Monday, November 21, 2005

Another short work week! I've had short work weeks for the last 3-4 weeks now. This week will be extra short and lovely. 3-days, can't beat that!

Recently so much of my weekend has been reduced to errand running. It so sucks! I think this week alone I went to Target 3 times because I kept forgetting things with each trip. Last night was the 3rd and final trip for a while. I think I have finally picked up everything I need. I bought a little white board to stick to my fridge so I can make a list of items I need so I don't forget crap. I also made a stop at Linen and Things last night and bought Kai a few sheets for his bed. I really didn't want to spend a ton on bedding, his is a little guy after all, and I didn't want to buy any Spiderman, Bugs, Cars and Trucks, cartoon induced bedding. To say I didn't want to is putting it mildly, I flat out refused! Target was a bit of a disappointment for selcetion. Luckily Linens had a bit of a larger selection. We decided to go bright and simple. We bought a nice bright orange sheet set and a tourquise sheet set. It matches in his bedroom so nicely, it's not hard to match things in his bedroom since it is a cool gray color with very deisgny-type graphic prints on the wall. Until Kai is able to tell us how he wants his room decorated it will continue to look like how we want it to look. I really wanted to buy Dwell sheets for him but it is SO EXPENSIVE and for that kind of money i'm buying them for myself first.

On Saturday night we went into Old Town Pasadena. Not really so much to shop but to look at a few furniture pieces at Crate and Barrel. T and I haven't had dressers in years! We decided we're 31 and its probably time to own some nice dressers. We're ultra picky and have been passively looking around for about a year and we finally found a style we liked at Crate and Barrel, the style is very clean and the color is beautiful and deep espresso shade of brown which is to perfect. We not only bought the dressers but also the nightstands. We did forego the bed frame since we were't to crazy about the color of the upholstered portion of the headboard. Instead we're going to make our own upholstered headboard in a nice rich brown microsuede. We both went to college and had to take shop class (me for industrial design him for architecture) so making a headboard will be simple. Plus we're not big on notches or curves so really we're just talking upholstering and drilling out a few holes to attach it to the existing metal bed fram rails. We'll see how it turns out.

Kai was a mess yesterday! He was so super cranky. Crankier then he has ever been. He's got a runny nose, slight cough (which I think may be from being congested) and he is refusing to eat anything but yogurt and cheerios (although we did get some cheese pizza in him yesterday). We bought a new filter for his cool mist-humidifier so he was able to use it last night. I think it is really helping him because he slept so well last night. I actually bought a handful of filter refills since this time of year we'll have to use the humidifier every night. He has such sensitive skin that the change in weather really reaks havoc on his little cheeks and they get really rosey and dry.

So my mom gets in on Wednesday night. Yes, my mom is here every month. She surely must be racking up those frequent flyer miles. One thing that sucks is that Aloha Airlines has shut down their Burbank to Honolulu route so now i'm having to fetch her at LAX which sucks. My mom knows to either schedule her flight to arrive obnoxiously early or late at night. I hate driving down there when its crazy! Hopefully Wed night won't be to bad. I need to plan for some things to do over the weekend. I'm sure I won't see my mom at all on Friday (aka Black Friday) as she and my aunt (who's traveling with her) will be spending the entire day shopping. Yuck! I know my aunt wants to eat out so i'll be plotting our weekend activities around my favorite eating establishments. I've already been told that my aunt wants me to take her back to Millies in Silverlake, no problem we love that place! Okay I better get a moving on my work day.

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Saturday, November 19, 2005

Yesterday T and I took the day off of work. Instead of work we saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at Graumans Chinese Theater. First, the theater is beautiful!!!!!! I love depictions of Chinese scenery from the 20's through 40's and this totally fits the bill. If I could have just shrunk down the interior and taken it home would have been awesome and it would have totally fit in with all my vintage chinese ceramicware, paintings and vintage print-ads! Okay and now on to the movie. Not to ruin it but it was fantastic but as any book to screen translations there were some things missing. Honestly I won't say anything else until others have seen the film.

