looking at my social calendar, it appears i am obliged to drink every night this week. it's only wednesday and let me tell you, getting tipsy every night seriously starts to suck after a while. esp drinking and eating out every night; it wears your body out, in addition to broadening the body out(wards). ugh.
last weekend i attended an annual bond party in SOMA. yeah, it's quite a geeky theme but everyone had a good time, especially me considering i started drinking at 6PM, BEFORE even heading to the party. throw in pink fans, wigs and we geeks/dorks are unstoppable /snarf!/
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some boy told me this week that he has come to associate me with this black eyed peas song but would it be awful if it reminds me not of him but of someone else? hrm...
I usually let my daughter play with my Too Faced palette (as I don't use it anymore) and an old, foundation brush. She usually pretends to use it but yesterday she actually used it and created a magnificent smokey eye look. I can't wait to post pictures later!
Not a whole lot to remark upon lately, but last night I made a new dinner. I "fanned" Sunset magazine on Facebook, and now and again they'll cull useful ideas from their readers. A few days ago, they asked "what do you do with leftover rotisserie chicken?" I got a couple good ideas. Rotisserie chickens are great for when you don't have the time or energy to cook but want a homecooked, healthy meal. Idea #1 was to shred the chicken, pour barbecue sauce on it, and put it in a sandwich. Oh so simple but sounds tasty, no?
Idea #2 was last night's dinner -- chicken and biscuits. Cut the chicken (I wouldn't shred it with forks, but using spoons gets just the right size pieces). If you have time to sautee an onion, put that on top of the chicken. Pour a can of cream of mushroom soup (Amy's Organic is the best) on top, followed by a package of frozen peas and carrots. Then top with biscuit dough, and bake according to the directions for the biscuit dough. I used Bisquick, so the whole thing was super easy. It turned out great, and I think was reasonably healthy, too.
This morning, I actually hauled my butt out of bed early and went to the gym! For me, this is a major accomplishment. I haven't been active for the last few months. My workout felt great. Woo hoo!
A flurry of emails flew between the Hubs, my sister and I this morning after we received Travel Zoo's email about fab deals from British Airways. We almost pulled the trigger for Christmas in London, but plans changed. No biggie, this works out too.
So our European extravaganza is going to be shorter then I originally wanted/planned. Due to work commitments, instead of a 3.5 week blowout, we're going to shoot for two weeks BUT we're going to squeeze in a trip to the 2010 Winter Olympics to make up for the shorter European trip. Awwww yeah!
Tickets to Seattle right now are pretty cheap AND we get to stay in Seattle & Vancouver for free so it looks like we'll be going to our first Olympic Games! I'm still trying to figure out what tickets we can get events to before we book tickets, but hopefully I'll get that figured out before the end of the week.
Saturday - Productive, mainly got all my errands done. Stopped at the Carlsbad outlet malls -- thought I'd tackle a little early Christmas shopping -- but apparently I wasn't the only one with that idea. The place was packed. Scary packed. I thought I might die under a heap of customers clawing at the 50% off bags at Coach. Narrowly escaped.
Sunday - Went for breakfast and took Bucky. When another jumpy/sniffy/nosy dog got near Bucky, we again found out that Bucky's still not dog-friendly. :-( His next training is Saturday.
Went bowling with some friends, and now my legs are sore. Geez, gotta get back in the gym.
I also tackled my first cheesecake, and it turned out pretty good. I stuck to a simple recipe -- just cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon rind. A lot easier than I thought it'd be.
Had some friends over for dinner last night; that's one of my favorite things to do. Sigh, I already miss the weekend....
- the only problem with having my closet now clean and organized is that i find myself wanting to sit in it. for not particular reason. i want to just go in and plop myself in the middle of the floor. just to marvel at the beauty of how being clean and organized really revitalizes me. of course, there is still that half of a shelf and my cd collection that needs to be done. maybe i'll get some of it down tonight.
