Sunday, July 31, 2005 07:33 p.m.
Productive weekend! Quite surprising. Saturday did quite a bit of cleaning, ran some errands like Target and the market. Finally bought a crock pot, seeing as though T and I have less and less time to actually cook a good home cooked meal we figured this is the perfect solution and it will allow us to eat dinner earlier and have Kai sit at the table with us. So between cleaning and running errands I did squeeze in some much needed rest and cought up on some reading. Today some friends stopped by in the morning, it was great to see them as its probably been a few months since we hung out in any capacity. Once they left we hopped in the car and headed to Chez Nous to meet Ron and Morris for brunch. Brunch has definetly turned into a nice and relaxing routine for the four of us. Well four of us plus Kai. As usual breakfast was extra yummy and Morris brought us more DVD's from his company. Kai will love his kids DVD and I'm dying to watch the Papparazzi DVD he gave me. We drove around a bit looking at the current group of homes for sale in our area then headed home. I've been able to catch up on our laundry, went through some clothes to give to my sitter and finally hung Kai's fish mobile!
T recently finished reading the new Harry Potter book so I've jumped in. I wish I had an entire day to lay in bed and read but I don't have that luxury so I squeeze it in when I can. I'm not much of a reader but these books really clutch me in. I must say I am very much captivated by the story.
So we have a den off of the living room. We used to use it as an office until I found out I was preganat the first time. Around that time we decided we didn't need a giant office desk or anything because we keep our desktops our in the garage (we have/had a network out there) and only use a laptop(s) indoors. When we had our spare full size bed we kept it in the room with not much else. The bed was totally old and gross and we got rid of it months ago. From that point on that room became a massive storage space. It was really driving me nuts, because wehnever we didn't know where to put something we put it in there. We had an extra living room cabinet in there, our old couch and club chair, giant fan, random jackets and sweaters, bin of bill paying stuff, giant basket of magazines, extra rug, big bag of dog stuff, vaccum cleaner...do I need to continue? Basically it was a mess! Yesterday I decided to clean it out (I was having one of my nesting fits). I cleared out all the junk and put stuff back in their proper places. I rolled out the carped I moved some stuff around and now Kai has a full blown play room. It's so awesome! All his toys are confined to one area. His riding/pushing/rocking toys all have their own parking spots. His Little Tykes castle fits in there nicely room enough to swing/climb and slide. Once the weather cools this will go into the backyard. He loves his new play room. He has a couch in there and because its a repro vintage couch its a bit shorter so he's able to climb on easily and he just chills out on the couch either lounging about all his pillows or he pulls the curtain back and just gazes out the giant window. I'm so ecstatic that we have finally turned that room into a functioning space. It was really depressing thinking we had this extra room in our house that was never being used and now we have turned the space into something practical!
Based on Lawbyrd's assessment I went to Target to pick up a Swiffer Duster to clean my place. I went there, bought tons-o-stuff and when I got to my car I realized I totally forgot to pick up the Swiffer! Damn it, I hate when that happens. Now I have to make a special trip for the Swiffer. I gurantee you that I will not be able to march into Target and buy only the Swiffer.
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Friday, July 29, 2005
IT'S A BOY! Another little boy. I'm excited! Now the stressful part, a name. I have a couple in mind, two of which are just okay and one I really like but may need to persuade T cause he's just okay with it. Unfortunately i'm not sharing those names just yet. I'm kind of weird about that cause its so hard to find a name you really like and then to put it out there so early for all to judge or pilfer is a bit daunting. So for now it's all mine. Still need to brainstorm a few more just in case. Kai's name came out at the last moment. I was probably around 8-months or so when we thought of Kai and we immediately knew this was it and ditched everything else. T and I are very particular about names. Nothing on any type of top 25 baby names! Nothing trendy! Nothing that a celebrity has recently named their child (sorry no Apple's in my household)! We want something unique. Original but not to weird or twisted, so no Pirates or Reign Beau's (you'll know what i'm talking about if you saw the VH1 special on Awesomely wacky celebrity baby names! I'm sure we'll come up with something good.
