to move and just laid there. I knew it was bad when I sprayed them with the spritzer and they wouldn't move. It's nice today and the tempratures are finally dipping down. I'm just hoping it will remain for the rest of the week.

I just signed up for the Yahoo! Plus service. Finally commercial free Launch. That was my main motivation for singing up. Luckily this isn't costing a dime, Yahoo! has provided this free for all employees. But I don't care about the bigger mail box or that BS I just what non-stop streaming music. As soon as I launched launch, while typing away, Operation Ivy blared from my little Harman/Kardon sound system on my laptop followed by Rancid. I'm happy and I don't have to scroll through my MP3's to look for songs. Life has come a teeny, weeny bit simpler.

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 08:08 a.m.

Although my mom was here for about three days it really felt like a much longer visit. We kept pretty damn busy, even in the unusually gross scorching heat. On Sunday we ended up skipping Mamma Mia. I was afraid my legs would go numb from sitting there for two and a half hours. Instead we shopped and ate all day long. It was fun. I took mom to some areas she hasn't been to before and I think she enjoyed herself.

more later. work is crazy

Sunday, May 2, 2004 10:12 a.m.

Although this is day two of my weekend I really feel like I've had the last five days or so off of work. That's a good thing, right? We didn't do much yesterday. We went to Billy's for breakfast, then to look at some cribs (we couldn't find the exact one we wanted) and then at some plants. All in all it was an uneventful, hot day but just getting some "must do" items out of the way. As usual T took a nap, I don't quite understand how he can nap so much, seems like a waste to me.

We did go out to dinner. It took us FOREVER to decide where to go. My mom was hungry for some heavy type food but not me. I just wanted to eat some fruit and that's about it. Instead of springing for someplace nice we opted for the Hollywood Hills Restaurant. Of course the damn place was closed. So we detoured down Hollywood Blvd., took a right on Western, left on Franklin and landed at the 101 Coffee Shop, which is located in the lobby of the Hollywood Best Western. We were all pleased with this decision. Mom decided on a half BBQ chicken with mashed potatos, green beans and a salad. T choose the meatloaf with mashed potatos, green beans, salad and a chocolate malted. I ordered a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich with sweet potato fries and a chocolate malted. I'm glad we went there.

Today we're planning on going out for some food, hopefully soon as its almost 10.30am, maybe catching a matinee of the play Mama Mia at the Pantages Theater and then going over to Mirabelle's for happy hour. We're not going there for dinner but mom and T just what some drinks and at happy hour all cocktails are half off. I'll just sit there with my diet coke chowing down on some happy hour food. Plus I love that if you are ordering off their happy hour food menu you get a gigantic basket of crusty italian bread with a heaping side of extra yummy tapenade (sp?).

If we have time this afternoon, I would like to squeeze in an hour or two of some shopping. I haven't gone to Kitson in a bit and would like to check out what's new. More to come later on.

Friday, April 30, 2004 03:58 p.m.

Okay I had my entry all typed up and I totally lost it. My fault not the computers. I had two brower windows open and I accidently hit the back button from my pita browser rather then my Yahoo browser. Crap!

In a shameless effort to recreate what I had previous written here goes!

Not much happening over the last few days. Just work and major spring cleaning around the house. Mom flies in tonight so we are making sure everything is spic and span before she gets in.

Yesterday afterwork A and I headed over to Paper Source to buy some paper/cardstock for baby shower invitations. I think the invites will turn out really cute. A is coming over, she should be here any minute, to work on the invites today. We're planning on having them distributed by the end of the week.

While we're working on our project T has a bunch of items on his To Do list. Most importantly is cleaning out the SUV. When he moved out of his warehouse space he packed up the car and never unpacked. So he's been lugging all kinds of junk in there for days, not to mention all the other junk he has packed on to it. Next major, or not so major, item he needs to accomplish is cleaning out the little pot in the rice cooker. I don't ever do this because I don't know what I'm up against. The scary thing is I don't remember the last time we cooked rice at home. So there could be a grody, moldy pile of rice in there or on the flipside it could be totally empty. Either way, I don't want to open that lid to find out. Im such a baby when it comes to rotten food.

When A and I are completed with our projects and T is finished with his we'll be heading over to La Cita for some grub.

I jsut want to make sure we have enough time to run to target before heading over to the airport. The doggies are extremely low and food and I want to make sure they have their own grub tonigt.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004 06:52 a.m.

So I work at an internet company. Sometimes I hear people on the phone talking ot our advertisers and it completely baffles me when I hear them explaining the difference between a URL and an e-mail address. How do these people run an online business? How do they stay in business? It's as thought they are expecting their online advertising medium to give them a crash course on the basics of the world wide web. Some people have no idea what a browswer is, let alone opening a new one. They don't even know they have URL but they know they have an "earl" or a "dubbadubbadubba." I wonder how these people function? I don't expect everyone in the world to be internet savvy, but if you have an online business, you should know your domain (URL). Whatever, this isn't really worth my time.

I worked my tail off yesterday. But in a good way. There are times when I work so hard all day that I leave work feeling completely exhausted. Yesterday was different. I left work feeling satisfied with the feeling of actually accomplishing something. Today will be another one of those days. I'll be spending about 50 percent of my day, if not more, doing some system QA testing. I am determined to find some sort of bug. Nontheless, I have a huge checklist of items I need to sort through to ensure that everything in our QA environment is working.

I just drank a cup of lemon tea and now I have a stomach ache. I really don't like starting the day in this manner. I should have had a cup of coffee. My tummy is very achy and uncomfortable. UUuuggghhh. I'm also very tired. I've been tired the last few days. I somehow think this is related to the recent rash of hot weather. As the cool down is suppose to begin today hopefully so will my mood and energy level. The doggies should be happy as they have been so miserable the last few days. They have become one with the kitchen and bathroom floor. I even found Daisy oneday chilling under the gigantic hutch in the kitchen. She was dodging the sun and found herself a nice dark corner.

