Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

The hub and I rang in the 2011 New Year with our friends, Jon, Danielle and Michael. We started out the night with dinner at Ghengis Cohen and then headed over to my favorite place, Cafe Was, in Hollywood, for cocktails and a concert by Jeff Goldblum. Yes the "fly" apparently plays the piano and sings! We even had two personal encounters with him, one where he wished us a Happy New Year. It was a fun night out on the town and I am paying for it today! Champagne in pretty glasses can be dangerous!

Man, another decade is about to close! Surely, I am getting old. Today was another lazy day. I am really getting used to this having time off thing. It's been a really nice holiday break so far. I pretty much lounged around in bed watching movies all afternoon while hubby and our pal, Jung figured out the Internet connection for hubby's media library. I think I have figured out the key to being able to watch TV in our room without guilt...it is keeping my husband busy with projects!! Or having friends over. While hubby and Jung worked, I got my Jane Austin on with Pride and Prejudice and the Jane Austin Book Club. Before lounging, the 3 of us decided to grab some lunch. Last time Jung was over we were supposed to hit up one of our favorite sub shops, Dave's Chillin and Grillin but it was Sunday and it was closed. So he suggested we go there again this time but remembering it might be a holiday I remembered another sub shop I had bookmarked to try on YELP. Called Mar...

What? Okay winter cleaning. Our house was a mess. Consumerism comes with a lot of extraneous wrappings. We had so much garbage that we had extra bags of garbage sitting every which way. Suffice to say, we spent the day cleaning up our house and I was wondering why I don't have a maid. Oh well, good exercise. The day ended with me in my room watching some movies while hubby worked on his media library. Around dinner time we happened to look on Twitter and noticed the Grilled Cheese Truck was at our neighborhood bar so hubby went and got us some grub. Think Mac and Cheese and Rib Meat Sandwich and a sandwich special of the day, some tater tots with hot cheese and finally some tortilla corn soup. Yummers! And what a perfect lazy day!

Hubby broke down and bought me a TV for our room for Christmas. He told me "I am never going to see you again am I?" When we lived in Sherman Oaks with another couple I spent a lot of time in my room because we had a TV in our bedroom. Hubby thought I was in there because of the TV but I told him someone was always watching the main TV in the living. When we bought our house we agreed not to have a TV. That last what almost 4 years. A girl just needs a TV in her room to watch movies or when the hubby works nights and a girl just wants to be in bed. So I have promised to try and not be in our room all the time. With that said look at my new TV!

I haven't had a snow day in forever! I think the last time I have seen snow was in 2004 when I went home to Michigan and vowed never ever again to return to Michigan in the dead of winter (due to the rather large snow storm I had encountered). Don't get me wrong, I like snow but living in it and visiting it are two different things. Our mission for today, was to take in some sledding with our nephew, Clayton and introduce our dog, Moses to snow. Shaver Lake is about an hour away from the hubby's parents house. We loaded up the Rusca big truck with snow clothes and a sled and we took off on Tuesday morning on some twisty roads. Moses wasn't too fond of sitting in the back seat of the truck so he ended up sitting on my lap!! All 60 pounds of him!! We arrived in Shaver Lake which immediately reminded me of the awesomeness of Big Bear. I saw all the cabins and thought it might be cool to rent one for a week one year. Hum. We will have to check into that la...

Sanger is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone. It's so bad that when hubby's Dad remarried he married a lady who went to school with the husband his mom remarried to. I could go on and on but that is Sanger, a town where everybody knows your name. As far as Christmas celebrations go, the hubster and I attended quite a few this year. There was our 22/23rd celebration, the Clayton celebration, the Santa/stocking celebration, the Donovan celebration, The Rusca White Elephant celebration and last but not least the Fay Fay and Mo Mo celebration. That one was so good we did it twice this year! hehe The first time we did the Fay Fay and Mo Mo Christmas was on the 26th and the second time was on the 27th. All I can say is that you can never have too many cocktails which is why we needed two parties! The first night was a vodka/cranberry kind of night and the second, was a mimosa kind of night. The first night was a dog centric kind of night and the second, a kid...