Yesterday afternoon my department went to a Dodgers game. My first ever baseball game. It was the Dodgers vs. The Reds. The weather couldn't have been more perfect and we had shaded seats on Field level to boot! I had my first Dodger Dog, and 5 bucks for a hotdog was a bit steep! I was glad I finally got to go to a game because this was definetly not somehting I would plan to do on my own. I had a great time! I carpooled there with a co-worker and caught a ride home with a non-work friend who also happened to be at the same game.
I'm really looking forward to this weekend. For some strange reason this weekend seemed unusually chaotic but I can't pinpoint why. I feel a bit frazzled but I haven't done anything to contribute to that feeling. Overall its just been an off week. I've had off days but never an off week so this is a bit weird for me.
Kai has been having a rough couple of nights. I think he is getting another tooth. They all seem to be pushing up simultaneously which is why he has been so fussy at night. But I'm glad he's getting all his little chompers in, i'm still a freak about giving him real food. Don't get me wrong I totally do but I'm so selective about what he eats so the more teeth he gets in the more i'll let my guard down and let him try more things. I've got a weird chocking phobia!
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Monday, July 25, 2005
Sunday: After a lenghty afternoon nap and some lunch we decided to get our errands over with. We dressed and grabbed some juice and headed to Target. Since we were feeling a bit cooped up we drove to the Target over on La Brea. As usual, Kai fell asleep in the car so we drove around for a bit before heading to the store. We tend to do this a lot to ensure he gets in enough rest throughout his day. Target had some great things but I refrained from buying myself anything. Picked up the baby stuff and T picked up a few shirts for work too. Once Target was over with we drove to Los Feliz to get some burgers from Fatburger. We got back home around 3pm and relaxed. Well, as much as you can relax with a mischevious 1 year old on your hands. It's all love!
It's a Monday morning and I got into work as early as possible. We had a big launch this weekend so I need to make sure my group is taken care of and aren't facing to many pressing issues. I'm starving and debating getting some pancakes or something. I had some watermelon but that didn't do anything really. It was refreshing but not so filling. I'm here until 5pm today! I hate that! Not expecting a late meeting and bam there it is on your Outlook calendar. Whatever, work is work and it really ain't that bad for me. Maybe I should march down to Starbucks and pick up an iced coffee and a cwwwasssont!
My mom finally sent me her and my dad's guest list for Kai's birthday party. I reviewed it and only crossed off two families. It baffled me that they were even on there since I haven't heard mention of them all year. T and I are only inviting a few of our friends, and then T's mom will give us her list which I predict will be her and maybe one other person. This is turning into something a little larger then we all planned but doesn't that always happen. My dad had this idea to rent one of those plexi-glass boxes that you stand in and its got money in it and a fan at the bottom blows all this money around while you try to catch it. Apparently he saw this at a party he was at and thought it would be a great idea for Kai's party. Random but funny. When I heard this I asked my mom to ask my dad if we could also have some ponies, an elephant and a guy that walks around on stilts and juggles. She laughed but I hope she asked my dad as I would be really curious to his response. I need to call her this morning and find out how that conversation went. Another thing T and I have to do is go through the menu of the catering company and pick out the items we would want and if there is anything that we will have to make on our own. Reading that menu is going to make me super hungry! And lastly, invitations should arrive today. I ordered custom invitations from Ofoto on Thursday and they shipped out on Friday so I they should hit my lopsided, almost tipping over mailbox today. Okay, that isn't lastly, we still need to figure out what decorations we're getting from Oriental Trading and what we're going to do about goodie bags. There aren't very many small kids attending so I need to figure out a good multi-age toy/game/whatnot. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
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Sunday, July 24, 2005 09:26 a.m.
I'm dreading another hot, hot, day! Currently, I am sitting with my laptop perched on an ottoman so I can sit myself in front of this phenomenol fan! I refuse to move, although I should do my weekend chores and then plop down in front of the fan then i'll have no reason to move.
