moony

So it's been a few days, but let me tell you: sacrifices must be made.

And here I was storing up this precious picture:

Not just cookies, but chocolate (chip) cookies! Nolan thought it would be fun for him to make choc. chip cookies, me to make homemade eggnog, and listen to Christmas music. Needless to say I was an easy sell. Until I was whipping the eggs and heard "Oh noooo!" and looked over to see that he had not realized chocolate chips will melt if you pour melted butter over them. Hence, chocolate (chip) cookies. And they were actually delicious!

I also decided it was high time that I actually take N's present out of it's wax-laden casket, and wrap it properly, if only to tempt him :) Apparently the box was temptation enough for one man:


I will not even spill about how great New Moon was. We went up to Pville this weekend, just me and the girls, and relished being away from the city and drowning everything we did in wine, shopping, and New Moon/Twilight related paraphernalia. If you haven't seen it yet: GO. Or else wait and go see it again with me over Thanksgiving, because you know I'll be first in line.
Here are some pics of the fun (thanks, SB!):
Enjoying our apple doughnuts :)

More apple hill...

And of course, visiting my great-aunt's mini horses! SOOOO CUTE!

electricity

I had this crazy dream last night that one of our company executives was decorating his office and invited my whole department to join him and listen to Christmas music and make gingerbread men. I have had a long week.

I take consolation in the fact that tomorrow I get to go to one of my favourite places in the world, see some of my favourite people, and bring some of my other favourite people with me! If you don't fall in either group, don't worry--I have lots of favourite people. It gets better: we're seeing New Moon on Saturday. We're also bingeing on candy and coffee (surprise!), and sitting in hot tubs and sleeping in and Mom, I may or may not bring some laundry (surprise again!). Milo is NOT coming, because he is a turd and needs to spend a weekend along with his thoughts. Nolan's been encouraging him to just keep on chewing on that computer cord! To see what happens! And this is when I sigh and hide the cord for BOTH their benefits.

oatmeal and diesel engines

Last night I watched Coraline with Ash U and Sarah, and decided that I love Tim Burton even more than when his other movies came out. I also gorged myself on New Moon candies, and fell asleep wondering if I would be barfing Sweettarts onto my pillow. So much for giving up candy. Today is a fresh start.

Since I brought home Nolan's present that came in the mail from Amazon yesterday (word!), which was most likely a stupider idea than leaving it at work UNTIL Christmas, he of course demanded to open it. Being a jolly elf, I couldn't allow it, so I let him shake it...but when I remembered he would be home alone with it all evening while I was watching Coraline, I had to do something. So we devised a plan to keep him out of it, and fortunately he cooperated:


If he can cheat a wax seal without me knowing, I guess there is nothing else I can do anyway. Hhhh.

A coworker sent me the following link, and it opened my eyes to Milo's world. Not that I was dying of curiosity, but did you know a cat purrs at the same rate as an idling diesel engine? Hmm, good to know in case I ever go on Jeopardy I guess.
...Or if you happen to have spare gold around, I'd highly recommend investing.

Looks like we finally know what Milo does in his room:

(my graffiti skillz are impressive, no?)

boba

Since Tuttimelon moved across the street to a bigger, self-serve place (watch out, Anna!), the owners have used the old space to open up a self-serve boba tea place! So on Saturday, they had a grand opening and gave away free boba tea for 2 hours! Needless to say we ran over there and waited in line. Since it's self-serve, the woman in front of us piled so much tapioca into her cup before filling it with milk, that I looked at Nolan and his mouth was a giant "O" of horror. Ah gluttony, my friend.

Yesterday I ordered his xmas present from amazon, and it arrived this morning. I guess it pays to order before the christmas rush!

Maybe I will start writing down my thoughts again. I keep thinking of things I want to blog about, but through the day's chaos, it all gets lost. So I'm left talking about some greedy woman and her boba and my recent amazon order. Obviously this is the most exciting blog you've ever read.

rainbow meat

Friday night Nolan and I went out for date night at a local Vietnamese place, and of course just letting steak sit on my tongue again (it's been awhile, okay?) was the most fulfilling experience of my life. The only little issue I had was that there was a rainbow tint to the steak...which made me feel weird about eating it. As it should.

This whole weekend I did practically nothing. I worked on our scrapbook, I crocheted, I made pancakes with Nolan, I lounged...I also babysat on Saturday night, so that I guess counts as the most productive feeling ever. And that feeling of general nothingness that I felt? Glo.ri.ous.