T and I try to take a movie day to ourselves at least once per quarter. Its how we keep our sanity. Yesterday started early as usual. From Glendale we headed over to drop Kai off at the sitters and then drove to Hollywood for breakfast. We decided to grab some grub at Wacky Waffles, which is on Sunset across the street from The Chateau Marmont. It was a nice morning so we opted for patio dining which was really nice and particularly funny. Next door to Wacky Waffles is a doggie day care center called Hollywood Hounds. I guess there must have been one staffer on hand because the woman was going nuts. I think she was still trying to get her day started and some fo the dogs were barking away madly. Every so often you would hear her come out of the building and just yell and scream at the dogs out of frustration. Its sad that someone with that kind of impatience is running a doggie day care but the tone of her voice and the dogs not listening to her was hysterical. We didn't mind hearing the dogs but we were getting a major kick out of this womens hysterically loud commands. Anyway, breakfast was leisurly and nice. I had The Fat Boy which consisted of 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 giant pancakes, fruit and your choise of potatoes, fruit, cottage cheese or grits. T had an amazingly looking fritatta and hashbrowns. I need to go back there was some great waffle and crepe selections on the menu that I had to pass up yesterday but I really want to try them out.

After breakfast we headed up to Hollywood and Highland to buy our tickets for HP. We were early so we walked around a bit and then spent about 30-minutes people watching. Tourists are the best to people watch. Seated not to far from us were a group of British men, aged 30-60 years old. There was one of the most ugliest group of men I have ever seen. They all faintly resembled Mr. Bean but with severly bad teeth, missing teeth, heinous homemade tattoos and raggedy blonde hair. They were very entertaining! What else did we see??? Just about everywoman that came out of the MAC store was bright orange. We don't know if they were orange before going in but they were surely orange and leathery when they came out. We saw a tourist with a skin tight, white track suit with bright tourquise full size panties which were just blaring through her clothing and the pants were so tight that you could make out every ridge on the elastic of her panties. Gross! VSP (visible panty lines) is one of my biggest pet peeves! We also saw a family, about 7 memembers, come out of an elevator and having the mother scream and yell for her teenage children, who walked off, so she could get a photo of them with the Darth Vadar impersonator trolling Hollywood Blvd.

We were planning on squeezing in viewing Walk The Line at the Archlight. But after sitting for 2.5 hours my ass was numb so we decided to do some errands. I finally bought the outdoor fireplace i've been eyeing for almost 2-years. And the other big thing purchased was the new Combi Connection car seat for the new menschy. As for watching Walk The Line, my mom and aunt will be visiting next week so hopefully T and I can sneak away for a few hours to watch it.

I was just reading that my favorite 30-minute meal diva will be getting her very own talk show. Very Interesting.

It is now Saturday and we have no plans. I need to make some room in the menschy's bedroom so we will be able to squeeze in his new bed tomorrow. T and I both want to find some time to clean out the garage (again). I also want to move a piece of furniture back from our den to the living room. Although that doesn't seem like a lot of stuff to do it will be time consuming! I better relax now because it may be non-stop today.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2005

My doctors appointment went off without a hitch. I talked to my doctor about my leg and explained, in detail, what I was feeling. Turned out my suspicions were correct and that it's a pinched nerve. And as suspected not a whole lot I can do about it. I know what movements hurt my leg the most so I'll just avoid it as much as that as possible. Another item my doctor and I talked about is my due date, which by the way is Dec 25, oh yeah (can you tell i'm thrilled). Since my due date is on Xmas my doctor has given me the option of getting induced up to a week ahead of time. She said inducing for second babies are a lot quicker then with first and this is something I am really interested in. I'm not super psyched at spending the holidays in the hospital so this will be an easy way to resolve the issue. Now T and I just need to look at our calendars and figure out just when we want this to happen. Yeah!