Tonight we're finally putting some of the doors back up in our house. The paint job turned out great, both on the doors and the door hardware. I'm excited to see the turnout in its environment.

I'm going to eat my fruit and cottage cheese concoction.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004 07:12 a.m.

Two whole days with no internet. I don't know how I survived? I unplugged the computer on Sunday morning because we rearranged some furniture and I did not hook everything back up. I tried and tried to get it working yesterday but with no luck. Because of the DSL and firewall I have no idea how to hook the damn laptop up. I gave up and decided I could go with out the "web" for a few days.

On Sunday we did nothing but clean, clean, clean. The house feels cleaner and much more friendly with everything in its place. T started to paint some doors on Satureday and is still painint g his little heart out. In all he has five doors to paint plus we're repainting all the hardware, i.e. hinges, non-glass doorknobs, and those little metal plates that go behing old doorknobs. The idiot who used to own our house painted all the hardware and door inserts this putrid shade of mauve and cream. The colors made the house feel dingy and dirty and now that we're using a crisp white for all trim and doors I think the place will seem much more clean and fresh. The next little painting project will be the window panes and trim in the masterbedroom and possibly the dining room. We'll tackle the windows in the living room, kitchen and the den when we finally get around to painting those rooms. Which will probably be in the late fall when the temps fall to a nice cool breeze.

I stayed at home all day yesterday. It was nice. I got a lot done but at around 2pm it got so uncomfortably hot that I refused to leave the house. The doggies were miserable. They would not go outside and just layed around all day, moving from room to room. At one point I filled up the tub with nice cool water and sat in there and vegged. When T got home from work I dragged him off to Trader Joes with me. I bought a ton of fruit and two big containers of cottage cheese. I predict I'm a good month away from hitting cottage cheese burnout. I used to be obsessed with eating plain yogurt with mable flavored granola and almonds. Then I reached burn out moved and switched to random things around the house until I decided on the furit and cottage cheese thing. I gross out a lot of co-workers with my concoctions but it is so yummy. Today I made a big container (enough for breakfast and lunch) of grapefruit, cut in bite size peices, kiwi, grapes, blacberries and, of course, cottage cheese. I ate half the container for breakfast and I am satisfied and full.

I talked to my brother-in-law last night and he bought some plane tickets to come out here next week. I haven't seen him since my wedding so it'll be nice to see him. I think he'll be here for four or five days. On his checklist of things to do is eating at L-n-L drive in. Actually, I think that is the only thing on his to-do list. I told him I'll check out some things today at work and get back to him. I don't think he's been to SoCal since he was 10 or something and he's turning 28 this summer.

Sunday, April 25, 2004 07:41 a.m.

Last night we went out to dinner with A. We decided to try someplace new and chose Kate Mantilini. It was pretty good. I opted for the filet mignon with whipped potatots, onione rings and dijonaise dipping sauce. T had the seared seasame ahi and A had the sliced New York with garlic spinach and a salad. I had so much food that i ended up bringing home fifty percent of my dinner. So that being said i'll be eating steak for dinner tonight.

I have a busy day ahead of me. I was planning on going to lunch with V but may have to scrap that idea because of the amount of housework that needs to get done. I need to prettyfy the house prior to Friday when mom gets in and the guest bed is still in the middle of my living room. While T is outside painting the doors from the nursery I'll be slaving away indoors. I just need to wake him up soon so he can get started before it gets really hot. He worked in the sun and heat yesterday and ended up with crazy sunburn on his back.

Last night I watched Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star. It was pretty funny. It wasn't your typical David Spade movie, like Joe Dirt. Nontheless, I enjoyed the movie. I just need to remember to return it tomorrow so I can get the next movie on my Netflix list.

A and I are going to begin planning my shower. We're targeting Sunday June 6th. I just checked my registry lists to ensure everything is in tact and made some very minor tweaks to them. In case anybody wants to take a peak i'm registered here and here. Of course to access the registries you'll have to know my first and last name, so those of you who do, you're in luck.

I should move onward with my day before I lose all motivation.

Friday, April 23, 2004 04:13 p.m.

I've released all the stress that built up yesterday. By 6am this morning it was water under the bridge. I basically told my director I don't want to waste anymore time on this, you figure it out and get back to me when you have the situation fixed.

So my little dog is named Daisy and my bigger dog is named Oscar. The poor big dog is so confused by his name that he thinks his name is Daisy and/or Oscardaisy. It's kind of sad. Sometimes I only want Daisy and when I call her he comes trotting along thinking you want him. Normally I can ignore it but after seven, eight or nine times it can get pretty damn annoying. I feel bad for all the confusion Oscar suffers from. Maybe he needs a doggie shrink? He's also very attached to T. He follows his every move and when T is busy working he just sits next to him and stares at him with his big, sad puppy dog face. When T lays down in bed, Oscar scoots up besides him and drapes the upper half of his body over T's abdomen and just stares at him. I have to admit its cute and T loves every, single minute of it.

I have a completely packed weekend. Working 8-hrs tomorrow. Dinner with A tomorrow night. House stuff on Sunday. Possible brunch on Sunday. More house stuff on Sunday - this has to be 95%-100% completed this weekend as mom arrives on Friday. Details on the weekend will be posted at that time.

Going out to eat now. Yes, I know its early but T worked a 29-hour shift and is starving.

Thursday, April 22, 2004 05:59 p.m.

Poor Shane MacGowan!

Okay, as you can see, there are sponsored results on the MSN page I link to for the Shane MacGowan story, the company i work for provides those results. Frankly, those search results suck! The results are suppose to be relevant to the content on the page; however I fail to understand how do lisitngs for freakin' jewelry relate to Shane MacGowan (who's from ireland, sang for the pogues, getting his ass kicked in a pub in central london)? C'mon now, I just popped in about 4 or 5 more relevant links then what is provided, granted anyone wanting to read about Shane MacGowan probably won't be clicking on the links but with my work hat on that sucks! Hmmm...I may need to bring this situation up at work tomorrow.

