One more vid of Murph and the cookie

The three M's. Madness, Mayhem and Murder

...Miles, Murphy and Miyo actually, but who's counting. I had all three of them a couple of weekends ago. Look at how fun we are:
Miyo, in a flash: (or is it my roommates dog?)





I brought the kids on a walk because we were a little stir crazy in the house, what with nobody wanting to watch Kung Fu Panda but me, and the pencil that got found and then used on my walls, and the popcorn being dumped everywhere several times. So we walked around the block, and then we ended up at the sledding hill, but we had no sleds. Miles found some cardboard and that made for a makeshift crappy ghetto sled, but they all rode it down the ICY ICY slope. Except Miyo, I guess, she just sat down on her butt and went for it, and Murphy freaked me right out with his fearlessness and wild abandon. The hill was completely ICE. So of course nobody could get back up the hill and that was frustrating the crap out of poor Murphy because he's all about the Slidin' Down, and not so much about the Climbin' Up. Miyo's the pink one on the left, Miles is in the middle and poor Murph is trying to get up that grassy strip on the right. After this photo was taken, ol' Kady had to trudge down the skating rink at a 45 degree slope and get 'em all back up. Is this what they teach in Parenting School? NOT to bring kids near sledding hills, if you don't want to sled, or to do the work of comforting their frustrations and pulling them up the hill when you yourself are slipping all over the place in your cute new Sorel boots with fur on the top?

Little Ani and the puppy

On a lighter note...

...here's Nancy's adorable little girl Ani, drinking her cutie cute cute virgin martini (Squirt with lime juice and a marachino cherry) and Keri, with the real thing (pure straight whiskey with a smidgeon of orange/lemon/lime).

I kept trying to get Ani to hold her drink up and look super excited, but it turns out that her mother's inability to pose properly for a photo is genetic.

There, that's better: (thank goodness for digital cameras)

Feeling sorry for myself...

Tonight I brought my roommate to the airport so she can go lay in the sun down in Florida and then I came back here with great plans for the day. I never get home before 6pm and here I am, free at 3:30! Sun's out! I'm agonna go for a walk! Guess what I did instead? Watched a movie, cooked up a bunch of freezer-burned chicken, and then opened a bottle of wine and now I'm here drinking it alone.

A friend just called and asked if I wanted two tickets to go to Estelle tonight at First Avenue. I passed. I feel very old....and alone....my bedroom is a holy mess. My curtain is open and I just realized that all of the whole neighborhood is probably looking in on my sorrows. Take a picture, it'll last longer! Where's my ten cats? And my mustache? It's just a matter of time.

I have two more movies sitting here that aren't gonna watch themselves. Gotta go! Busy!

p.s. "Penelope", the movie about Christina Ricci having a pig's nose, is cute and has a very good lesson, but I can't remember it right now.

more murph

There is no story behind this picture, it's just so stinking cute. Nancy's mom went to Turkey and brought home this little hat. I loved that Murphy wore it around for a long time.

cookie monster

Murphy liked his cookie

I hate it when I don't just let a kid be. "Dance, dance!" And they never do. Poor Murphy was probably like, "yah, I said Octopus already. Leave me alone." But we wanted to get Murphy enjoying his 11th anniversary cookie on tape, to show Kasey.

To see kasey's other posts about Miles and Miyo and their anniversary cookies/presents, go here:
www.kaseyhanson.blogspot.com

I love Nancy

I went out to Hutch last weekend and brought Murphy with me. We ended up staying at Nancy's house. Here are just a few of the reasons that I love her:

She made me breakfast every morning. Eggs with asparagus and toast...yogurt and granola...and always always frothy capuccinos.

Murphy was more than welcome to throw things down her vent. She even tore up pieces of construction paper into little bits and put them in a bowl so he could throw each one down, singing while they fluttered, waiting until they came to rest before sending the next one down.

I used her computer and in the Google search history, I accidentally found: "What do kids with autism like to do?"

Danger is my middle name

I just walked home at 1:30am from Ali's new house.

Dear Mom and Dad: I didn't die. The Perps didn't get a chance cuz it's only 5 blocks.

PLUS, and this is my motto: "It's too cold for crime!" (right Anna?)

no blogs lately

my camera is in my purse.
my purse is in the kitchen.
my computer is in my bedroom.
i am lazy.