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Monday, November 14, 2005

Another weekend has come and gone! Time sure does fly by quickly. Again a low key weekend. Here's the lowdown: Saturday first. We woke up nice an early, ate ad watched some tv, as usual. We had plans to attend the Rosebud Parade in Pasadena so I needed to make sure we were all up and dressed so we could make it there at start time. We didn't want to enter Kai to march along this year since he had never really seen a parade but this would be a fun thing to do next year. After the parade we walked around South Lake St. for a little while going to Right Start and relaxing in the sunlight while enjoying some nice Coffee Bean beverages and snacks. There were lots of children in the area so having Kai run around and yelling was more then acceptable. It was a great release for him and it did tire him out a bit. After the South Lake extravaganza we headed over to Hastings Ranch to go to the furniture store. I'm not a big chain furniture store kind of person but we are in the market for a twin bed and we wanted to see what kind of options there were. Needless to say we were a bit disappointed at the selection. We left in a huff and decided to go to the market.

While Kai took a nice long nap in the afternoon T decided to put together the bike he received as a birthday gift. He did that while I chilled and read and sort of watched Star Wars episode 3. We did have a birthday party to attend that afternoon but with Kai sleeping and us just getting lazy we skipped it. Yes, we totally flaked but sometimes you just gotta do it.

Now for Sunday. Seeing as though I'm a total slacker and still haven't gotten anyone out to the house to fix my washing machine we were up bright and early to head to the laundry mat. We've got it down! It takes exactly 25 minutes to wash our laundry. That gives us enough time to head across the street to Starbucks to sip on some hot drinks and eat a muffin. Luckily we can go home to dry. After laundry we hung around the house for a bit and then headed over to IKEA to check twin beds. Unless you are in the market for bunkbeds or shopping for a preteen I was pretty disappointed with their selection. I refuse to buy a toddler bed cause I see it as a complete waste of money. Plus Kai's crib turns into a toddler bed but we want to go to a twin. Their mattresses look pretty shoddy and seem quite overpriced. At this point we decided to just say screw it and buy him a boxspring and mattress and metal frame. We'll order him a nice padded headboard separately. Ideally we wanted to get him a bed frame with three drawers built into the frame so we could use that for his clothes. But on Saturday afternoon I cleared out his closet and put in some shelving which will work just fine. He currently has two dressers in his room and we are looking to remove one before bebe 2 arrives. This should all work out just fine.

The rest of the day was pretty good. Cleaning house mostly. I cleaned the bathroom, except for the floor i'm leaving that for T. The bathroom looks very clean and very well organized. I had a basket on the ground that held rolled up towels but we started using the basket as a catch all (magazines, laundry, random junk) so I ditched the basket and made room on some shelves we have built in and stacked all the towls nicely on one section of the shelf. I'm pretty anal about the bathroom organization. We have these nice rusticy baskets that hold items like, medicines, contacts, extra soaps etc...and everything is catagorized and needs to remain that way. And the towels that are held in reserve in the bathroom can only be white! I can't bear to mix my white towels with my colored towels. Why we have colored towels is beyond me cause we hardly use them and typically reserve them for guests. If we do use colored towels we use pale yellow and this orange color that match the talavera tiles on the wall. Slightly neurotic, I know.

For the last two weeks now I have been having extremely bad leg pain in one leg. It is simply awful. I believe it to be a pinched nerve. Icy hot/Tiger balm does absolutely nothing with the pain. It isn't just once a day that I get it. It's pretty much all day and random times. When it hits it feels like someone has detached my leg (sometimes from the knee sometimes from the hip) and turned it backwards. I can't walk at all. Sometimes I can barely stand without propping myself up. Its extremely dreadful! I'm going to the doctor tomorrow and will certainly be informing her of this. My right foot and leg is swollen and as a result can barely wear antying except flip flops and Uggs. Sometimes that pain is so intense I yelp out loud. It frightens Kai but he is now starting to understand that I'm in pain and when I yelp he runs over and kisses my leg and cuddles up next to me. I'm sure all this pain is from the excess weight i'm lugging around which by the way i'm already at the maximum weight I was with Kai just before I gave birth. Yikes! But enough about this.