And now I'm back at work, feeling like my head is a calabasa and not being able to do everything that is thrown at me (Oh Monday, you fickle lover!). On the otherhand, I have been drinking so much water and working out that my whole body feels like a ball o' energy. So...that's good news.

Quote of the day:
Colleague (after hearing of a price increase for us): "Big consulting is not better consulting. Wisdom to live by."
Duly noted.

heat.

San Francisco is almost always cold. But everytime it gets really cold, I am totally caught off-guard. So I have been turning on a little portable heater by my feet while I'm on the computer. Today my feet were feeling cold even with the heater on, and I looked down to see if something was broken, but no. Milo was sitting in front of my feet with his eyes closed, hogging the heat. I compromised with him and let him sit ON my feet so at least we both benefit.

Guffaw

Confession: I have been going to bed at 8-8:30 lately. And sleeping til 6-6:30! That's 10 hours of sleep, for those of you who can't count. The result? I've been drowsy all day because of too much sleep. Also I have been extremely unproductive while at home since my evening consists of eating dinner with Nolan when I get home, then we put on pjs, watch 24 in bed, then go to sleep. I am becoming elderly. Or at least lazy. But! I do it out of solidarity with Nolan, who has to go to bed that early because he has to get up at 3:30-4am to make it to the hospital on time each morning. So...that's a pretty good excuse, yes?

Last night at the library with my learner, I finally checked out "It sucked and then I cried" by Heather Armstrong, the blogger behind the monster blog, Dooce. I've been meaning to read this book for quite awhile now, and have found the only downsides to it to be that:
#1 I have to muffle my guffaws on the trainride to/from work...which is EXTREMELY embarrassing considering the only other person on there guffawing out loud is the crazy guy from the Haight who's interspersing his guffaws with some song about Captain Planet and Pokemon.
Anyway. #2 is that it's entirely about when she was pregnant, had her baby, and then dealt with post-partum depression. So I guess it's a little awkward when one is sitting on the muni, oh say, on a friday morning, and as you are on the chapter page titled, "How to exploit an unborn baby", a hugely pregnant woman sits down next to you and starts reading over your shoulder while simultaneously stroking her giant belly. Meanwhile I'm still trying to stifle my now super-inappropriate guffaws over here.

rollin' on the river!

Yes, I just watched this week's episode of Glee! I'm going to have wild dreams about performing songs while careening across a stage in a rusty wheelchair tonight.

Nolan agreed to watch Glee with my tonight instead of 24 (he's been feeling like Glee hasn't been as good lately), if I agreed to take a bite of whatever he had behind his back. It was one of his concoctions, and I told him I'd just watch Glee without him in bed because there was NO WAY I was trying his experiment. Good thing, too, because it turned out to be this:

Turns out it was tuna with a whole lot of other things mashed in. How did he put it while I took this picture? "Ohmygosh. That looks like cat food! Or POOP!" Mmmm, tempting.

I discovered a new favourite lunch food recently. Annie Chun's brand asian food from Walgreens. I know, not exactly high quality, right? Look, when you want cheap, fast, relatively healthy and tasty food, Walgreens has some decent options. Besides, this is someone who spent several romantic meals in Europe at McDonald's with her husband--don't be too shocked that I get lunch at Walgreens.

Cullenized!

Today the Caldwells officially went green:

We decided it was time to switch to stainless steel, and stop using plastic! Plus the cute bottle (mine is the blue one) is motivation for me to drink more water (and less coffee?). It has a delicious smooth feeling as I drink it. Yummmm! I highly recommend making the switch!

Also by special request, ylehsa made me into a Cullen. Actually, I guess, she made me into (*SPOILER!*) Bella Cullen! Haha. This is possibly the creepiest I have ever looked:


Today I stocked up on Ghirardelli's Peppermint Bark for my cube, and ate a shameful amount of it. Hello holidays! Goodbye resolve to eat better :(

a day in the life

I have often wondered what Milo does during the day while we're gone. Today I got to find out. I went downtown to pick up my laptop so that I could work from home, and when I walked back through the door, I found Milo pinning a fly against the cupboard door. He turned around, gave me a look that clearly said, "what are YOU doing home?!", and then I saw the fly squeeze through his paws on the cupboard, and he had to catch it all over again. Later, he was chasing invisible creatures across the carpet, and then he put himself down for a nap before sitting in the window for the rest of the day and people-watching. How can you not love this little creature--curled up on top of his favourite little toy:

And people-watching out the window...though at the moment, he was eyeing me as I crept closer:


My dad and his business partner were in Oakland today for a conference, and so they came to our house so that my dad could fix a rogue tube in our car (I found it, but I didn't fix it this time :( ). What a blessing that they were in the area the day after we had car problems! And that they were willing to go out of their way to come! Which is why I worked from home--so I could provide keys and tools and whatever else help was necessary. And I wanted to see my dad! So while I worked, I had stuff in the oven, among which was my favourite pineapple upside-down cake:

And now I'm sitting here with Ash U, enjoying Dutch chocolate and cheese, and French wine! Ahhh I'm spoiled :)

Had a very shiny nose...