Tonight I'll be cozying up to the glow of my TV to watch episode one of the final three Friends. Thank god! I am so sick of rerunds, ugh...they were calling it "viewers choice" episodes. I also hope that tonights CSI is brand new although I don't know if I'll actually be awake to watch the episode but i'm going to try.

Thursday, April 22, 2004 05:18 p.m.

First off, according to this quiz, this is the Disney princess I am

Which Disney Princess are you?

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 03:35 p.m.

Yesterday after work I got home and was very ambitious in my daily chores. I immediately changed into some shorts (yikes!)and a tank top, opened the garage grabbed a rake, dust pan and our primitive lawnmower. Although we just told our gardner we want him to take care of the backyard, I was embaressed at the condition of said yard. So I did some minor raking and jumped right in with our nasty push mower. All was good for about 30-minutes, then....I felt like I was going to have a heartattack. What was I thinking??? I probably got three quarters of our yard semi-presentable before stopping. The lawn is so dead and dry, that when you step on it you actually here the grass/weeds crunch. I have faith that Domingo and crew will do an awesome job reviving our backyard.

I gave the doggies some rawhide bones yesterday and they have barely broken through. I mean it is still shaped like a bone rather then a mangled mess of grossness covered in dirt and spit. We normally save the rawhide for those few times we have visitors. They totally pacify the beasts and will last for hours if not days. I gave it to them yesterday because the doggies love, love, love to attach things dragged across the ground: brooms, rakes, vaccumm cleaners. They have actually gotten so brave that if they are left in the room while you vaccumm they actually have the balls to bite the moving vaccumm. T has become acustomed to throwing them out of the house until the vaccumming is complete. It's funny because while they are locked out you can hear them whining and crying to come in.

So I heard of this Thai restaurant called Palms Thai that has a Thai Elvis impersonator. I'm thinking of taking my mom there for dinner while she's visiting. I think she would totally get a kick out of that, plus I haven't had Thai in a while and am in need of a fix.

I feel like I am in such a hair rut. As a result of constantly touching my hair I wear it in a pony tail probably 3 times a week - BORING! For the most part my hair is all one length, probably a few inches past my shoulders, except for my bangs which are probably down to my earlobes or so and slightly layered. I am in dire need of a haircut and am only willing to lose about 4 inches, max, in length. I would also like some long, razor cut layers along the back and near my face. I just need to drag my lazy ass out to the hairdresser one day to get my haircut. I just hate getting my haircut! I would like to also dye my hair professionally (I think I've only done this once) and add some low lights for dimension. But I can't even consider that until the baby is born. What is a girl to do. I really should pamper myself with the haircut as I don't really indulge in many of those types of things. I've severely cut back on the mani/pedi-cures, I don't get massages (but should, to relive some of my tension), and i've never once got my hair professionally cut the entire time I've lived in California. The only beautifying thing I do is dropping cash at Sephora, and I've cut back on that as well. Damn it! I sound like I don't treat myself to squat, maybe a professional haircut is due?

I'm starting to get hungry. I want a grilled cheese sandwich, glass of diet vanilla coke and a tofutti "ice cream" bar. I think i'll go make myself some food.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004 07:21 a.m.

Today is the first day of my entire pregnancy in which I have indulged in my routine of black coffee in the morning. I'm so good about the whole caffeine thing so I figured I would have one cup of piping hot coffee. I haven't taken my first sip yet, but when I do I will savor the moment. Mmmmm......so goooooodddd!

I have been ordering decaf when we go out for breakfast. I know I've had the opportunity for regular but I know I'll partake in more then one cup so I figure the decaf will be better since I only really want the taste. Today I only want the taste, but the decaf here is awful and the Breakfast Blend is nice and smooth.

I woke up at 2.30am to the annoying tick of T's old clock. It was getting louder in louder in my head and I couldn't take it. I fumbled around in the dark until I found it and through the damn thing in our linen closet. Now that T and I are working the same shift I don't think we'll be needing that clock any longer.

Monday, April 19, 2004 12:04 p.m.

I went to the doctors this morning for a normal check up and to hear my results from the 3-hr glucose test. I found out I only gained a pound in the last two weeks and my glucose levels are well within the normal range! Yeah! As much as I want to eat something unhealthy and sweet right now I will refrain. I think I'll make myself some lunch in a few minutes then have one of my Tofutti chocolate fudge ice cream bars for dessert. Those tofutti treats are so extra yummy.

Last night I took a stab at cooking dinner. It's been a while since I last cooked a meal for T and I. Not that I did anything fancy, I just made pizza. It was yummy, since I don't really like red sauce on my pizza I put on a layer of pesto, followed by prociutto, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, tomatos and white cheese. It was yummy but if I were to do it again I would put a little less prociutto as this is an extremely salty meat and I got a little more then I bargained for.

Not much on my to-do list today. I think I'll actually give the kitchen a really good cleaning, finish up with the laundry, and lastly squeezing in a couple of hours of quality knitting time. I do have to remember to give A.R. a call, I need her mom's number. T and I need to look for an appraiser because we're planning on refinancing our house.

The nursery is looking great. Once the crib is in place it will look great. We bought an awesome colorful rug which adds just the punch of color we were looking for and the new knobs on the dresser are fantastic. Starting next weekend we're diving into the den. We're thinking of moving the bed that was in the former guest room in here and turning into a day bed so the den will be more of a relaxful (is that even a word?) space. I have a ton of vintage fabrics so I may sew a nice boxy coverlet for the bed and make a bunch of throw pillows as well. Until then that damn bed will continue to live in the middle of the living room.

I need to make some lunch now.

Sunday, April 18, 2004 03:43 p.m.