So tonight my friend is on two shows back to back. Out of Practice and CSI Miami. Both shows are on CBS so please show her some support and watch the shows. If you were a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Lost World you'll surely recognize Jen.

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Over the past year so much of what used to be important to me really isn't. Excluding family and family obligations let me explain. I used to love going to parties, the whole hanging out, drinking, partying thing. Not so much now. I appreciate my friends so much more now and would much rather hang out with my smaller, closer circle of friends. Weather that hanging out consists of going to a bar, restaurant, one another's homes for dinner/movie/drinks. It's much more fun and relaxing. We have the same conversations we would at a party. I just feel like editing out some of these insiginificant people makes things so much more enjoyable. Much of the people I would hang out with weren't close friends, more like aquaintinces (sp?). Most of them were idiots and acted like 17-year olds that were able to score beer for the night. Frankly, i'm so over that. Been there done that! I'm at a place in my life now where that is so not important to me and just a waste of time. I don't want to come off as old and crochety but I want to make the most of my night out and enjoy the time with my friends. Sure i'll get trashed every so often but most of the time i'm pretty damn responsible. A person has got to cut loose sometimes. Why do people who are 28-29 years old feel the need to act like kids? When I'm out and I see someone in my age group (mind you isn't that old: 25-35 group) trashed out of their minds acting like fools i feel embaressed for them. I was at Bar Marmont in Hollywood a couple of years ago and Tori Spelling was there. She was shit faced! I took a good long look at her towards the end of the night and I was embaressed for her. I mean its just not attractive and I know by that point she was no longer having fun. So now when I think about it what's the point. If you reach the point where your nighttime activities are no longer fun and you're slurring and you're barely standing without assistance and you know you're not going to remember shit, why continue? really why? I better stop ranting before I start sounding like my mom. I think i've just grown up over the last couple of years (remember i'm excluding family here). Mentally i've changed, my priorities have changed, my idea of fun has changed, my value of friendship is held higher then before. This is a good thing.

A girl at work sent me some links on potty training. I guess this was a topic on good morning america or something. It bascially featured some women/groups that believe in potty training their kids at just a few months old. Not really feeling it, you know. Take a look for your self. Watch it here and here. Judge for yourself.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2005

So I copied Xinh, sue me.

List your favorite restaurants for the following items (can be local or chain): Salad: I don't eat salads but one that I love is Sherry's Spinach Salad at Barney's in Old Town Pasadena.

Soup: The Standard in Hollywood makes one scrumptious Butternut Squash soup

Sandwich: La Luce in Old Town Pasadena.

Burger: Alfredo's On Third Street near the Beverly Center. They have sirloin burgers which melt in your mouth!

Chicken fingers: I hope Chicken McNuggets count, if so McDonalds. You know, they're now made with white meat (but what were they made of before? Actually I don't want to know.)

Wings: Not a big chicken wing fan.

Bread: Tie between Cheesecake Factory's brown bread and the herbed flat bread at Santorini

Appetizer: Cheesecake Factory, Gotta agree with Xinh on this one.

Side item: Homemade Biscuits with strawberry jam at Millies in Silverlake

BBQ: Hecky's in Evanstan, Illinois. So messy and so good.

Mexican: Casa Vega and El Compadre's. My fave at each would be the Burrito empanada and enchil

Italian: Calo in Andersonville in Chicago, right near my old apartment.

Pizza: I like Pagliacci's over on Coldwater and Ventura, casue they are super thin NY style. Really I like anyplace that has thin crust pizza.

