Khloe Kardashian vs. the CIA - A Dream

Khloe Kardashian and I were trapped inside the CIA headquarters. There was a group of CIA employees who were trying to stage a coup and blow it up. Khloe and I weren't down with that so we tried to stop it. We were caught trying to stop the attack and made to hang out at the bottom of a stairwell and wear weird sci-fi nasal cannulas. Just before we were captured, Khloe got word out by speaking into her half-eaten hard boiled egg that we were in danger. 



We escaped the stairwell but then we saw that we couldn't stop the attack so our tactics changed. Instead of stopping the attack we decided to escape and at least save ourselves. Then Khloe turned into Anne Hathaway and her stupid creepy pixie haircut and all she did was whine and whine and whine. I tried to ditch her because she was bad at being sneaky.

Then my alarm went off so I don't know if we saved the day or just ourselves or failed.

My Favorite Processed Food

I've been posting a lot lately on the changes Hubby and I have been making to our diets. We eat more plants than animals. We keep ice cream, soda, candy, cake, processed food, etc., out of the house. We make Bean's food (cauliflower and apple was the big hit this weekend). We make sure The Girl and The Boy have plenty of fruits and vegetables to snack on at will. We stopped eating white food (white rice, white flour, potatoes). Most of the time we do a great job at keeping the bad stuff at bay.

Most of the time.

Sometimes it is necessary to cheat a little. Sometimes I just can't help it. There is one particularly yummy treat I crave, and when I do there is no stopping it until I give in. I blame thank  credit my oldest sister for introducing me to this disgusting delight.

A few months ago Hubby and I took The Kiddies to Long Beach to spend some time with my sisters and niece and introduce them to the little Pua Bean. My oldest sister was eating queso. I tried it. I loved it. I finished the jar then walked to Vons and bought an even bigger jar. I think it just my be my favorite processed food.

I bought a jar this weekend. Hubby saw it and got fake mad. We split the jar into two ramekins, heated it up and ate it all. 

So good.

Ayyyy! in the Morning

Walking fast down the long hallway towards the staircase in my office along side a Senior Vice President of Something Important

Me - I'm pretending we're racing.
SVP - I'm going to win. I've had more coffee than you.
Me - Yeah, but did you drink your coffee out of a Fonzie Pint Glass?
SVP - *Shakes his head and smiles, takes 3 stairs at a time*

Just like the time when Army Street's Name Turned to Caesar Chavez Street.

I had a dream that I was driving home from work and all of the sudden I decided I needed to drive to Long Beach. I didn't go home. I didn't call anyone. I didn't pack anything. I just up and decided I needed to drive to Long Beach instead of going home. On my way to Long Beach I had a bit of trouble. My car turned into a big red jeep with column gear shifting. I lost my wallet and didn't have any money. Then I lost my phone. I was bummed about this one because I was supposed to meet some friends at the corner of Atherton and Ximeno in Long Beach. Then, while I was trying to get to my destination, my car broke down and I had to ride a bicycle. As I was riding my bike, I came across some ruffians. They took my bike apart. I had to hop over a brick wall to escape them. I ran to the corner of Atherton and Ximeno only to find out that while I had been away, Atherton street's name had been changed to Wilson Street. There was no way my friends were going to find me because they didn't know that Wilson Street used to be called Atherton Street. I went up to a cop and asked him to help me. He started to help me but then found out I was from San Francisco and decided I was on my own. Luckily at that moment my friends found me. I hugged them. The cop shrugged and walked away.

Don't Eat Me!!!!

I don't think my smoothie this morning wanted to be eaten.

The Dinner Bell

I don't know why I didn't do it with my other kids. It's so easy. It's way cheaper. It's way way better for them as well.

 I've been making all of Bean's food. I've been having fun putting together different combinations.
Her food is usually one cooked vegetable blended with one raw fruit. I don't mix in any herbs, butter, sweetener or salt. There's plenty of time for that later, after she's developed a taste for the flavors of what foods naturally offer. The only thing I may add is baby cereal if the mixture is too watery. When it's done I pour it into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and pop in the freezer. When she's hungry, I pop out what she needs, put it in the microwave until it's thawed out half way and stir. The residual heat takes care of the rest of the thawing out. At 9-1/2 months she eats about 6 ice cubes in one sitting, other meals she has yogurt, cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, etc. (plus lately she's been begging for our dinners as well, I think she's on a growth spurt).