From Facebook Me: Game Over... loved Kings Speech! Colin Firth otherwise known as Mr Darcy should just take home the Oscar! Geoffrey Rush too and hey while ur at it best picture! Monday at 3:59pm via BlackBerry · · Like · Comment · Share Philip, Jonathan and Janey Jaye like this. Ben: No, you are terribly mistaken my dear lol. Monday at 4:09pm · Like Me: I am older than you don't call me dear. So young whipper snapper what pray tell will win? Monday at 4:20pm via Facebook Mobile · Like Ben: You are older, but you look like you're right at my age! ;-) Monday at 4:22pm · Like Me: So what will win? I have to go see whatever u think will win. Monday at 4:28pm · Like Ben: What should win, "Toy Story 3", hands down. What probably will win, "The Social Network" or "The Fighter". "Black Swan" will get nominated and I would love for it to win, but it's too indie of a film and not commercial enough for The Acad... like "Network" and ...

After some light shopping in the morning we headed to another mall as we had some time to waste before going over to see hubby's Dad. At this mall we really couldn't find anything either but stopped dead in our tracks when we hit the Disney Store. The only thing that interests me at the Disney Store these days are Vinylmation! Vinylmation are collectible Mickey Figurines that are designed by Disney animators aka the new trading pins. It's the hottest thing at Walt Disney World and Disneyland these days. There are various series to collect. The one I am most interested in is the Toy Story series. Santa brought hubby Buzz Lightyear in his stocking. So I bought two more Toy Story figurines (got the TRex and the toy Baby) and I also found a new Urban #3 figurine so I bought one of those too. What makes Vinylmation collecting fun and sometimes annoying is that the figures come completely wrapped so you don't know what you are getting until after you buy one and open ...

...was spent shopping but not because we wanted to but because we had to! Had to you you say? One of our Christmas presents was a gift certificate to a mall and since we don't live nearby we just had to get out there and spend it. Some of you might say well why don't you save it? Well, apparently these days if you get a gift card it can expire or they can access fees to the gift card so that it pretty much eliminates the sum given if you wait too long to spend it. The card we received was a $30 gift card and according to the rules it deductions $2.50 per quarter. Well at 4 quarters that is $10 a year! Isn't that crazy? I thought it was illegal in California for Gift Certificates to expire but apparently if the gift certificate is linked to a VISA, AMEX or MASTERCARD those companies can deduct maintenance fees whenever they want! Hubby's mom mentioned she had a gift card from the same mall from a few years ago and when she went to check the balance it said $0. ...

As tradition goes, we awoke and found ourselves immersed in stockings. The Sanger Santa is pretty good at finding unique and fun things to put in a stocking. This year I was quite fond of my Parisian Magnet and also this new scent from Bath and Body works called Fiji, hum, I wonder if Santa remember hubby and I honeymooned there. I think he has a good memory. Our nephew, Clayton came over and opened his presents. He must have been a good boy this year because he got a new bike. After Santa, we went over to see some of hubby's cousins. We had fun catching up, grubbing and playing some games on their new xBox Kinect. Then we ended up at the Rusca's for the annual White Elephant Exchange. This year was the first time that a lot of stealing went on. It was pretty exciting. I need up with some pillows and a gift certificate to Old Speghetti Factory and hubby got some kind of blender thing that makes shakes. Another nice Christmas.

So we made it to Sanger around 3pm today and found the house had been redecorated, on the outside! Looks like hubby's parents have gotten some new windows, some new shutters and a new black door. The black door looked particularly nice and I am wondering how one would look on our house? Hum. Dinner was rearing to go at 6pm and once again we had a great feast. After dinner we opened presents with our nephew who I am happy to report is the new owner of a new Epic Mickey Game, A Spanish Talking Buzz Light Year and much much more. Once again Sanger Santa was quite nice to us.

The hubster and I are heading to Sanger for Christmas. This year we weren't sure if we were going to make it up until the last minute due to Hubby's work. The show he is working on has been quite busy trying to get a show out so everyone had to hang on till the last minute to see if they would have to work on the 24th. Luckily he received word that he had the day off last night. So we are on our way to Sanger this morning. In other news...Happy 58th birthday to my mom, Linda, who is celebrating her birthday by....working. Awe don't you just love consumerism and being able to buy presents up until the very last minute. Perhaps one of these days I can spend Christmas with my mother again. Perhaps the work Gods will give her one of these years off. Maybe next year?