- we went to cathy's little M's 5yr birthday party yesterday. it was fun! the kids had such a blast. cath had hired a clown. and when the invitation first mentioned about a clown, i was a bit concerned. i have an irrational fear of clowns. not a phobia, per se. but they have always given me the creeps. i was happy with this clown, though. she was whimsical and cute and really knew how to create good chemistry with the kids. and the children did love her! not only did they get a ballon twisted into something they loved, she put on a great magic show that starred a cute rabit in the end. the kids got to sit on a chair have hold the rabbit on their lap for about 30 seconds each. and then, after lunch, each of them got to have their face painted of their choice. chaeli was so crazy about the clown that she said, before going to bed, that she hopes she will meet the clown again someday.
- i'm hungry. it's a weird kind of hunger. i feel like i can eat a lot today. which isn't good, really. because i know that if i allow myself to go nuts, i'll feel like complete crap at the end of the day. but, i have brought some healthy snacks so hopefully, i can stay good.
The trip totally killed my NaBloPoMo goal. Blah. Still going to keep going. I'm exhausted from the trip, but I did come to the conclusion this weekend that I would like a new laptop. The DVD drive on my laptop is on the fritz and our old Macbook is on it's way out. I'm thinking the 15 incher. We'll see.
sometimes i wish i had that magical, twitchy nose like that samantha from bewitched. ah - when t.v. shows were a league of their own. in a good way.
and as much as i wished i had powers to make my closet, or any space in my house, either big or small, become instantly organized and clean in matter of a milli-second, the reality is, of course, that i can't do that. and even if i could, would i really be using my powers just to clean closets?
anyway, this is something i have been wanting to do since september but something always came up. and as we had no plans today, i decided to go for it.
two hours later, i am left with just my cd case and one half of a shelf piled of magazines to go through. and i just can't do anymore. two hours in a closet is enough! i will do that half a shelf and cds another day.
most importantly, i organized all the christmas presents that i bought. yes, that's right. you heard me.
not only do i organize my christmas shopping lists into spreadsheets where there is one spreadsheet for each - my familly, doug's family, doug and chaeli and misc. gift... not only do i create another spreadsheet to correlate with the other four, but this one being by store, either online or off, so i don't end up running all over town, hitting stores more then once... but at some point, i organize my gifts so that all the gifts going to thunderbay are in one or two large shopping bags, and i do the same for presents for chaeli, doug and my own side of the familly.
there is a chaotic period where i shop and just pile everything in the corner of my walk-in closet, still in their bags/boxes.
it was driving me crazy. now, they are all organized. all i need to do is pull them out in the order that they need to be wrapped - doug's family being the front in line.
yup.
i'm psychotic.
i am WFH/out sick today. i've been fighting something mild for a few days and the stupid flu shot from yesterday probably sent my body over the edge. a friend is bringing over wonton soup shortly so help feed this cold, so yay! sadly, my plans for awesome sushi and jaunting around in the city tonight will have to be rescheduled since i have a pretty full weekend ahead and it's more sensible to take it easy so that i can give my body the rest it needs to recover quickly.
other than being a sickie, life is moving along and it's becoming pretty swell. several life adjustments had to be made recently, some of which were extermely difficult and took a LOT of self-discipline but in the end i knew i had to do what was best for ME. i think i spent too much time worrying about what other ppl wanted, what other ppl thought, and how i could help THEM. i didn't stand behind my own values b/c i thought i was this all-powerful, influential, giving and caring person who had what it takes to make a difference in someone else's life and in the process, i somehow got myself caught up in an upside down, topsy-turvy world where nothing was quite what it seemed and one where i lost trust in myself and in others. that was probably the worst part; losing trust in myself. i didn't trust myself to communicate my desires and expectations effectively, i didn't trust that i was saying the right things, and i certainly didn't trust myself enough to have it in me to put my foot down and put the brakes on a (self) destructive cycle. with the support of a few key friends, old and new alike, i was able to pull through it and start 'normalizing' my life.
one day, i might write about what i've learned in the last year but it might not be anytime soon since i'm still trying to understand WTF it is i did learn, if anything.
i leave you with pics of 1) memo-holder robots that someone made/gave to me this week (robots, robots, robots!!!) and of 2) halloween w/ 'ass backwards'.
seriously, a guy coming out of a donkey's ass, d*cks in boxes and a banana pug (get it??!?!?! a BANANA-PUG!!!). too awesome.