Friday evening and yesterday was utterly disgusting! The heat was unbearable. After work on Friday I swung home, picked up T and we headed to the Glendale Galleria where we did some light shopping and fed Kai his dinner. I picked up a few items at Mimi Maternity and discovered a very cheap accessories store wear I treated myself to a few necklaces and bracelets. By the time we got home, around 7.30 pm it was till pretty warm and gross but more bearable then 4.30pm. We stuck it out with fans on watching TV. Kai was a grump that night. I feel so bad for him, he gets hot so easily and so uncomfortable. We ended up letting him sleep in his diaper an nothing else.
Yesterday was hot as hell. We hung around the house until 3 pm then dropped Kai off at the sitters for a few hours and went to a BBQ at T's boss' house. Well, it was really a BBQ, it was outdoors but completely catered. His boss lives over in Sierra Madre. Compared to the Glendale heat Sierra Madre was a dream. It was shady and felt about 20 degrees cooler. It even sprinkled a little. The food was yummy, the appetizers were yummy and I did something I never ever, ever do. I ate some salad. You see, i'm not into greens at all but the only time i'll eat a green salad is when its a spinach salad. So I had a couple of helpings and added some strawberries for some natural sweetness. We had a good time and I'm glad we were able to do something this weekend with T's co-workers since we hardly have the oppportunity to do so.
Kai is now down for a mid-morning nap, but before so we all took a walk over to Starbucks where we had some iced decaf coffees and cheese danishes. Kai is at a stage where he's really into echoes. Starbucks is one of those places with great accoustics for echoing. Kai has figured this out. While we sit and sip our coffee and read the paper he likes to belt out a yelp or two every 30-seconds. It's not to loud or to high pitched but we have turned into one of those people. I remember not having a child and hearing these types of things and think to myself, God damn it! Why do these people have to bring their kids here and let them yell?? How F*cking annoying! Yeah, I get it now. You gotta continue to live your own life and frankly I don't give a damn when people do their eye rolling or wincing. If you don't like it leave! I used to care and remember what it was like having to hear a noisy baby in what you expect to be a non-baby atmosphere but now I don't give a rat's ass and I find it extremely funny. Anyway, Kai loves to belt out a yelp or two in Starbucks and any big warehouse type store like Office Depot, The Great Indoors, and Lowes. He honestly things this is the best thing since sliced bread (if he knew what sliced bread was of course).
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Thursday, July 21, 2005
I've been listening to Alkaline Trio a little to much. I don't even know if its healthy anymore. I do this with everything. I like something and i obessively listen/watch/wear/eat what have you until I simply can't deal with it anymore. I think I've always been this way. Whatever, I know I can't calm the behaviour down so I just deal I just don't like to be aware of it. I figure if i'm not actively aware it dosn't matter. When I notice these things about me I feel borderline crazy sometimes, so not true. Well, maybe I should keep these thoughts in my head so I'll stop.
I have so much I need to do this weekend. Besides cleaning up the pig sty I call my house I need to order Kai's birthday invitations, order all the accutroments for his goodie bags (which is contingent on the guest list for his party), order some decorations and confirm the items of food we're catering with my mom. I received the Oriental Trading Company catalog the other day and going through it is so exhausting. Its just to much stuff to look at that it hurts my brain. I understand why people who can afford it hire party planners, this is exhausting. I think what's making it harder is that I don't have complete control of the party. I'm sharing responsibility with my mom which I need to do since the party is in Hawaii and she has things she needs to handle there which would be to time consuming and hard for me to do from SoCal.
On top of that T and I have been trying to narrow down what we need to buy for the new baby. We figured we will just need another crib (assuming Kai won't be in a real bed, this will be our last purchase), an infant car seat (Kai's seat is at his sitters she periodically uses it for him since he hasn't hit the max weight), new stroller and new bottles. Not to bad. The big purchase will be the stroller. We've opted not to use another travel system because of the size and with Kai once he moved him into his big car seat we didn't want to use that stroller and we bought a much lighter KidCo lightweigt/compact stroller. Instead we decided to throw down the dollars and buy the Bugaboo Frog (or Gecko or Chameleon since they'll be available in the US by fall). This is a pricey piece of baby gear but we don't need to buy most things and this stroller will be used until the child no longer needs a stroller and it has max capacity for a 4-year old. I'm just shcoked the T was willing to commit to this as well but then again he's a design snob and this is such incredible design. Yippee!