Living Room Re-vamp Phase 2 complete

I bought curtains. I have been living in my house for 6 years this April. I have been meaning to buy curtains the whole time. I just didn't get around to it/didn't have the money/etc. I even had a woman come to the house and draw up plans to sew them and everything, but it just never happened. I think I blogged earlier about World Market going out of business. So I go there all the time and the other day I went there to look for place mats and I accidentally bought curtains. So tonight I bought the rods, which were more expensive than the curtains...(argh). Whatever. I'm feeling a huge sense of accomplishment, even though I did nothing. My lovely friend Sheen Hanson and her nephew Shelby came over and took care of everything! THANKS SHEEN AND SHELBY!!! Also we moved my bookshelves. I have big plans for that big empty wall to the left of the couch; stay tuned.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

YES. I know the before and after pictures aren't really of the same stuff. So sue me. They do it all the time on TV. Proactive people never wear makeup in the before pictures, and weight loss people are only tan in the after pictures.

"OK Nancy, put your arms at your side."

More Coronado photos...

Some favorite photos of our day at Coronado Island. Please promise you'll enlarge the last photo and stare at my face for a really long time.

Fun with my new camera

Here's my "look longingly into the air with Hotel del Coronado in the background" project, starring Andrea, Nancy, Keri and me:

I almost got hit by a car today

This dumb girl in my parking lot was so excited because she found a parking spot two rows over that she forgot to see me, and I had to jump out of her way. She was on the phone. All I could do was bang on her back window a couple times and then give her the international symbol for "JEEZ!" (Arms raised in the air, and a big question mark above my head, and furrowed brow.)

Lil' Italy -

I stole this photo from Andrea Schweikert. We ate at this restaurant for breakfast AND lunch that day, it was so good.

http://andreaschweikert.blogspot.com/

Little Italy

As I made reference to in an earlier post, our morning in Little Italy started with parking, and a dude yelling at what we think was a woman on his cell and not getting my Good Samaritan Quarter. Oh, and we also drove by a real-life Italian funeral just like in the Godfather. Women were wailing, men were hugging them, the whole sha-bang. Then we walked into a shoe store, (right after I stepped in dog poop) and this overly tan/overly friendly salesman started selling us those really ugly anti-gravity moon shoes with the rounded bottoms. And he kept saying stuff like, "they improve your posture." and "they even work while sitting". And so I go, "But, can they find you a man???" And then I walked on, looking at shoes. He followed me and asked if I had tried eHarmony.com. Honestly I don't know why I talk to strangers.

So he recommended this place for breakfast, and we disregarded his suggestion and went to a different place. Now, normally I am a master of the self-portrait. Most photos of myself were taken by me. (See my entire blog.) Here is a rare mishap. I think I may have been worried about dropping the camera?

p.s. I had lox on a bagel with red onion. YUM.

Old Town

This was our first morning in San Diego. We had spent the previous evening out too late having drinks at the fire table on a rooftob in La Jolla, and so I was tired. Plus you gain a coupla hours on the way out there so even though we were asleep by 1, it was more like 3am in my brain. And then Keri got up at 5:30 California time. ...Or 5:30 Specific Time. Pacific Time? Anyways, she was up flip-flopping around the room and the girls were like, Keri, we really can't go anywhere or do anything this early. And I was all mad and tired so I was like, Keri. Lay. Down. And then I dreamed that I screamed at her because she kept getting ready for the day and she was flip flopping around the room like crazy in my dream, and so I screamed about her flip flops and how it is socially unacceptable to get every body out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, when nothing opens until 9am anyways. And plus we're on vacation. But none of this happened, because she really did Lay. Down. when I told her to. So we got up for reals around 8am and went to Old Town for breakfast. I had some over-medium eggs over broiled pulled pork. It was awesome. Really Really Awesome. And we also saw a restaurant called O'Hungry's. Which I thought was an awesome name for a restaurant. And the coffee was good. Best breakfast ever. But that was the start of a really long day.

Then we went thrift store shopping in Encinidas and we all got a pair of jeans and Keri bought a dress. There was an ANCIENT old woman working at the thrift store. Literally must have been in her 70's, and she was wearing the outfit of a 15 year old. And her hair was done up like a 15 year old. She was wearing bumpers, like Chuck Taylors with low rider jeans and a polo. And she was on the phone with a friend and then hung up and told the other worker-lady that her friend needed to get out of this relationship because it wasn't working and blah blah blah, and then proceeded to tell us about her boyfriend. It was like super weird. Super weird. I regret heavily not taking her photo because it is impossible to describe her appearance and also the way she talked about boys like she was a teenager.

Then we strolled along the beach and saw some dudes wind surfing and also using some parachute things. It was cold and a teensy bit rainy. But we braved it. We musta walked a mile up and down the beach.

San Diego rental car

So we get to the rental car place and of course they want to sell you on every up-charge there is.