Catfish: Not a big seafood fan

Seafood: See above

Sushi: Afloat Sushi in Old Town

Steak: MMmmmm...McCormick & Schmicks, Hugo's Frog Bar, Damons and Mon Ami Gabi

Breakfast: Millies, Mo's, Madame Matisse, Who's on Third, Griddle Cafe, Fred 62

Fast food: McNuggets and Cheeseburgers from McDonalds, Chicken Sandwich and Onion Rings from Burger King, Tacos and Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger from Jack in the Box, Chicken Sandwich from KFC, Anything at Taco Bell

Dessert: Canters (bakery), Mirabelle's Chocolate Souffle...oh no i'm drawing a blank

Favorite overall restaurant: Can't name just one! I'm a restaurant addict.

Favorite restaurant out of business: Manny's in Chicago

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Monday, November 7, 2005

Fourth day at home. I took Friday off to watch Kai since my sitter needed the day off. I didn't do much. In fact I wanted to keep Kai as close to on his schedule as possible. Therefore, T took the car. Kai was sweet and adorable I could hardly take it. I just wanted to cuddle with him all day long. He only took one nap but a good 2-hour power nap is better then nothing. I got quite a bit of straightening done on the house and got to spend some quality time with the little guy.

Saturday-Not much. I was pretty lazy and again we were determined that Kai got his morning nap in. Around lunch time we decided to just go for a drive. No place inparticular. Kai napped a little more and when he woke we took him to a cute, shady little park in Rossmoyne here in Glendale. Once he had his fill we swung by Whole Foods so I could pick up something sweet and some Chicken Curry Salad for sandwiches. Oh we went to town on the pre-cooked meals. I hate going to buy food when you're hungry. You always buy to much. Kai had a really restless night. He's got more teeth coming in and this time it looks like it may be some mollars. Ouch! The Advil doesn't seem to work as well as the Motrin so I'll have to make a Target run today.

Sunday-We made some breakfast burritos watched some kid shows and then headed out for the day. We were planning on just taking a stroll down the 3rd St Promenande in Santa Monica however by the time we reached our destination Kai fell asleep and we decided to let him nap so we took a nice drive through the nice residential neighboroods in SM and in Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. Once Kai woke up, about 2-3 hours later we decided to stop at Century City so we could just walk around for a bit in the outdoors. They had flu shots there so T took the opportunity to get one. I wasn't sure if I could get one or not and found out most places will do it as long as I get a prescription from my OB. I'll have to remember to ask her about it next Tuesday. We got home in the late afternoon and T napped while I played with Kai. Kai went down for the night pretty early so T and I geared up for Category 7 - The end of the World. Cheezy made-for-tv disaster movie. Gotta love it. Again Kai had a very restless night. By the time we finally got him to settle down and fall asleep I was wide awake. I lay awake in bed until 4am and just woke up and crawled under the covers on the sofa bed in the livin room. I can't believe that The Tyra Banks Show is on so early in the morning. It was terrible but it was either that or Paid Programming.

It is now Monday. My sitter's car broke down in Mexico yesterday and she wasn't going to be home in time to watch Kai today. If she's not home tonight for tomorrow Tela will have to stay home. I can't be missing so much work.

I bought some new Uggs on Halloween. The store was out of my size so I ordered them and am excepting them to hit my doorstep anyday now. They are so pretty. Its the classic short Ugg boot, kind of like the pair I own now but these are in a burnt olive color. It's more of a grayish green color up close and personal. T has had numerous interviews for a new position and I really hope he gets it. It's something he's so totally cut out for and I think, even though it will be a bit more busier, he will enjoy it. Much more responsibility but worth it. Keeping my fingers crossed for him.