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Wednesday, July 20, 2005
It's extremely comforting knowing that my group of friends with children are growing. I cherish all my friendships but there's a completely different dynamic when i'm with others who have children of their own. I remember not having Kai and although I enjoyed stories of other people's children there was just a part of me the could not relate but now it all fits together and I love it. My childless friends love Kai as though he were their own blood nephew and I love that but I know there is more to their life then kids and I respect that. But I love that they put up with me but I also love that they keep me aware of the fact that I'm still Amber. The Amber that loves to buy expensive jeans, the Amber that loves vanilla bean cheesecake and oreo bobas, the Amber that loves to gossip and talk smack about those she doesn't care for to much. Thank you! It's funny as I started this entry, I got two or three lines in and jumped over to Amber's site and she had a somewhat similar entry, she totally conveys how I feel as well. Just so you know, we do this kind of thing often, I guess great minds think alike!
Most of my friends with kids all have kids that are little like Kai and Kai may be the oldest and he's only 1. I say by next summer Kai will have a bunch of little friends to play with along with a little brother or sister to cuddle with at home. Speaking of next week, we get to find out if we're having another boy or a little girl. T thinks baby number 2 will be a girl. I don't know what to think nor do I want to even dwell on it. I'll wait till next Thursday to find out.
T applied for a promotion in his department. He's excited about it. I guess he passed his first round of interviews as he has another interview scheduled for tomorrow with the big guy, I wish him all the best. No more work talk don't want to jinx it.
Growing up in Hawaii, around the age of 10 or so, Chinese jump rope was really big. I wonder if that was a big deal outside of Hawaii? It was so much fun!!! We would play it at recess every single day. I'm an only child, and you needed two other people to play, so if I wanted to play it at home I would have to beg my mom to help me out (my dad was out of the question, or if he could play while sitting he would help out) and normally have to use a chair for the other person. Hmmm...how to describe the game...let me think...so you use this band like a gigantic rubberband, typically 5-6 feet wide. Two people stand on either end with the band around their ankles, so you have two parallel lines between them. The third person does this little song and dance between the bands and when they finish the bands move up to the two band holder's knees and so on and so forth. It was a lot of fun! I guess this is really hard to convey in writing but it was such a fun thing to do. I don't even know if kids today still play this. Probably not, they're probably to busy on the internet or on their cell phones. That's really to bad, there were so many innocent games/activities that I used to play that I would love to play now and kids today are really missing out.
I've put off enrolling in 401K for my entire employent here at mega-search engine that supplies my check. Today is the day I will enroll. I began to enroll but paused it cause thinking about that 5 percent payroll deduction is daunting. I wanted to do 3 percent but 5 percent is better but I need to take it in. You see, I have a handful of deductions and it all adds up and its sickening to think about.
Approximately one month before we leave for Hawaii! I can't wait! I need a break. I want to go to the beach, I want to shop a little, I want to go to Savers, I want to eat malasadas, I want shave ice, and I want Rainbow Drive Inn. Okay, gotta stop thinking about that, all its doing is making me really hungry!
Meeting in 15 so I better prepare.
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Monday, July 18, 2005
Brunch was fantastic! Unfortunately I didn't get to have any of their fantastic croissant benedicts. This was a sorta frech place so you got a french roll or croissant with your meal. Of course most of us chose the croissant which set us off on a silly rant about the bread item, over enunciating it to Cwwwaaasont. We couldn't stop. It was ludacris. So on to the food. T ordered a pasta scramble with prociutto and veggies and an extra breakfast of brioch french toast, Ron had the Brioche french toast and eggs, Morris had the yummy Cwwwaaasont eggs benedict and fruit, Andrew had the pasta scramble with bacon, italian sausage and veggies and I had a French potato and rosemary omellette and fruit (and some of T's frech toast). Everything looked, smelled and tasted so good! Kai had some tofu and fruit and was such a good boy! We lingered for about 2-hours, chatted, told funny stories. So many funny stories that I started to cry. I was laughing so much that I was terrified that i was going to pee my pants!
