The List update

Please tell me I'm not a failure and I didn't wimp out, get soft or let my vanity get the better of me. I dyed my hair. #46 of my list says that I will let my hair grow long enough to see my natural color. A good spin doctor would say I accomplished that goal half way. I was/am clearly able to see that the bulk of my hair is a mousy kind of gray. I don't think it would quite look like Heloise if I let my hair grow all the way, but it's still a respectable gray.
I just couldn't stand it. I was faced with the choice of cutting my hair, the dyed parts off or dying my hair, which of course would make me throw #7 right out of the window.
Oh gosh.
I'll let you know how it turns out.

Wide Wide Wordle of Dreams

I created a wordle out of all of the dreams I've recorded over the last 3 years.

A toast (clink) to how screwed up I am when I'm sleeping.




all I have to say is CONSTANTINE MAROULIS??? I had one dream about him and it wasn't even "that kind" of dream.

One thing leads to another . . . ..

This morning I downloaded a new update to my Blackberry, which to my surprise and wonder included the ability to make videos. It didn't have that feature before. Now it does. Yay.

To celebrate I did the stairs. To celebrate even further, I recorded my descent in a series of 4 videos.

Don't get mad at me for talking smack about tourists.

Here you go . . .
Part 1

Part deux

part c

Last but not least -- The last one

Next time I'll video going up the stairs.

Parents say the craziest things . . . . .

things I've said this week, or things my hubby or kid have said --

-- The kitty is not a drum.

-- Don't pet the kitty with your toast.

-- Stop rubbing broccoli all over your body.

-- "Little Miss, where is your brother?" "He's in the hallway licking his books."

-- stop licking the bathwater
-- little mister is talking to the whiffle ball
-- little mister tried to eat the computer

Knockers and Bras - I did it right.

Back in 2006 when I had a myspace account I wrote a little snippet about an adventure Little Miss and I had at Target. You can find the full text here. Just scroll down to the bottom. Here it is reposted for you in a nutshell (but if you want a good giggle, go back and read the whole post).

Friday, August 04, 2006 - I've always wanted big knockers!

Yesterday Little Miss and I were in Target. We were looking at all of the barrettes and hair ties. All of the sudden Little Miss said "mom, I've always wanted big knockers."

Here's what she meant

Two days ago Little Miss and I went bra shopping. Lemme tell you, just as much of a rite of passage for me as it was for her.

She's been wearing a camisole ("cami" she calls them) for a few months now. The other night I was in the garage switching the wash around. She came downstairs, stood in the doorway and told me she was ready for a bra. I played it cool and said "OK, tomorrow when I get home from work we'll go to Target". She left the garage and I freaked out a little.

The next day we went to Target as promised. We got the smallest sized bra, which I was sure would be too big for her. She tried it on. It was too small. It was too small? Oh my gosh. She tried on the next size up and it was a little too big. OK, at least she isn't ready for the next size up. We went back to the bra section. I picked out something white and functional, and then told her to pick out any 4 bras in her size. I stood back and pretended to look at another rack (no pun intended) while she chose which bras she liked best.

Before we left the bra section, I told her I was a little bit nervous. My first bra experience wasn't exactly fun and I wanted to make sure her first experience was nice. I remember sitting on my bed reading or something and my mom comes to the door of my room and throws a paper bag from Thrifty Drug to me. I open it, notice what it is and then my mom pointed at me and said sharply "and you will wear it". End of story. I told Little Miss the story. She agreed that it didn't sound like a very positive experience. She told me I did OK and didn't make her feel weird. Then I let her look in the girls' section for a few minutes while I went to the boys' section to see if there were any pants on sale for the Little Mister.

We left the store and went home. She went to her room right away and tried on her new garments. We ate dinner and had a normal night.

Later, when she told me good night she whispered in my ear "you did it right".