Following in the footsteps of her older sister and brother, my little Bean is an eater. So far she hasn't turned down anything I've given her, but I can tell she's developing some favorites.

So far we've tried the following -
Avocado - hit or miss
Bananas - duh, bananas. of course she loves them
Butternut Squash - Meh, she liked it fine
Green Beans and Mangoes - she ate it but she didn't love it
Beets and Blueberries - She loved loved loved it
Broccoli and Apples - Loved it
Sweet Potatoes and Kiefer - I though this one was sour but she really loved it. It froze nicely, too.
Spinach and Apples - This one was by far her favorite.

Knock on wood she doesn't have any food allergies. She's been exposed to some common allergens like peanuts, via her brother's peanut butter sandwich hands and breath all up in her face. She's had things that had mushroom in them, but not had mushrooms by themselves (like in lentil soup). She loves bread and so far her gluten tolerance is perfect (even though as I understand it, gluten intolerance isn't an allergy but rather a body's inability to process it because of a missing enzyme? Do I have that right, my GF friends?). She also doesn't seem to have any issues with dairy as she's had kiefer, yogurt and cottage cheese with no problems.

I'm enjoying feeding my baby.

For those of you who make your baby's food, what do you make? How do you prepare it? Have you come up with any combinations worth sharing?

What's In a Name So Long As All the Letters Are There?

So yesterday I went on a little coffee-fueled rant about how I hate it when people say San Fran instead of San Francisco. Clearly abbreviations bug me.

Strangely, I'm not too bothered when people get my name wrong. I used to get all mad when people would call me ON-drea or an-DRAY-a, but now I just figure why bother,  all the letters are there. And those who totally butcher my name aren't people I'm around a lot so I don't bother correcting them. When it matters, I correct them, when it doesn't, I don't.

On the phone I've been mistaken as Sandra. I think it's because I answer my phone and say "It's Andrea" and my words get slurred a bit.

Today I got called something I've never been called.

I was at Starbucks. I ordered. The guy behind the counter asked me my name and then wrote it down on my cup. When I got my drink, here's what I found.

Henriette. 

.... And Then She Called It "San Fran" -- book review

There's something about "San Fran" that drives me nuts; like fingernails scratching a chalkboard, like teeth scraping against a fork I tell you. It's lazy. It's annoying. It reminds me of  yuppies and affluent baby boomers who have to abreviate all their words to sound cool and efficient, but they really don't. It also bugs me because it sounds disrespectful. I made this city my home more than 20 years ago. I don't have the bragging rights of a native San Franciscan, but I still claim this place as my home.
"Frisco" on the other hand doesn't bug me as much, if it's used in the right context. Hubby once said Frisco represents The City That Dare Not Speak It's Nickname. It conjures up images of The Gold Rush, Emperor Norton (even though he was credited with writing a decree which proposed fining people $25 for calling it by this name), being Shanghied and The Barbary Coast. There's  romance and lore behind "Frisco." "San Fran" is just lazy.

Anyways, I just finished reading Revenge Wears Prada by Lauren Weisburger. I enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada. I figured I would enjoy reading its sequel. Honestly I found it a chore to get through. I think I liked The Devil Wears Prada because I spent a long time being an Executive Assistant. Although the people I worked for were not as evil as Miranda Priestly (in fact, some were quite nice), I understood Andy, the main character's pain. I loved that in the book (not the movie) that Andy gave Miranda the big "F - You" on the streets in Paris. I've worked for a few people who may have needed such treatment a time or two.



Revenge Wears Prada takes place about 10 years after the first book ends. Andy gets married to some rich guy, has a baby, is besties with Emily and she and Em run a magazine together. The publishing company that owns Runway magazine makes a bid for Andy and Emily's magazine. Andy doesn't want to sell. Emily does. They end up selling. Andy gets mad and quits, then divorces her husband and hooks up with her boyfriend from 10 years ago. Nobody took revenge on anybody. Miranda was hardly even in the book. All Andy did was whine throughout the whole book about how much she hated her perfect life. I was really really disappointed in the whole book. I wanted Miranda to get really evil and then have Andy and Emily outsmart her and come out on top. That didn't happen. In the end, nobody was friends anymore, Andy got divorced and the magazine was swallowed up by a publishing giant. I was about 30 pages from the end and I just wanted to quit reading it. I decided to finish it anyhow, and just in the last few pages of the book, Lauren Weisberger referred to San Francisco as "San Fran."