After brunch the day seemed to pass so slowly. I loved it. I watched some TV, I talked to my mom on the phone, I payed all my bills, ordered a few items online, did some laundry and generally relaxed. Once Kai went down for the night we watched House of Flying Daggers. Bad choice right before bed. I mean, I couldn't hack reading subtitles before bed. Why don't I understand chinese? Then these chinese movies would be so much easier to watch!
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Sunday, July 17, 2005 07:28 a.m.
Went on another cleaning fit yesterday. The room, my bedroom. The plan, move furniture, purge junk, dust, pack up all the clothes that don't accommodate my ever growing belly. Mission accomplished, for the most part. While packing up winter clothes (i know kinda late for that and pre-pregnancy clothes) T discovered a bin of his summer shirts. So that stuff is on the ground in the room and T needs to hang that stuff up or wash it. But I'm happy with the new bedroom configuration and it makes the bedroom feel a lot larger.
I rented Win A Date with Tad Hamilton. I really can't watch it. It's bad. Normally these dumb teen movies are fun to watch but not this one. I'm only about 30-minutes in and I think I need to give it back to Netflix. We did receive the House Of Flying Daggers which I'm excited to watch. The nice thing about the summer is that most shows are in reruns so I have optimum movie watching time. I think the only shows we're watching this summer, in first run, are The Closer and T is watching the new season of Battle Star Gallictica.
On Friday night when T was watching his Sci-Fi premier I took Kai and headed out to Nordstrom Rack. Big Sale! I bought to stretchy, summery tube top dresses and five wooden bangles. I think two dress cost me twelve dollars. I would have bought more jewelry but it was hard to look while carrying Kai, the closer I got to the jewelry the more he grabbed at stuff pulling it off the racks. It was crowded that they were totally out of shopping carts and I had to carry the 22+ pound baby with me the entire time, needless to say I was in and out. I think i'll swing by afterwork one day when T can watch Kai. All I can say is shopping sucks when you're pregnant.
Brunch this afternoon with Ron, Morris and Andrew. Tela and I are looking forward to it, they are so much fun! After brunch I need to go through T's closet and take out all the jeans that don't fit him. I told my sitter I would give it to her for her son. Last pregnancy I cleaned and reorganized T's closet labeling shelf space for certain items and looks like I need to do it again. Although this time he's got about double or triple the amount of shoes he had last time. I thought I was a shoe whore but T may actually top me. Speaking of shoes. I got my new winter Uggs on Tueseday. The fit like a glove! I checked online to see if any other colors got cheaper but prices actually went up. My shoes which were half off are now only 30 percent off. Thank God I bought them when I did. I have a teeny bit of online shopping to do today. Some maternity clothes for Hawaii. I do not own one pair of shorts and have decided to break my shorts rule and buy a pair. They aren't shorty shorts but they come to the knee with weird little cargo pockets and gadgety things on it. Very inspector gadget but I would wear it.
Gotta pay some bills now. I didn't do it yesterday, Bad Amber!
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Friday, July 15, 2005
A couple of items. First thing, my morning is off to a great start. The Mighty Morning show on Indie 103.1 has been playing covers all morning and its been so awesome! It's Friday, who can argue about that. And someone brought in six dozen Krispy Kremes for the department. Yum!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens today. Fabulous. I may need to find an afternoon sitter and T and I will have to check it out. Either that or take a day off of work/or work a half day to see it. I also want to see Murderball, a movie/documentary about quadrapalegic rugby players. I also want to see The March of the Penguins. Realistically, I probably won't see any of the above in the theater and will have to wait for Netflix. Story of my life! You just wait, when December rolls around and I go out on leave, prior to having the baby, I want to see a movie every single day! Gotta make up for lost time.
No big plans this weekend. Tonight and tomorrow I'll clean, i swear I clean every weekend and in one week its back to messy like the week before. How do you train your husband to put things in their place??? I'm guilty too, but not as much. Sunday going to brunch with some friends, We're going to Chez Nous in Toluca Lake. Yum!
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Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:41 p.m.
We had to drain the pool last night. It was gross....there were these littl black things at the bottom and what looked to be mosquito larva swimming in the water. Yuck!!! so we'll be cleaning it tonight or tomorrow and refill and re-chlorine in time for the weekend. We will need to pool handy with all the warm weather we've been having.