The Pregnant Lady

Last Friday Muni Diaries hosted an event called "Riders with Drinks" at The Make Out Room in San Francisco.
I've posted a few stories here and there about some of my experiences on Muni. When Hubby heard about the event he told me I had to go. He said I needed to read my posting "Don't Piss Off the Pregnant Lady" on stage in front of the crowd. He said I'd have fun.
I wasn't so sure.
I wasn't afraid to get up on the stage and read my story. I've been on stage a handful of times hula dancing, why should I be afraid reading a few paragraphs about how I tripped a girl who wouldn't give up her seat when I was 6 months preggers? I was afraid of going into an environment, filled with people, and having to talk to them, having to make conversation. Hubby talked me into it. He drove me there with the kiddies in the back seat and then they waited out the event at a nearby hamburger joint. What a great hubby and patient kiddies.
I got there and the place was crowded. Super crowded. Illegally crowded. I got myself a yummy boont amber that they had on tap, yum, and listen to the stories. At the break the host said that anyone who wanted to come up and read their stories could. So I worked my way up to the front and said "I'm the Pregnant Lady you shouldn't piss off". They welcomed me and I read my story on stage. I had a lot of fun and I was glad hubby insisted I go.

Then I met my family at the burger joint, ate my cheeseburger like nobody's business, played with the kiddes then went home.

It was a really fun night.


The Tenderblog's post on Muni Night

Muni Diaries' post on Muni Night

Channeling Agent Dale Cooper

This weekend Hubby found his inner-agent dale cooper.

I did #26 on my list
MAKE A CHERRY PIE.

It wasn't the best cherry pie in the world, but it certainly wasn't the worst. 3/4 of it was gone by the time I woke up on Sunday morning.

I'll have to make another one just for fun.

2 Dreams

Dream #1

My dad is driving a ford pinto. My friend B and I are in the back. We're hungry. My dad stops across the street from a McDonalds and waits in the car while we get food. This McDonalds' parking lot is filled with local gangsters using this place as their Saturday night hang-out. Picture Del Taco in the late '80s but instead of pastel colored mini trucks with booming stereos playing beastie boys or soft cell and giant monster trucks with "spanky" painted on the back window there were real live gangters. Pacman and Hodges were nowhere to be seen. It was just B, me and lotsa gangsters. I told B. that I didn't want to go inside. She brushed me off and went inside. I followed. She was about 2 people ahead of me in line.

Mousie, Sad Girl and Baby Doll came up behind me and thanked me for buying them happy meals. I told them I wasn't going to buy them happy meals and they said "Yes you are". I told them I only had $22, but I really had another $20 in another pocket. They took my $22 and said "it'll do". Then the cholas thanked me very much for never going into their McDonalds ever again. B got mad at me for buying them happy meals.

Dream #2
I don't know why but EAW and IJB were mad at me. So mad at me that not only would they not talk to me, they talked smack about me. I kept going up to them and telling them I wanted to talk about it. They wouldn't. First we were at the 23rd Ave place but it didn't look like the 23rd ave place but I knew it was. Then we were in NY. I needed to get my hair done. I found a cool salon. They said they could take me at 10pm. I walked around a bit, went to the library and then Hubby took me to a tiny Paul Frank store. At 10pm I was ready but they weren't and they told me that my appointment was at 2am. I couldn't leave and come back at 2am, I had to stay the whole time. in the backyard of the salon was a big stretch of grass. people hung out, drank, smoked, relaxed on the grass. I sat on the grass and looked in the sky, turned to my right and saw EAW talking to someone. She said something like "it stinks here, let's move" so she and her party moved. I went to where the jackets were and found EAW's purse and coat. I messed up her purse by taking all the stuff out of the pockets and russled up everything. i made a special point not to steal anything. i didn't want to hurt her, I only wanted to piss her off. Then I put her jacket and purse somewhere else in the coat room and put someone else's jacket that I'd peed on the hook where she originaly left her stuff so when she reached for her jacket she would grab someone else's jacket covered in pee. I left and told the hair dresser that only crazy people get their hair done at 2am.

I was a Hottie in 2003 . . . . . . .

and again in 2006.

I am a Warming Hut Hottie. In 2003 I participated in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day and walked 60 miles and raied $2000 in honor of one of my sisters. She had a different kind of cancer but I felt I needed to do something and couldn't find any kind of event having to do with my sister's kind of cancer, so this is what I did. In 2006 I participated in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This time I only walked a marathon and a half over the course of two days and again, I did it as a Hottie.