Last night was L's 30th birthday party. We got there a little earlier then planned, which is always a awkward. You know, you're sitting around, nobody is really talking yadda, yadda, yadda. Finally someone said, why don't we turn the TV off and put some music on. Viola, the awkwardness went away and people started showing up. Although L's place was teeny I found my little spot made myself comfortable and had a great time. The weird thing about this types of events is that a majority of the time they are filled with work friends. They must really work us to the bone if outside of work activities consist of hanging out with work people. I'm not complaining and for the most part a we are able to not talk about work at all!

Today we woke up and went to breakfast at Billy's then headed over to IKEA to pick up some dresser knobs, a rug and a few little potted plants (which were not on the list). T got really pissy when we got home because I told him not to open the rug yet. I told him I didn't want it out until the furniture is moved in so we don't trample all over it unnecessarily. When I suggested we get the other dresser in the room today he said fine as long as I can open the rug. Again I said know. This is typical of the days T decides to act like a child until he gets his way. I frankly don't have time to deal with that BS and will act just as stubborn as he until he realizes exactly what he's doing. I still have so much to do today. Once T is up from his nap we can move forward with the items on our list. The most important thing I have to remember is to pay my car payment online tonight. God I hate having a car payment, it will be nice to have the car paid off and then it will be mine all mine.

We finally talked to our gardner yesterday explaining that beginning in May we want him to work on our backyard as well as our front. I'm so happy! The backyard looks like a jungle. Its been bare and ugly since we chopped down the camphor tree. Some of the weeds are so tall that it is hard to find Daisy when she's wearing her camo. t-shirt on. The bushes lining the far back of the lawn are so overgrown and in dire need of a makeover. I think once the lawn is pruned we will make much more use of the patio, which we use a lot as it is, but with summer around the corner i'm sure we'll be out there a lot more.

Saturday, April 17, 2004 12:01 p.m.

Uuuggghhh...I hate downtime. I had all kinds of stuff I wanted to add and now i've forgotten all that info. I could have written it down but that would have been a little to much. Hopefully I'll remember and I'll be able to post those thoughts.

All of our systems are currently down (internal and external). Fun! Fun! Fun! So, needless to say, I've got some time to kill. Funny thing is all the projects I needed to complete which does not use our internal systems were completed first thing this morning. Had I saved them for the end of the day I could actually be working on them now. Instead I'll kill some time online.

I've given myself a stomach ache. I'm in the midst of my lunch and i'm already full. As much as I hate diet coke I had to indulge in the syrupy drink as I have had more then my fill of water this week.

Thursday, April 15, 2004 05:08 p.m.

And one last thing...If I were a major romantic poet I would be this guy.

You are William Blake! Wow. I'm impressed. Not
only are you a self-made artist and poet, but
you've suddenly become a very trendy guy to
like. It's not that we doubt that you have all
your marbles, it's just that we're not quite
sure what you did with them to come up with
those terrifying theological visions. The
people of your time were nowhere near as
forgiving as that, and all your neighbors
thought you were a grade-A nut job. But we
love you, so rest happy.

Which Major Romantic Poet Would You Be (if You Were a Major Romantic Poet)?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thursday, April 15, 2004 04:16 p.m.

I've noticed people either love or hate cottage cheese. It took me well into my twenty's before I would even taste it. I was seriously grossed out by this lumpy, milky food product. Which is kinda strange considering that I ate tapioca pudding. The ironic thing is now I love cottage cheese, especially with fresh fruit, and I don't like tapica pudding because of the bead-like texture. Anyway, I made myself a big container of fresh berries and apples with a heaping spoonful of cottage cheese for breakfast. It was so yummy and so filling that I think I'm going to make it again tomorrow, except I will be using mangos and berries instead.

So my nasty spider bite is still puffy and gross. I've ignored the itching sensation and have taken to just covering it with a band-aid. I drew the conclusion that since it was on my hip it was probably getting irritated by from the rubbing of pants, underwear, and any type of waist band really. The band-aid seemed to help. Actually, I removed the band-aid a few minutes ago and now I'm getting the sudden urge to itch it, especially when I move and my pants rub up against it.

So I just took this online quiz to find out what kind of Geek I am. This is what it said:

I am a New School Geek. On the cutting edge of geekdom, in a previous era I would have not chosen this geeky path. The 90s were good to me. I like to have the latest toys. I am the geek most likely to be a Mac user.
If you want to find out what kind of geek you are, go here.

I love these quizzes but I wish I could have cut and paste the code for the results on this one, oh well, can't have it all.

I have a birthday party to go to on Saturday. I think this will be more of a "party" then a nice casual dinner party like last week. I figure i'll go since it's my friend but I won't stay long because I don't want to see everyone get drunk and dumb.

The girl that sits next to me at work told me The Business will be playing next week or in a week in a half in Corona. I've seen The Business play many, many times that I don't think the trek out to Corona will be worth it. Plus I don't want to be the big, pregnant girl in the back of the room sipping on her shirley temple. Oh man, I can picture the scene now and im giggling.

Small dogs are so cute. I can hardly stand it. I think there are times that I smother my poor little Daisy. I don't know if she likes it but more that she tolerates it. She never squirms, barks or cries. I figure she just takes it with the thinking, "if I let her do this maybe she'll just put me down as soon as she's done." We've even gone so far as to stick her in the baby bjorn. She just sat there hanging off of T's chest dealing with the situation I put her in. Speaking of Daisy, her little butt sore is finally going away. It's no longer oozey and gross but now it's starting to heal and hair is finally growing over it. I hope it speeds up as I don't want to keep looking at that thinking whenever she walks by.

God, i'm thristy!

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

What a whirlwind of a day. I had to deliver all of my audits plus mentor about 5 new hires. I feel bad because I wasn't as available as I would have like to been but I promise i'll do better next time.