Yesterday I had my AFP test. When I took it the first it time really freaked me out. Just the thougt that a test was being conducted for possible genetic disorders is nerve racking, but this time was stress free. I dread blood tests to no end. Yesterday went so smoothly. As compared to a few weeks ago I had a blood test and it literally took about 45-minutes and within that time I fainted twice. The veins in my arms as so teeny that they had a really hard time. Ultimately they took it from my hands, yesterday they took it from my hands and im sure going forward they will continue to take it from my hands.
Little Kai had his check up as well and he left there in a big ball of tears. He had an MMR shot, TB and a chicken pox vaccine and he did not have fun at all! Luckily no more shots for another 3-months.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
I'll start right out with some links today:
Found by T
Fabulous
T's dreams are shattered
Enough links for today.
Driving to work today it hit me that it was only Tuesday. I thought it was Thursday or somehting. I swear i'm getting more and more absentminded as the days go buy. It's surprising my shoes match in the morning and I remember to brush my hair. I should request for a month long sabbatical. I wonder if absentmindedness is enough of a reason to get a month off of work? It's for my mental health and well being. For some reason I don't see that reason getting the a-ok from HR. oh, well, one can only hope.
In the world of home improvement, things are frantically progressing on our end. Our damn city is so unrealistic! The amount of info, a.k.a red tape, you need to go thorugh just to but in god damn energy efficient, not to mention modern day windows, into your home! Some bank people are coming buy our offices today so i'll sieze the opportunity to get some questions answered on Home Equity Lines of Credit. We desperately need to get these new windows in before winter comes around. Poor T, his after work life is all about taking the required photos of the property and streets as well as working on all the elevation drawings and house plans on his own. I'm so glad we don't have to hire some one to do the drawings for us, I'd like to think we're saving a couple hundred dollars doing it ourselves. T's architecture schooling is paying off, sort of.
Kai is getting to be such a brave little guy in the pool. He and I jumped in yesterday. The water was perfect, so warm! Almost freakishly warm. Anyway, he doesn't want anything to do with his floatie whale thing, he would much rather stand in the water and wade through it (with assistance of course). So we have to hold on to him, first off he can't swim and second he doesn't have a secure fotting in the pool, anyway he HATES us holding on to him. He tries to wiggle himself free and wants to hang over the edge of the pool. He's so funny, normally he goes into the pool naked so he hangs himself over and his little baby butt is out of the water sticking straight into the air. It's hysterical.
In other news, my music download frenzy has not tapered off! Oh well, its just something I need to come to terms with.
We've decided to tint the windows on the new car. I can't stand all the bright sun light coming into the car, making it all hot, and pissing Kai off in the back seat (he get's all squinty and sweaty). We decided on a nearly black for the back and so we don't get a damn fix it ticket (is this only an LA thing?) the driver and passenger will be a much lighter, c-thru, tint. Our friend Ron know's a guy that's tinted all his VW's so we'll go there. We're also getting a hook up installed so we can run an iPod through the car stereo system. There's an Auxillary button on the stereo so it shouldn't be a problem.
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Monday, July 11, 2005
I have started a Yahoo! 360 page. Not really using it as a full blog, sort of a moblog, mostly me being irreverant. Check it out if you want, go here.
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Saturday, July 9, 2005 08:18 a.m.
I started watching the Aviator last night. It's lookin' pretty good. I don't think I even made it half way through before falling asleep. That's what I get for starting the movie so late. Oh well.
So my obsessive cleaning/organizing/nesting/obsessing, call it what you want, instinct has kicked in. Much sooner then the last time. But i'm really okay with that. I can't stand a messy, unorganized house and it always falls to disarray but now I will be putting a stop to it. And hopefully I can get T all trained by the time the next baby comes. Speaking of which, I will be getting the all telling ultrasound next month. Is it a boy or a girl? I've started a new list of names. I don't really want to use the lists I created for Kai, this time I'm starting from scratch and I've got some good ones. At least I think they are good ones. There are two names on the list that T is opposing. One because it sounds to similar to his name (really it doesn't) and the second he says sounds to harsh like my name. He said my name is to Am-Burr he thinks the ber portion is to harsh sounding. Whatever! And he's one to talk if he wants to make comments about my name. The second name will be heavily negotiated because it is probably, in my top 3. We have 5 months and I need to start my plan of attack.