This last year cancer has sneaked its way into my life again. First one of Little Miss' friend's dad found out he had non-hodgkin's lymphoma, then my lovely Hula Sister began her battle with breast cancer, then one of Little Miss' classmates found out he had lymphoma, but I don't know what kind. Now I'm learning that cancer has attacked my family once again.

I feel called into action. I'm thinking of signing up for the Susan G. Komen 3Day for 2009. It's the 2nd week of October, which is 3 weeks before the big Hula Show that I get to be a part of. Can I? Should I do it? Can I raise $2300? I just asked a bunch of people to send me money so I could climb 52 flights of stairs. Can I really be so bold as to ask more people for more money?

$2300 is a lot of dough.

Scripps National Spelling Bee

Scripps National Spelling Bee

I love the Spelling Bee. I can't wait to watch it tonight. Gonna make popcorn and everything.

Posted using ShareThis

I swear she's not human.

I really do.
God gave her to me. She's an angel.

She has the best heart of anyone I've ever met. She is kind, sweet, sensitive. She had a warped and funny sense of humor and is always thinking of other people. She's not perfect - her room is a sty, she's always losing things 5 minutes before we have to leave the house, she has to be prodded and poked to do her chores - I guess that means, in that respect she's a normal kid on the outside.

Her greatest passion is the environment.

She wears a polar bear charm on her neck. She'll read or bathe in the dark so she doesn't "kill the polar bears". I've seen her rummage through the trash and separate the recycle, compost and trash.

Last Saturday we asked her what she wanted to do that day. She said she wanted to go to the beach and pick up trash. So, Saturday afternoon, after we had finished a bunch of errands, Hubby walked her down to the beach. They each were armed with trash bags and a pair of gloves and had extra gloves in their pockets. I gave her the speech about not picking up any needles or looking for trash in the dunes (people live there, some are homeless and harmless, some are homeless and not harmless).

They came home covered in sand, cold and wet, but with smiles. I'm so proud of her.

I'm a little freaked out.

I'm a little freaked out right now.
They know me, they know my order. It started about a year ago. I got in the habit of going down to the S-Bux on the ground floor of my building. I order the same thing every day. A double espresso macchiato. 15 calories of jumpin juice to get me going every day. It took about 6 months for the barristas and cashiers to stop asking me "what size" or ordering me a carmel macchiato which is 240 calories of a sweet mess. It took quite a while to school them. An espresso macchiato is espresso with a dollop of foam on it. Then I had a good 5 months of ordering my drink without a problem, knowing which barrista was going to make it the way I liked it. I knew if I saw a certain person at the coffee machines I would be sure to order a grande soy hot chocolate which is most certainly not good for one's waistline at 350 calories. During this time the order-taker kept calling me Stacy. This morning I walked in and before I could even reach the lovely order taker I heard her say "double macchiato for andrea, double macchiato for andrea". I looked at her and smiled and told her my name was stacy.

Bazooka zooka bubble gum.

Last night as we were finishing up a particularly yummy dinner (linguine with Bolognse sauce, ciabatta bread, sweet corn with lots of butter and black pepper on it) Little Miss wanted some dessert. She left the table and came back with her Easter Basket from a few months ago. We were amazed that she still had candy left. I was lucky if I had any left after 3 days when I was a kid. Then I remembered she still had some halloween candy left. I ran and got her plastic pumpin and we all had a laugh about how long Little Miss keeps her candy, that she portions and rations it out.
While digging through the plastic pumpkin I found a bunch of Bazooka Bubble Gum. We opened all of them and read the comics to each other, laughing at the fortunes and the corny jokes.

Little Miss wanted to see how many pieces of gum she could chew. I decided to challenge her. Sadly I lost. I chewed 3 pieces and she chewed 11. Then we ran out of gum.

Here some pics of the results.

This picture shows my piece of gum next to Little Miss's piece. We used a quarter for scale. The novelty bloody finger shows the clear winner.

Then for fun, we paired the gum with a novelty tater tot.

Such a copy-cat

I read a post once on The Meanest Mom that said when one's kids are getting out of hand and wearing on your good will and patience, once should document the incident. Once the incident is firmly in the past, say an hour, look at the captured image and have yourself a giggle.