I hate the phrase "San Fran" so much that my review of the book went from "meh" to "F-you and your stupid book on the streets of Paris, Lauren Weisberger."

Can't Get Me Enough of That Robert Langdon - Book Review

I just finished reading Dan Brown's newest book Inferno. Like all Dan Brown books, I had a great time reading it.

I've read all the Dan Brown books I know of, which is I think all of them. All of them pretty much have the same review from me; super fun to read, cartoon action with just the right amount of violence with a "Scooby Doo" ending woven specifically for adults. *antagonist shaking fist* ".... and I would have gotten away with it too were it not for that meddling symbologist."

I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a crush on Robert Langdon. I don't like the Tom Hanks version of him, but I don't quite have a clear picture in my head of what he looks like. I know he's olive skinned. He's kind of like Indiana Jones except he wasn't Han Solo in his past life.

In all the Robert Langdon-themed books Robert Langdon is thrown into some kind of mystery involving 14th Century art and culture where if he doesn't solve the mystery and determine who is the good guy and who is the bad guy before all the sand falls through the hourglass, or bag of plague breaks into the water supply or mason jar of anti-matter explodes, the whole world will be changed forever. There's always some good looking smart woman who teams up with him and (surprise) has all the right language, science or social skills to help him with his mystery. There's always some guy that seems good, but turns out bad. There's always some bad guy who is really, in fact, good, just a little misunderstood.

This formula works for me. I enjoy it. If Dan Brown were to write another book, I would read it. I'd like to suggest, however, he takes a break from Italy. Three Dan Brown books in Italy. That's enough. Take Robert Langdon out of his comfort zone. Make him go on some adventure in Greece. I betcha the Odyssey is rife with mystery and symbols that would make Robert Langdon all excited. Make him go search out something Mayan. Send him somewhere where he can't wear tweed and loafers. Send him to Disneyland and have a whole chapter about how his Mickey Mouse watch gets thrown into a bin of like Mickey Mouse watches and he has to find his lest something apocalyptic happens during the Main Street Electrical Parade. OK, that last one was silly, but sheesh, Dan Brown, let Robert Langdon go somewhere else for a change.

I can't wait for the next Dan Brown book, be it about Robert Langdon, the bored government gister or the wound too tight computer programmer, or some entirely new character.

Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk - A Dream

I was a super sleuth trying to break up a bicycle theft ring at some university. Sometimes it was Stanford. Sometimes it was San Francisco State. We called it Humboldt State.



In part of the dream I was me and in other parts I was Curly of the Three Stooges. When I was Curly I broke away from Larry and Moe to do some surveillance on a pretty sweet unicycle. I saw a guy approach it. He was kinda crusty, had red hair and looked liked he hadn't shaved in a few weeks. He looked at the unicycle and read some numbers from the lock and walked away. I followed him back to his lair, which was a rundown building. He hung out outside with his other crusty friends. I went to go meet up with Larry and Moe. While I was briefing them on what I had just seen, a few frat boys came and sat near us. I had a suspicion the frat boys were spying on us. Turns out they were.

As me, not Curly, I tried to become a member of the crusty group but I had to be careful that the frat boys didn't see me because they knew that I was Curly and they could blow my cover. I became friends with the red headed crusty's girlfriend. She liked squirels. Her boyfriend carried a lute but didn't know how to play it even though he claimed he was really good at it and said he was a writer, but he was a real writer. He wrote with a pencil and paper and didn't waste his time on reading what anyone else had written, especially anything written on or with an electronic device.

Then my alarm sounded and I don't know if the bicycle thieves got caught.

Yesterday I fell asleep with a sweet baby on my chest and a sweet 5 year old at my side. All of us were cuddled under a blanket on the couch.
I dreamed I was at the mall. I was skating around on roller blades. I thought I'd kill some time at the arcade and settled myself in front of a table top pacman game. 1 game was 8 quarters. I said "Screw this" and left.