For the past couple years the Hubby and I have celebrate Christmas on our own before going to see family. Usually it's on the 23rd. Well, this year we took two days. On the 22nd we decided to open our presents to each other and our presents for Moses. We also opened the items in our stockings. Then on the 23rd we decided to go out for our Xmas dinner together. This year we went to The Melting Pot, think fondue. I had high hopes for being able to stick food into cheese and chocolate but all I can say after the experience is that its the biggest waste of $100 ever! Luckily we had a gift card so it didn't really cost us a thing except wasted time. The service was so completely horrible that we were able to sneak out of the restaurant as no one was paying attention. Don't worry, we left the gift card but we could have easily not have. Apparently our waiter was into waiting on a bigger holiday table aka a table with a bigger tip so our celebration meant nothing to ...

Happy "real" birthday to Hubby who actually turns 35 today. We have been celebrating all week that when we got today we had to clarify to people that this was the real deal. We had a great party for him over the weekend that was Alice themed and a big ole cake. Last night I gave him card over dinner and so tonight all that was left was to give him his present. I hope he likes his Mac Mini! Hubby is building a media library and he really wanted a Mac Mini to run his library. Along with some terabytes he should be rearing to go!!! Happy Birthday Hubby!!!

Tonight, we not only celebrated the hubby's big birthday but we celebrated our friend's 20th Wedding Anniversary too. I had seen my friend at work yesterday when he stopped by and I asked him what he and his wife were doing for the big celebration. He said they may go out. I told him about our dinner and asked if he wanted to tag along and him and the wife agreed. So that is how we got to celebrate a wedding anniversary with our birthday. It's hard to imagine friends our age who have been together for 20 years but it looks like we have one set of friends who fit just that distinction. Who are these people you ask? They are no other than the Forsgren's, whom were married when they were 18 and 20 years old. As if that isn't amazing enough in this day and age, they married after only knowing each other for 6 months. The four of us went to Ruth Chris Steak House for dinner to celebrate. Ruth Chris is known for their 500 degree buttery cooked steaks that are...

Man have these past weeks ever been busy! Not only has work been busy but life at home. Then there is Christmas and all that comes with the holidays and you could say at this very moment I am pooped. I have just finished cleaning my house after an epic costumed birthday party centered on Alice in Wonderland. The purpose, to celebrate my husband's 35th year of birth. After showering me with 35 surprises for my 35th this past summer, I thought long and hard what I could do to try and make it up to him. I settled on a costume party with a scavenger hunt and a massive, outrageous 8 layer themed cake. Spent the last 6 weeks cutting out hearts, stickering this and that, ordering stuff online, trying to figure out if I could replicate a beautiful fondant cake I found online and you know enough craft projects to make 35 things for a scavenger hunt. Suffice to say I was pretty busy. And like all major events in my life we get to party day and it rains. Well, instead of stressing a...

THE INSPIRATION: THE REALITY: I never in my life thought that I could possibly make a cake like you see on TV, like on one of those "Ace of Cake" shows but it just goes to show you if you make up your mind to do something, anything is possible. So thus, you have this 8 layer birthday cake for hubby's 35th birthday aka "The Reality." I owe a big, big word of thanks to my girlfriend, Kristy, who helped me tackle this beheamoth. She is an avid baker and better yet, she has a good friend who used to work in a bakery that she consulted for advice. With both her and her friend's advice in place, I was able to buy all the ingredients (and pans) needed to make this birthday cake. My second set of instructions after purchasing all the materials was to bake all 8 cakes. So I baked them and stuck them in the freezer. Apparently cake is a lot easier to handle and frost when its frozen. Kristy came over and we spent 6 hours decorating the cake. There were s...

I finally made it to the original Kaysu-ya this past Friday with some co-workers. This has to be one of the best sushi places I have ever been to!!! Very fresh sushi!

Happy Decmeber!!! My brother's son is only 11 months old and he already has a school picture (aka his daycare took these pictures). Isn't he so cute? He definately looks like my brother at that age.

I am so excited for my little nephew who will be celebrating his very first Christmas (out of the womb) this year.