So, I discovered the nastiest spider bite on my hip yesterday. I had been itching my hip since the day before and didn't notice it until yesterday. I really wanted to link to a photo but seeing it uploaded on my computer was just plain gross so I completely tossed out the idea. It's all pink and puffy. I lathered the beast up with some cortizone so I don't touch it but it's just so ugly to look at. I don't think I've had a spider bite like this in years.

I finally washed my car today. It took a lot of energy but was totally worth it. On my drive home from work, I kept getting myself so disgusted by the amount of sludge on my rear windsheild. I kept waiting for the day I would hop in my car and notice the ever popular "wash me" lettering somewhere on the automobile. It is shiny and black now. The alloy rims are sparkling and its almost like my car is now smiling at me. Now I won't be so embaressed to walk out to my filthy car everyday.

As I type away my little Daisy dog is staring out the window watching the day pass by.



All I have to say about that is lucky bitch!

Last night I wrote out all my checks for the bills that have piled up on my desk. As painful as it is to do that there is a great big satisfying feeling of dumping all those letters in the mailbox. I just need to pick some stamps up tonight and I'm cool.

My back is a little achey, I think I want to watch the boob tube.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004 09:05 a.m.

So I got the new issue of Lucky yesterday. And there were the cutest pair of L.A.M.B gaucho coveralls in there. I want it!!! I wonder if its even in stores yet? I went to the Web site and it doesn't look fully operational. I'm hoping the clothes are for fall so there will be a lag before it actually hits stores. I told T I went it for my belated birthday gift. I want it!

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 12:51 p.m.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the beautiful flowers. Amber, you're the best!



Gerber daisy's are my favorite. I got home from doctors (a long 3-hr appointment) and there was a box waiting at my front door. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Expect a call from me today.

Monday, April 12, 2004 12:00 p.m.

Why is it that some people can be so damn flakey. I have a friend that I like very much but no matter how many phone calls or e-mails they are never available nor has the courtesy for a quick call back. I understand that people can be extremely busy but if I were in that situation I wouold at least take 10 minutes of my day to drop a quick e-mail or phone call back. Whether it is to talk now or to acknowledge receipt of said message. Alright I was in this situation a while ago but have said screw it and have not made any further attempt to contact this person. This is kind of sad because I liked this person a lot and we were pretty good friends. I took the ignorance as more of a sign as "leave me alone" then accepting that they may be a busy person. Reason being, this has been going on for months and months and months definetly not a short term thing. I figure I don't need that in my life and I know who my friends really are. I know this sounds like typical highschool BS and really I think it does to that is why I finally threw in the towel saying "screw it!"

I slept in today which was heavenly. I don't get to do that very often. Now that T is working M-F, I have the entire bed to myself and am able to sleep diagonal on the bed, maximizing the space and taking full advantage of it. Upon waking up I grabbed a yogurt and half a bagel and cozied up to the TV watching Best Week Ever and Hot Dads on VH1. Of course, i've been doing some housework, which has completely turned into my second job. I also started loading up the baby clothes in the nursery dresser. Hopefully T will be home early enought to help move the dresser into the room.

Last night I was sucked into the Nick & Jessica Variety Show. I thought it was funny but I have to admit of flipping the channels when they broke into song. I was bummed out that there was no Charmed on last night due to a freakin' basketball game.

Back to the grind of housework.

Sunday, April 11, 2004 06:00 p.m.

Last night we went out for A's birthday. She treated a bunch of her friends to dinner at the All India Cafe in Old Town Pasadena. It was yummy. The service was horrible but the food was simply delictable! We were there for almost three hours. After dinner the plan was to head over to Twin Palms for drinks. I decided to skip the fun as I had worked an 8-hr shift at work and was dead tired. I felt like a semi-party pooper but I needed my rest.

Today we got an early start on our day. T jumped into assembling some additional shelves for the garage and I began the priming on the window frame and panes in the nursery. We have old paned windows original to our 1928 house. What a pain in the butt to mask every single pane of glass off just to paint. After I primed I headed out back to assist with the garage organizing. Everything is back in the garage and it is fantastically organized. Everything is labeled and grouped together by content likeness. My dream! The only messy part of the garage is one section on the west wall that houses T's tools and computer stuff. I'll leave him to his own devices to organzie that mess. Once the garage was finished we threw on one coat of bright white paint on the window frames, jumped in the shower and headed out for lunch. It was now only 2.00pm.

We had the rest of our afternoon planned. Grab some lunch, head to the Handy Market in Burbank, stop in at target to look at some lampshades then head to Ikea for some little baskets for the cubbyhole shelf. Since we couldn't think of a single place to eat, against our better judgement we ate at Carls Jr. Since the we were basically driving on fumes we filled the car up and headed to Empire Center to go to Target. God Damn It! We get there and everything is closed, then we finally remember that its Easter. Damn It! I hate these holidays. Nothing to do cause every damn thing is closed. T suggested we check Ikea, they're Swedes, why would they be closed for Easter? We see a couple of cars in front, oh yeah, we're in luck, or so we thought....We inch closer....damn it! It's closed. We give up and head home. Sad and annoyed. We get home and take a nap, there isn't anything else to do.

Last night we noticed that Daisy is obsessively biting her tail/ass. She's so rough that she makes the skin near her butt bleed. Of course I freak out and had T call the vet. The bastards aren't taking anymore walk-ins for the day and suggest we go to a 24-hr clinic, in Pasadena. I don't want to drive to Pasadena, so we look for something in our area but every clinic is closed, must be cause of this damn holiday. Daisy was fine last night and most of today. Until we notice her obsessively biting her ass again. And again it starts to bleed and get all swollen. Actually, I should clarify her ass isn't swollen its the skin below her ass. What's happening is she is biting her tail and while doins so is biting the skin that is just under her tail. Daisy does not listen to us as we desperately try to get her to stop, so we make her a make shift cone out of the covers of the telephone book. She instantly becomes depressed for the next few hours. To bad. The little stinker needs to stop attacking her ass. We just took the cone off and she is now a happy camper but should her OCD kick in again, the cone is going back on.