This morning Hubby sent me a video of Little Mister. It made me miss him, want to cuddle him and glad I wasn't there all at the same time.

List Update for 05.20.09

A few days late in posting my progress on my list.

Someone asked me about it today. I thought that was pretty cool.
OK, here's what I'm doing --
#17 - still reading The Other Boleyn Girl. I can't get into it. Maybe if I just sat down and started reading I could, but it's hard.

#26 Make a Cherry Pie
I was going to do this over last weekend but Lucky didn't have any frozen cherries and I didn't feel like pitting a bunch of cherries. Maybe next Tuesday if the Farmers' Market at the Ferry Plaza has some good Queen Anne or Ranier cherries I'll buy some of those and pit those cherries. I'm not going to go through the trouble of pitting Bing Cherries. That's just dumb.

#6 Clean out the cabinet above the kitchen sink
I looked at the cabinet and thought "I have to clean that, it's on my list". That's as far as I've gotten with that item.

Pretty boring otherwise.

The List - Update

This was a pretty good week.
I started #17
Read "the Other Bolyn Girl". I'm a few pages into it. Pretty good bus reading.

I completed #15
Give Hubby control of the remote for 1 week without complaint. I read the book "Angels and Demons" while he watched TV. I didn't complain but I did make one request of him; no futuristic shows on the history or science channels. They really freak me out. He watched a lot of "Generation Kill". I couldn't keep any of the characters straight except for Godfather, but I have to admit, I didn't hate it.

I looked into #23
Take the kiddies to Monterey Aquarium. I think we'll go the weekend of June 6. It's the first weekend of Little Miss's summer vacation. I think it will be a nice way to kick off her summer especially since she's mad at us because she won't be going to camp at the YMCA this summer. She loves YCamp. I like it too. I think it's a good camp but we don't have the time or resouces this summer to get her there. We're too busy and too poor. Oh, she's also pissed at us that she has to go to summer school.

I have to say I'm not looking forward to #22
Try dolmas again. I really don't like them. I don't want to skip any part of my list. I did write it down and stand on my soapbox and tell the world I was going to accomplish certan things. It's just . . . ew, dolmas.

If we don't go to The River for Memorial Weekend, I might try to get Hubby to agree to # 33
Walking the Barbary Coast Trail or #51
Go to Angel Island. Hubby thinks we need to take Little Mister on a practice run for camping since we'll be camping on our way up to Idaho in July. Maybe memorial weekend on angel island will be a good idea. The island will be filled with inexperienced camping dorks and tools. We'll just contribute to the mess by bringing a 15 month old camping. Oh gosh, I hope he's not walking by then. If we don't do that we can maybe to to San Jose for #36
Visit the Rosecrucian Museum.

So I was just reviewing my list to see what else I could do and I realized we did something on Mother's Day that I'd always wanted to to AND IT WAS ON THE LIST. We rode one of those bike-things. We rode the surrey. Yay.

Wish me luck.

Mother's Day 2009

I had a great Mother's Day.
We ate Bacon. We had French Toast. We did something we had never done before . . . . .