Weekend time is here. No plans for today. I want to do some cleaning. T is having some back pain so he can chill and keep an eye on Kai. Tomorrow I would like to go to the rose bowl for the flea market but I don't know if I'll have enough time to leisurely peruse since I'll need to be in the South Bay by 1pm to meet Ro and Mo for lunch at Back Home in Lahaina! Yum!!
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Thursday, July 7, 2005
Hi my name is Amber and i'm an addict! I'm addicted to downloading music. Well, to be honest, uncontrollably downloading music. I think my favorite songs to download are covers. The more obscure the song the better. For example, I love the Dead Boys song Sonic Reducer, so I did a search on the song and was shocked to see the Pearl Jam had a live cover of the song which is fantastic. Of course I downloaded it. Now i'm seeing that Pearl Jam has a cover of The Who's The Kids Are Alright, but i'm not downloading it cause i've already got a cover of the song by another artist and I like it much better then Pearl Jam's. I'm not a big Pearl Jam fan so the less Pearl Jam I have in my collection the better. I'm having a hard time pulling my self away from this. When we were allowed to have Napster on our computers I went nuts. I had so many songs, so many great covers, rare stuff, stuff recorded in a 16-year olds bedroom it was great! I have a lot of that music backed up at home but no longer on my computer. Sore subject about the latter, can't talk about it anymore. I also love stumbling across bands I never heard before. Oh the joys of online music programs.
Yesterday was Kai's birthday. He is now a one year old little boy. I can't believe it! Time really flies by. As I've mentioned before I decided not to have a birthday party for him here but he'll be having a big ol Hawaiian style blow out in August. He'll love it and he'll have all his little cousins with him.
I tried on my True Religion jeans today. I could button and zip it but it wasn't pretty. It wasn't uncomfortable but my tummy was all squished over the waist and it was all weird looking with my shirt on. The maternity jeans were a bit more flattering so while the small maternity jeans fit I'll be taking in full advantage of them. I just hate that there are no pockets on the ass of the jeans. I hate that, i feel like my ass is to exposed and bigger then it is. I guess what I mean I feel like its just hangin' out there. Yeah, don't like that feeling to much.
Oh back to the music thing....I finally downloaded Juliette Lewis' band Juliette and the Licks. Straight up rock and roll. I really like her voice. Okay, I promise I'll limit my downloading music addiction talk. I know it can get boring, I mean I bore T with it. Well I dont' bore him, he thinks its funny. But i'm sure everyone that knows me know I have weird compulsions and I need to satisfy it. I gotta stop.
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Sunday, July 3, 2005 01:35 p.m.
I like having all these days off of work. Thursday was a half day. Friday was a day off. And now a three day weekend. Sweet!
While Kai was napping T and I cleaned his pool, refilled it, and are now just having to put chlorine in their and Kai and I will be going for a dip while T grills some steak and corn on the cob for an early dinner. The day is nice and warm so the wataer will be perfect. I filled up his floaty thing, his beach ball is ready to go, all we need is T to wake up from his nap.
We're gearing up for home improvement. First item we need to take care of is clearing up our credit report. We ordered copies and now to just have some closed cards removed, cards that are open and unused need to be closed and removed, and then we'll be good to go. I'm excited to have new windows and central air. Thank god, T went to school for architecture and was a draftsman as he has the house plan drawings nearly complete. That saves us some money. I'm excited as i'll get to live out my HGTV home improvement fantasies! I can be such a dork!
I had plans to catch the Gold line from Pasadena to Chinatown today but obviously we're not. I'm hoping we can do that tomorrow. I love going to Chinatown. I always end up buying a ton of junk like trinkets, shoes/flip flops, candies and random food. I would love to get Kai a little chinaman top and use that in a photo for his birthday invitation.