As T just gave himself a haircut I gotta go clean up the edges he can't do on his own and then assist him in moving some furniture into the nursery.

Saturday, April 10, 2004 01:08 p.m.

I was reading this article about American Idol and I tend to agree with it. I'm probably watching as much of Idol this season as I have in the past. Frequently but not obsessively. And in my opinion the red-headed "crooner" should have been kicked off on episode one. He can't sing anything but a Sinatra or Martin song. An Idol he aint!

Saturday, April 10, 2004 06:31 a.m.

Yesterday I found out my glucose levels are to high and will need to take a 3-hour glucose tolerance test next Tuesday. As of yesterday I have cut out all excess sugars from my diet. Luckily the hardest part would have been soda and coffee but I kicked that six and a half months ago. No more ice cream, cakes, cookies, candies, pancake syrups you get the idea. Which is strange because I haven't had any excessive amounts of those things, well, maybe I have and I'm just not remembering it. Anyway, changing my diet NOW. My doctor said if the big tests still comes back high, i'm off to a nutritionist since this can all be corrected by diet. I wish I had a nutritionist offered to me from the get go but I guess its better late then never.

Off to work...

Thursday, April 8, 2004 01:41 p.m.

The horror that is the audit cycle is over. I finished my audits at approximately 1.30pm this afternoon. I'm taking a few minutes to get some personal stuff on the computer completed then im jetting out of here.

No more lugging the laptom around with me. I love just locking it in my desk and forgetting about it.

I'm now just chillilng out, streaming Indie 103.1. Ima Robot's Black Jetta is on. I like this song, so unlike the rest of the stuff I normally listen to. I think I want to take a nice hour long nap when I go home. I gotta gear up for tomorrow which is going to suck. I hate knowing ahead of time when my work day is going to suck. I would much rather go in thinking its going to be a fabulous day and it subtly starts to suck more and more that way I can ease my way into the total suckiness of it all. I'm even debating calling in sick but oh, the guilt. That damn Catholic guilt.

You know, I really hate The Talking Heads. I think it's David Byrnes voice that really, really bugs me. It's so boring! My opinon of course. I can't even bare to listen to a Talking Heads song all the way through.

About an hour ago, I felt a crazy headache coming on so I took some Tylenol. Now I feel like its coming back. Damn it! I hate driving when I have a headache. It is so distracting and normally makes me very cranky. I can feel that it's actually a tension headache as my neck is starting to feel really stiff and rickety. Ouch.

Thursday, April 8, 2004 07:31 a.m.

This reminds me of Chicago. Awwww...

I ate some greasy McDonalds this morning, it was good during those few minutes of consumption but now I feel kind of gross. Why do I do these things to myself? Yuck!

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 08:05 p.m.
The quest for a clean, orgazined garage is still a work in progress. I continued with my obsessive cleaning and laeling today. Every box and bin has been sorted through and stacked in the garage. The bins are not in their rightful spots yet. T has one more shelf to bring home which will complete the garage shelving. Once objects are sorted into their rightful container we will use the shop-vac to rid the garage of any leaves, spiders and dust. Then everything will go into their permanent spot. I really can't wait. Our sell/donate piles are getting pretty damn big. We have gone through all of our books and what started out as, maybe 5 bins of books, we are keeping two almost full bins and everything is is being sold. I would probably get more money if I sold them at a used bookstore but I'm lazy and will just sell them at my garage sale, then try the used bookstore then donate. We have a ton of art/architecture books that were mandatory reading while in college. It's so sick to think about all the money we spent. I also have a lot of books on vintage fashion, as I have a huge vintage clothes collection, even though I would love to keep these books I honestly don't see myself reading them, again any time soon.

The first coat of bedroom paint went up today. T will be working on the seocond coat tomorrow and once dry we will finish up with the lovely white trim. I'm so excited to start getting this room in order. I think it will turn out really nice and not overly cutesy. In fact, I've predicted that I'll want to move into that room and give the baby the bigger room. We're still looking for more artwork for the walls. We need either to medium prints or one big, horizontal print. I've recently discovered this awesome color theory project I worked on in college and am getting one of the series I created framed for the walls. It will be pretty cool considering their are four pieces in the first series all of equal size and identical content just in different colors. I'm excited about using the project as artwork since I've been wanting to do that since I completed the entire series.

I had a very filling lunch today. Since we are now in our audit cycle again and working in the West Annex we ordered in from the Cheesecake Factory (to much of a splurge). I ordered the Spicy Chicken Sandwich on Brioche with chipotle peppere mayo and a side of fries. And for dessert a slice of vanilla bean cheesecake, which I really didn't need but I'm a sucker for cheesecake. I only ate half of my dessert and I ate the other half as part of my dinner. Yummy!

T keeps telling me sweet Daisy, whom he's re-christened as Petite Pommes Frites, is stinky. I wouldn't be surprised if she was since she's always rolling around in the dirt and sometimes she climbs into our empty planters, which are filled with dirt, digs a whole and lays in it while sunbathing. Yeah, she's a weird dog but that's why I lover her! I told him to give her a bath before we go to bed but he's afraid to because whenever the doggies get a bath they go absolutely mental and there is no way of controlling them, let alone us getting to bed at a decent hour.

It's 8:30pm and I am dead tierd. I think i'm going to call it a nite.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 07:09 a.m.

For the past to cali-winters i've been looking for a bin of sweaters. Speicifically for my big black sweater but to no avail. While cleaning out some bins yesterday I found it!!! Of course it is now to warm to wear it but believe me, I folded it up and labeled that bin so there will be no mistakes of where to look next year.