Come into the Circle for your Friendship Squeeze

The Kiddies and I happened upon a Girls Scout Gathering. We didn't know what it was at first. All we heard from the loud speaker was "Come into the Circle for your Friendship Squeeze". Little Miss and I looked at each other and walked the other way, quickly.
We found shelter in the Marine Sanctuary, almost.
While we were in there sifting through a big bowl of rocks looking for sharks teeth, entered Mr. Red Bandana. Who is Mr. Red Bandana? Mr. Red Bandana is my ex boyfriend and a naturalist at the Marine Sanctuary. One time when we were dating we were supposed to go to hawaii together for a week. Then one day he came over and told me he had bought a ticket to Hawaii and was going by himself. I was super pissed but was certain he'd bring me back a present. Do you know what he brought back for me? A STINKIN' RED BANDANA. What a stupid gift. Sorry Mr. Red Bandana if you're reading this, but you got negative boyfriend points for that one. If you were going to buy me a present at he gift shop you could have at least brought me back a puka shell necklace or a pretty little tin of mele macs. The night he came back was the night my kitty Jack came home from the hospital from getting his eye removed. I had his catbox and bed set up in my room so he could have some peace and the other kitty Garth wouldn't try to play or cuddle with him and tear out his stitches. I was so mad at the red bandana that I threw every thing Mr. Red Bandana had ever given me into the catbox (except for a few things that I liked. those things I hid - yes, mr. red bandana, I still have your sea sheppard's t-shirt and Jack Kerouac CDs, and the stinkin' red bandana). About a year later, after almost 2 years of dating, he broke up with me at some tea house on Valencia street in the Mission. Although I was sad at the time, I have no complaints today. Things turned out great for me. I have two great kids and a rockin' husband. Mr. Red Bandana was really nice to my kids. He gave Little Miss some information about the sanctuary to give to her teacher and told her he'd give her class a tour. It was nice to catch up. He also said that the "friendship squeeze" people were 7,000 girl scouts from across the country. On the way back to the car I told Little Miss that he was an old boyfriend. She was surprised that I talked to him and that Hubby wouldn't mind that I spoke with him. I explained to her that running in to him is no big deal, that we were going to tell Daddy about it, and that he wouldn't have a problem with it. She thought it was weird, but accepted it.

The List Update

I get to cross a few things off my list.

#10 First - hooray, I finished my mom's blanket. I didn't finish it in time for her birthday but I did finish it in time for mother's day. I'm am going to get totally great daughter-karma for this, and extra daughter points as well. I don't have a picture of it but see if you can picture it in your head. Its main color is maroon with pieces of different complementary colors winding through it. I crocheted in back loops only using a hdc. The border is standard two hdc in each row, two rows. It's not super big, but my mom puts a blankie on her lap when her youngest baby (her schnauzer Frida) sits on her lap.

#11I finally found a pattern I like for Hubby's cousin's baby. I don't think I'll have it done by the time her shower rolls around in two weeks, but jeez, she's not due until August. I'll finish the blankie by then.

#32 I sold a case of Mele Macs. Yummy candies. I'm almost done with selling the second case. Mele Macs are toffee covered macademia nuts dipped in milk chocolate and rolled in what Little Miss's BFF calls "donut dust". (Side note: Little Miss had a slumber party a few weeks ago. I broke open a jar of melemacs and let the kids have at it. Two days later there was a trail of ants going from the window to under the couch in the living room. At the end of the trail I found two melemacs, chocolate sucked off. The ants were after the nuts and toffee.)
Melemacs are $20 a jar and if you buy one or three you will help a group of adults to Hawaii for the week in 2011.

#46 I'm having a hard time letting my hair grow until October. Some of it broke off where the gray hair meets the dyed hair. The new hair coming in is stronger and a different texture than the old dyed hair. I'm trying to stick this one out. Only a few months to go.

The headaches have lessened. Partly because I got some cool-ass new glasses and partly because now I don't have to worry about getting laid off any time soon. See, the boss got a promotion and I was left without a boss. I got a new boss and a new job description. Seems like it'll be a pretty good gig, not the same, but an OK gig. With the headache at bay, that means I can tackle ...
#15 Hubby gets control of the remote this week. I started reading Angels and Demons. I usually don't read books that are also current blockbuster movies because I really hate it when people on the muni try to turn the L-Taraval into their own personal book club, then weeks later they try to ask you what you are reading this time and talk to you again. I have to admit, I am enjoying the book. I'm only about 150 pages into it, but I'm digging it. I still have to take on #17 and read "The other bolelyn girl" but hey, I have some time.

When are cherries in season?

Dream #2

I walked into a Taco Bell

and ordered "The Gavin McCloud Special".

The Gavin McCloud Special

comprised a Taco Lite (something that was in the menu in 1986, but I don't know if it is still on the menu. It is a taco that is twice the size of a regular taco but instead of the shell being a corn tortilla deep fried in coconut oil, it was a flour tortilla deep fried in coconut oil. It also contained sour cream and tomatoes. I guess it was only "lite" in color, not calories), a regular taco and a Michelob.

I loved the combination but tried to convince them, unsuccessfully of course, to rename the combo "The Grant Goodeve Special".