But we stayed strong and kept to the plan of getting a mid-sized car with no GPS, no extra driver, no extra insurance, blah blah blah.





So then the guy gives us the choice of a Grand Marquis or any other car. They had Chevy Malibus and Ford Focuses also. Well Keri thought it would be a great idea to get the Grand Marquis because it was huge and would be oh so comfortable. But I didn't wanna. I just didn't want to pull up in that thing. Ya know? So we went for this lovely maroon Ford Focus. Which apparently wasn't available becuase he walked us right by it and over to an ELECTRIC BLUE Ford Focus. ICK. So that's what we drove around San Diego in:

'

p.s. you can't see him, but behind this car was a man in a car with his window down SCREAMING at his wife. Before I took this photo, I was filling my meter and saw that the meter next to mine was out of time. I was going to be a Good Samaritan and fill it up for him, but then I saw that not only is there somebody in the car, but it's a guy and he's yelling at a woman. So I kept my 25 cents.

Take a break from San Diego and check this out

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/mis/1032067538.html

Jack's

So we rented a car in San Diego. I have never been the "driver" on a trip before. I got to be the driver! Such responsibility!!

Fortunately we were staying right in the thick of San Diego and it was just exits away from everything! The night we arrived, we got our car, went to the hotel and then texted Sarah. We ended up going to Jack's in La Jolla. It was so nice! Drinks, amazing food, and a fire pit at our table! Look at this thing:

And there was a live Flamenco-style band, and they were awesome. Keri and I shared Opakapaka fish over broccoli puree with Truffle-oil mashed potatoes. First we had a spinach salad. All amazing. Topped off with Chocolate cake. There was a waterfall in our table. All stuff I did NOT get pictures of. sarah met up with us and then we went for drinks a few doors down. Check out the table with the fire right in the middle! Minnesota needs to figure this out. We'd have a few more months of eating outside for sure:

In addition to the 'fire tables' they had big huge warmers by every table too. What fun!

And just look at Sarah's cute hair!!

The first of many

Here we are at the airport, getting ready to leave for San Diego. Incidentally, we were a little late boarding (wonder why?) and all of us except Andrea had to check our carry-on luggage because there was no room for it.
p.s. That Vodka tonic tasted kinda crappy and was $12. WHADDYAGONNADO?

Bathroom incident

So, I will try to describe this incident as hilariously as it happened in real life. Keri, Nancy, Andrea and I had dinner at The Fish Market in San Diego. We had a great time. Believe me. We ordered a bottle of wine, there were Bloody Marys, Gin and Tonics, sushi, Wahoo, incorrectly placed plastic trees that tickled my hair all night, the works. Everything you need for the perfect dinner out. So we leave our table, happy and smiling and ready to pee our pants. We head single file up to the restrooms. I'm in the lead and Keri is behind me. Andrea is behind her and Nancy is in the rear. As we approach the bathroom door, another woman comes up from a different direction, and looks as though she may split our group by going in behind me in line. And so I say, "After You!" She looked at me a little strangely and said, "Thank you!" a little too much like I was doing her some big favor. So I said, "Well there are four of us...hahahahaha HAHAHAA HHAAA!!! AHAH!" Like I do with strangers. And so she went into the bathroom and I went in behind her, followed closely by Keri and Andrea. Nancy was yelling "NO!" in the back and then I saw why. The three of us were SMACK DAB behind this woman, almost pushing her into a ONE. STALL. BATH. ROOM. As soon as I saw the toilet, sink and garbage, and realized this was not a multiple stall room I looked at her in horror. She looks at us like we are crazy and then says,

"I'll just be two minutes."

Bonfire on the Beach

I'll start my San Diego post with one of my favorite moments. Sarah Basset was gracious enough to arrange a bonfire on the beach for Nancy, Andrea, Keri and me. We went to the grocery store and got salami, blackberries, cheese, bread, olives, pistashios, and WINE, which is completely illegal on the beach in California. We chose to ignore that ridiculous rule and filled up some coffee mugs with wine. Here are a few photos of Sarah and I building our amazing bonfire: (I was a little nervous for a minute there, it was SO windy, I didn't think it was going to start.) Notice the "wind break" I built with the logs on the side. ha!

And here is the difference between a California girl and a Minnesota girl. In 65 degree weather, we see the Minnesota girl (on the left) is wearing flip flops, a short sleeved shirt and a light jacket. The California girl (on the right) is wearing Ugg boots, a scarf, sweater and hoodie:

Every once in a while, just in case anybody was listening, we would say things like, "good coffee" or "ooh, hot". And pretend it was burning our tongues.





Such a fun wonderful amazing night.