I love the weekends...

Waking up to play with my boys and enjoy a little bit of extra sleep.

This weekend while backstage at church, I discovered this:

...which makes me <3 our java ministry and whatever hooligan graffitied our kitchen with that.

Quote of the day:
Nolan: "You look like a reindeer."
Me: "What!?! WHY!"
Nolan: "Because...you're like Rudolph, and you light up my life."
Me: "Hhh. Smooth."

fluff

I have a big meeting tomorrow, so tonight I have to hem my nice pants so that I don't look like a loser whose legs aren't long enough to fill out even the smallest size Gap sells. This is going to be interesting, since my fingers are all pruned up from soaking in lukewarm water for an hour while preparing, bathing, and blow-drying Milo. The perks of all this are that he will be much cleaner, and he won't smell like trash anymore (we hope). Just this evening, we looked at him and wondered aloud what the yellow patches in his fur were around his neck. Is it even possible for a cat to pee on himself? Who knows. I wouldn't put anything past the beast. Also each morning when I pick him up to cuddle him, I bury my nose into his fur and smell...celery. Usually in the mornings he reeks of pungent celery, and then by evening he just smells like garbage. So we decided to put an end to it so that we'll have a fluffy, tropical-fruit-smelling little child in our bed tonight, instead of one with questionable fur and odors.

ps I've given up on daily quotes again.

Falling

I think my body is very confused right now per the time change, and it has been rebelling by a.) demanding more coffee and sugar than usual, b.) not recognizing the passing of time. Basically the days have been looooong and I've been fighting the urge to poison my bloodstream with all the things I love in unhealthy doses. This is when it helps that at least I know I'm safe when I get home, because Nolan is hellbent on us eating healthy, and I know it's good for us, but SIGH it's just so hard when all the bad stuff is SO GOOD. Nonetheless, I have to repeatedly tell myself that I WILL appreciate this when I'm 80 and possibly able to take him at armwrestling from our wheelchairs.

The countdown to Mexico for Christmas this year has begun! We're a little over 6 weeks away, and I've already planned what I'm packing. I'm THAT. EXCITED. In fact, I mostly just left all of my travel stuff (minus clothes) from Europe in my suitcase, and stuffed it out of the way for a few weeks.

I think Fall set in a month or so ago in my mind, but now with the holidays, it feels like I haven't even been able to enjoy it! I have had 2 Pumpkin Spice Lattes, stepped on maybe a handful of crunchy leaves, and worn a scarf once (while in the US). What is going on! It's been hot here, and IT JUST ISN'T RIGHT.

However, my private onslaught of Christmas music, crocheting, spiced cider, and secret present-buying has made me feel a little bit better about the rapid passage of time. Milo's already anticipating dusting off his Santa suit from last year, I can see it in his eyes.

Potter-een

Fortunately, I averted disaster this Halloween by NOT dressing up as a child vampire (there were WAY cooler ones everywhere I looked!), and instead found a better idea. While standing in the shower before getting into costume, I was wishing my hair was better behaved, because I just wanted to not do anything to it before the party. Fortunately, there is a beloved book-character of mine who has frizzy brown hair that also looks pretty wretched. Behold Hermione Granger:

But keep in mind that it looked better from a distance, because for some reason Nolan only took pictures from my waist up? I tried to convince him to go as Harry Potter (we have a messy brown wig, even!), but he said he would prefer to be white trash...which ended up looking pretty trashy, but not in the best way. As soon as we arrived, he leaned over and whispered "Man. Harry Potter would have been WAY better!" Maybe I am always right!

The after-effects of Halloween this year are that now I'm fully immersed in the holiday season. All day I have been Christmas shopping, planning decorations for my desk, eating Almond Joys and listening to Bing Crosby's Christmas songs. Oh Bing. I adore you. Nolan imposed a strict law this year banning me from listening to Christmas music out loud until after Thanksgiving, but as long as I have my headphones on, nobody knows ;)