Cleaning the garage is like christmas. There are boxes and bins that I never unpacked upon moving in to the house. But it really makes me think if I really need to be owning some of the crap we have. I mean, I've lived with it so out of sight out of mind for almost two years, why would I need it in my life now. Lately I've been all about "streamlining." I want to scale down on my posessions, especially the nonsense things like our huge accumulation of out-of-date magazines. As I ranted on before, I just can't bring myself to throw out all those years of InStyle. That's an investment for me. T has the same problem with Scootering and I found his giant box of magazines yesterday. We'll be saving them forever.

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 06:44 a.m.

I went a little crazy with the label maker yesterday. Since T is in the process of clearing out the garage of junk and reorganizing everything. I took it upon myself to consolidate some stuff, sort through others and re-packed up things we were keeping. Then I labeled each and every bin I packed. Oh the joys of organization. I'm only about a quarter or a third of the way through my organization frenzy. We have boxes and boxes of books. Yesterday I went through two or three books and sorted them into piles: "keep," "sell," and "don't know." Most of the don't know books are T's computer books and he needs to decide what he wants to do with them. Luckily there are three small don't know piles, a half a bin of keep and four piles of sell. It feels so good knowing we're getting rid of stuff. We also have two giant piles of stuff in our garage: "garage sell" and "donate." I'm all about donating so we can save all our receipts for a tax write off.

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 02:46 p.m.

There is something so facinating about dogs wearing clothes. I love it and regularly dress my doggie up. Not to any crazy extreme but mainly shirts and sweaters, and occasionally in her little vampire outfit.

Remember Friendster? Here's one for your pooch.

Tuesday, April 6, 2004 02:20 p.m.

I ate a fortune cookie today and my fortune said, "You know what you want - goet to work to make it amterialize." Hmmmm....I guess i'll be working my butt off for awhile so I can live my dream.

I did have a bad fortune cookie experience once. I grabbed my fortune cookie, cracked it open for my fortune and the cookie was empty. No fortune for me. I wonder what that means?

Monday, April 5, 2004 07:39 a.m.

T made quite a bit of progress in the room yesterday. Since we baught one of those paint guns the process was a lot quicker then the first time we painted. So yesterday was spent emptying the room, vaccuuming, cleaning the wall and prepping for paint. T got a heavy coat of primer down including the ceiling. Today we will paint the ceiling and walls and if there is time the trim (that's mainly my job except for the baseboards). I bought this funky mask thing so I can paint and not inhale those nasty fumes. The paint we purchased is a pale, creamy gray called Shady Path. On its own it looks almost non existent but next to a white you can totally tell its gray.

Since I wasn't much help in the paint department yesterday I cleaned the kitchen. I feel like I'm always writing about cleaning the kitchen? Actually I do clean it a lot? Hmmm...what does that say about us? This time I tackled the fridge as well. There was some nasty old stuff hiding in the back of the fridge. You know, those things you stow away in tupperware or whatever and then you completely forget about it. Two of the three containers I could make out waht it was and using my judgement tossed the item and washed the container. One of the containers contained a semi-black, semi-furry peice of food. What kind of food? Who knows, and I didn't want to find out. I tossed the entire container. One thing I've learned from the past. If you don't know what it is, throw the whole damn thing away. I figured if the container was camping out that long in the fridge I wouldn't miss it if I just threw it away. The one portion of the fridge I don't clean, luckily it didn't need to be cleaned this time, are the vegetable and fruit bins. Also known as the produce graveyard. Sometimes we overstuff those bins so much that we only use what's on top and everything else dies. Then one day you see something orange and think, "oh, yum a nectarine," you pull it up and sure it WAS a nectarine and it partially still is until you inspect the whole fruit and the bottom half is blackish-greenish mushy and starting to grow hair and if you're lucky its secreting its own disgusting juice. I wouldn't dare open that little plastic bag its in. I hold my breath, and run to toss the fruit away in my OUTSIDE garbage. I've seen worse produce tragedies then that in the produce graveyard, now I leave those little treasures for T. I know it makes me sound like a big baby but I think he does it because he doesn't want to hear me get all over dramatic about the dead food and sometimes stinky smells.

One of the things I need to do today is find an empty bin in our garage to store our back issues of magazines. I already have a couple of bins of In Style back issues dating back to 1993 or 1994, T has a giant box of old Scootering magazines going back to 1991 or 1992. One day we will need to go through our back issues and toss some of it out. I guess its the pack rat in us that wants to save it. But I know a lot of people that have this same issue, they just can't throw out old magazines. I used to go back and flip through old issues but since I've started to periodically box them up to free up some space in my house I don't really do that anymore. Although left to my own devices, I would probably by a really big shelf just to house my In Style magazines, separated by magazine and organzied by year/date. That's all that would be allowed on the magazine. It would be beautiful, all those crisp white spines with the little color tab up to with the name of the magazine in its lovely sans serif font. Honestly, I would probably take a minute of each day to look at it and revel in its beauty. Yeah, I know I'm a little obsessive but so what. And if I had written about all the weird things I've done you would be a little concerned about my obsessive compulsions.

Back to the painting, now that we have this paint gun thing I'm really eager for T to paint the den and living room. Since these rooms do not need any primer I think the paint job would move really, really quickly. Although I have a feeling that painting the bedroom was a huge deal for him, with no ventilation and the inhalation of those toxic fumes. I know he want's to paint the rooms and maybe with me dropping some hints he may want to before the baby is born.

Last night we did absolutely nothing. We watched a lot of TV (Cold Case, Without A Trace and Doctor Detroit) and passed out. Because of the paint fumes near the bedrooms we moved into the living room which was awesome because we got to camp out in front of the TV. Sometimes its really nice to do that. It reminds me of when I was a kid and would beg my parents to let me stay up to watch some dumb show at some ungodly hour. Sometimes the let me but what ultimately happened was once the excite wore down, and I fought with all my might to stay awake I would pass out to the glow of the TV and the remote at my side. As an adult I have been prone to this as well, which is hysterical. Since I'm a grown person I can make the decision to say, "f*ck it, I'm going to bed" but I don't and I fall asleep to the tv, curled up with the remote and normally really uncomfortable because the doggies will normally follow the one going to the living room rather then isatying in the comfy bed. I've caught T in this habit as well and when I wake up in the middle of the night and he's fast asleep on the couch with the history channel on, I do laugh and I debate whether I should leave him there or wake him up to go into the bedroom.