Speaking of which, T and I need to get our asses in gear and start planning out the details for Kai's birthday. My mom is handling the guest list we need to figure out decorations, food, goodie bags, games if we want them, ordering stuff. Maybe next weekend we can solidify most details.
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Friday, July 1, 2005 06:20 a.m.
Yesterday we ordered take-out chinese. Overall it was pretty damn good. We had some orange chicken, beef 'n brocolli, char siu, chow mein and egg rolls. The orange cicken was perfect, I was afraid it was going to be sickly sweet as most other places. I normally wouldn't have ordered it, due to said sweetness, but I had to take my chances. I hadn't had char siu since I was in Hawaii in december so this was definetly a treat. The chow mein was good but I'm finding it increasingly frustrating that I can't find real chow mein. But then again who am I to judge what's real chow mein as opposed to fake chow mein, and can it really be fake chow mein? That's a different conversation. Ok, what I mean is this. Growing up in Hawaii i'm used to certain things being a certain way. Chow mein for example was always made with skinny, almost vermicelli-ish, noodles and typically there was bit of cabbage, maybe bits of meat mixed into the noodles. But so many places here have big fat udon-ish noodles. I find the fat noodle chow mein odd, and although I don't totally avoid it I am always perplexed that i'm faced with fat noodle chow mein. I don't know why this bothers me so much but it does. I think Panda Express has the skinny noodles but I don't eat at Panda Express as I find their food rather sickly sweet! This udon thing is really bothering me and I have set my sites on trying out these really small non-descript, hole in the wall chinese restaurants to find my skinny noodle chow mein AND this may be a stretch but cake noodles in oyster sauce. I'm sure I could make these dishes myself but i'm to lazy to seek out a recipe. I've made some sort of chow mein before but it just doesn't taste the same. Maybe when i'm on maternity leave at the end of the year I'll have some time on my hands and I can experiment.
So yesterday I receive some fabulously cute Deery Lou stickers in the mail from Stacy. Thank you! She's a bigger fan of Deery Lou then me. I would like to seek out a mug for work. So I can sip my hot chocolate and have the big one eyed dear staring back up at me. That is sure to put a smile on my face.
Yesterday we took a feild trip to look at windows and front doors. We're wanting to replace all of our windows before the end of the year. I was afraid our only choice was white vinyl windows which I wasn't to happy about. Then T told me about aluminum clad wood windows which allows you to choose out different colors! Yes! That means I can get the sage colored windows. Before anyone thinks that sounds weird most spanish homes don't have white vinyl windows and when they do they look oddly out of place, Most spanish homes have wood toned, sage, or a arctic bluish window to contrast with the homes paint job. Right now T and I are leaning towards the sage and possible the blue if I can build a strong enough case for the blue. I think I have some photo examples but even with that I have a feeling we'll go with the sage and repaint the house a buttery, creamy, pale yellow. We'll see. So anyway, I didn't think there were that many windows to look at and that each were different. To me a window is a window is a window! We also looked at some front doors. I was introduced to fiberglass doors which was strange. It looks like wood, it feels a little like wood but its not. It's easier to clean, it won't rot and you can get it in just about every style you could get a wood door. We are now on the road to home improvement. We are pretty much scraping the idea of an addition. The city we live in have some pretty effed up red tape you need to go through. Just hearing about it makes my head spin and is so not worth the anguish. We went through hell and back last year, while i was pregnant, with the whole refinancing BS and ended up cancelling the deals cause the bank was being total hardasses and making me miserable. I really don't want to relive this. In a nutshell, with all the dumb approval of plans, brining shit to code and then doing construction the house will not be completed in time for the baby and I refuse to have Kai and the new baby and us crammed into one room while construction is going on.
Today I took the day off of work. I don't know what how to spend my afternoon but I know I don't want to spend it at home. I have a doctors appointment in about 3-hours and then I'm free! I want to get the car washed, I would like to go out for lunch and then I don't know. I thought about calling my friend Jen and hanging at her place but I don't want to impose. Yeah, i'll probably end up at home all day entertaining Kai. We'll read, we'll eat ice cream and maybe I can coax him to crawling through his new little tunnel thing my mom sent him.
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