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Wednesday, November 2, 2005

Update to the entry below.
I dropped Kai off a bit later then usual this morning. The entire drive down to the sitters I was thinking of the nicest but firmest possible way to chew her out, wait I mean question her, about yesterday. Well, I pulled up to her house and strange lady was sitting on the front porch. I think she knew I was pretty pissed about yesterday, because I literally plucked Kai out of little girls arms and marched upstairs. I didn't even have Kai out of the car and she was saying, "I hope its ok that Kai was outside. Blah, Blah, Blah." I explained thatt I was a bit worried and not real cool with it because it didnt' seem like anyone was watching him and he was pretty damn close to the street. She said she brought him out for fresh air and she was watching him and that timing was bad when I showed up. I think my sitter knew she was telling me this because she waited for a bit before she came out and said hi and collected Kai and his stuff. Not sure if that is the answer I was really looking for but its a band aid for now and eases my mind. But I think I may still price out a new sitter, one that will come to my house and do some light cleaning.

Oh yeah, when I was leaving strange lady was telling me how she has 6 generations of her family her or something and that the prophecy is the horsemen will come before she sees her 7th generation and that the medicine man has prophecized that the entire west coast including Arizona and Nevada will be obliterated in a giant earthquake so mother earth can regenerate itself in a natural way. Oh Boy!

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Wednesday, November 2, 2005

It seems like downers come in waves. A couple of years ago it was T not working, bills piling up and me being pregnant. Yesterday it was something yucky at work, logging into my bank acct wondering where the hell my paycheck went and lastly coming to the realization that I think I need to find a new sitter. More drama then I really want to be dealing with right now.

Yesterday I went to pick Kai up. My sitter's granddaughter was outside and saw me come around the corner. I had to park down the street and walk to her house. By the time I got one house away not only did I see the little girl but I saw a little red head walking on the sidewalk. It was Kai! You see my sitter doesn't live in a totally residential neighborhood. People fly up and down her street and probably less the 50 feet away are train tracks. So Kai was outside walking to the corner toward the tracks and who was watching him? The little girl, 3-yr old mind you, was outside and this woman who's been staying with my sitter forever and never been introduced to me. Strange lady was on her cell phone and Kai was booking it to the corner heading for the curb and the street. I sped up to grab him and when the little girl saw me she and strange lady tried catching up to Kai. I thrusted Kai out of little girls arm and headed to my sitters porch. What I want to know was why was he outside walking on the sidewalk, i don't let him do that unless T or I are at his side acting as a buffer between him and the street. And where was my sitter when this was happenening. I went into her house and she was sitting at her computer with her daughter looking at music videos. F*ck That! My theory, she didn't know Kai was outside because she was to busy on the computer and when her granddaughter saw me she came in and grabbed Kai. I don't think so. I didn't say anything yesterday becasue I was speechless and didn't really want to chew her out in front of her kids. So now, do I say something this morning? Or since T and I will be picking him up early today, together, do I say something then? Well see, if I get there this morning and feeling spunky I'll just tell her then otherwise I will wait.

There's been so many other little things that I have just let slide but this wasn't good. There were to many what ifs in yesterday's scenario. Strangely, at lunch yesterday I was unloading all the little things that have been on my mind about my sitter on Amanda. She said if I was willing to pay more I could probably get someone to come to my house. I think I need to talk to her about that. You see, we are getting away dirt cheap with this sitter but when its comes down to saving money or my child and soon to be children's safety and well being I need to make that sacrifice. I'm starting to think that maybe when I go on leave and my mom is with me I may just take Kai out of the sitters all together and i'll watch two babies. I'll be able to save quite a bit of cash and allocate the funds for a new sitter. Not to beat this dead cat anymore, T and I are starting to feel like my sitter is in over her head with Kai and her twin grandsons who are 3-months younger then Kai and her sometime granddaughter. And seeing and hearing her frustration is worrying me about bringing another child into her home. Oh and did I mention her 20-year old with twins is pregnant as well due about a month after I start bringing my new little guy to her. Great! 5-kids under the age of 2....I dont' think so! Help!!!!

Enough venting. This is upsetting me and im starting to want to stay home today and not take Kai to the sitters at all.

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