I'm starting to get really hungry and I'm eager to jump right into my day. I made some chocolate chip cookies on Friday and I want to eat that for breakfast. However, i'm going to resist the urge and look for something a little healthier. I'm bummed that I have no yogurt. I love to have yogurt with granola and berries for breakfast but I can't *sigh* so I will need to find something else and I'm a little burnt out on eating eggs but I think I have no choice.

Sunday, April 4, 2004 02:13 p.m.

Well Vegas was postponed at the very last minute. T had to work practically a full day on yesterday. His boss was leaving for Dubai last night so T had to get some drawings together and re-printed for him. No biggie. Instead we'll be heading out in two weeks, right after payday, Yippee!

So we went to Lowes this afternoon to pick up some paint and primer for the baby's room. Lowes is located in this mega-shopping-plex, surronded by a Staples, Target, Best Buy you get the idea. Across the street from this mega-plex are two hotels. So as we were pulling out of the parking lot I started screeching and yelling. T was laughing at me as I practically set myself into hysterics. I pointed out the object of my distaste. Standing in front of the hotel was an overweight woman in a black bikini. No towel, no sarong, no big tee, no shorts, just her bikini. Man, she was totally hanging out! It wasn't like she was in Waikiki where there's a beach across the street and everyone else is practically naked. She was standing in full eyes view of everyone pulling in and out of the shopping area. It was gross. Its one thing to be overweight and modest in your appareal but its another thing to be prancing around in the equivalent of chonies and a bra. I was horrified but in an odd way fixated and what I was witnessing. I wish I had my digital camera. I don't mean to offend anyone in anyway but these woman should have yielded some sort of modesty. She was just standing there in all her cottage cheese glory, big grin on her face and waving at some chick in a car. That really made my day!!!!

Alright T is yelling at me from the bedroom, he's asking for some help. Off I go.

Friday, April 2, 2004 02:13 p.m.

While my lunch was in the oven I able to fix my site. I got a little panicked for a bit when I realized I screwed it up and my entries were not appearing. Actually this will be the test. If this entry posts I'm home free.

I think Italian is one of my favorite foods. Although it is so filling it is still so comforting. As a child/pre-teen my exposure to Italian cooking was pretty limited. I was mainly familiar with spaghetti and lasagna and that's about it (p.s. i'm not vouching for the quality of the above recipes, make at your own risk). I think the most exotic "italian" I had eaten up to this point was (ok this is going to be really, really, really pathetic and I can't believe i'm actually posting this) Pizza Hut's Pasta Napoleon, or some variation of that name. This consisted of a plate with fettucini noodles half of which was covered in spaghetti meat sauce and the other half covered in alfredo sauce. The idea was you were to mix the two sauces together and it made a pretty pink sauce. As un-appetizing as this may sound considering it came from Pizza Hut, it was delicious and it opened my eyes up to different sauces as this was my very first experience with alfredo sauce. As I entered high school and now through my adulthood I have moved way past Pizza Hut's pasta dishes. I don't think I could ever pick one favorite Italian food because it is all good. When I went to Italy a few years ago the food was spectacular, nothing like the Italian food here in America. We tried all kinds of food in Italy and the only bad dish experienced was on T's end when he mistranslated an item on the menu and ended up with a bowl of mussles, clams, squids and someother unfamiliar seafood items. The poor thing didn't touch it and was starving the remainder of the evening. One of my favorite things I ate in Italy was an appetizer consisting of these gigantic, no beyond gigantic, green olives sutffed with homemade Italian sausage and then deepfried. It was sooooooooo gooooooddddd!!!! I can't think about it right now, as I am starving as it is. My pasta is still in the oven and not ready for me.

I've lucked out this afternoon. While messing with this damn page, MTV has been playing a Newlyweds marathon. Although I have seen all of these episodes I can't get enough of it. I'm a little embaressed of my Newlyweds obsession but I find it hysterical! Really, i'm just biding my time until Charmed starts at 3pm (Yeah, for east coast cable). I've already done the dishes and laundry so really I have nothing but time on my hands.

uugghh...im hungry. Gonna go eat lunch now.

Friday, April 2, 2004 12:36 p.m.

I get the impression that I may have totally screwed up my page while trying to make some updates to the layout. I had this really fancy, schmancy thing going on but it really wasn't me so I went back to the old layout but changed the colors. I think i'm going to stick with what I know.

Friday, April 2, 2004 11:31 a.m.

As luck would have it I fainted in the doctors office this morning. I am such a wimp! This has been happening for years. The one thing I am greateful for is that I know when it is going to happen, like today. As the receptionist was scheduling my next appointment I just blurted out that I was getting extremely light-headed. I was immediatly directed to a chair with a cold compress in my left had and a cup of water in my right. Yeah for my instinct!

I took the entire day off of work today. Seeing as though it isn't even lunch yet, I'm debating if I want to hang around the house doing nothing, get a haircut or go to the galleria. I need to pick up a birthday gift for A since her birthday dinner is next Saturday. We'll be heading to All India Cafe which I'm excited about since it is such a yummy restaurant. I haven't narrowed down what I want to buy her but I have the general idea. I will not divulge this info just yet in case she reads this page.

We recieved quite a bit of rain yesterday. It was so nice and I think we really needed. Our lawn was going from beautiful to an awful peeish color so the rain did it some good. But suddenly the entire house started to get really cold. I cranked the heat up, put on a sweater and wool socks. Before I knew if I was sweaty and uncomfortable which only made me cranky and tierd. Poor T had to come home to a cranky me. To spare him my self-pity I forced myself to fall asleep.