Ramblings of a Crazy Woman

...and I am not even talking about celebrity deaths. How come unexpected expenses, bad luck or breakages come in 3's. First our dryer stopped drying clothes and then our relatively new MAC computer blew out some internal power fuse and wouldn't turn on and now my husband's piece of crap, it's really a lemon, Volkswagon Jetta over heated on the freeway at 4:30AM in the morning and he had to get towed to a repair shop. Lucikly in this round of breakages the costs have been kept to a mimimum. We called our home warranty place and they told us they don't cover dryers so that made us freak about having to buy a new washer. Luckily in the end, the broken dryer prompted my husband to sit down and fix the dryer himself. Then last week the hub sat down to our computer and couldn't get the thing to turn on. We freaked as this was only 2 years old and we had no idea how much that would cost to get fixed. Luckily in this case the Genius Bar people told us we had ...

I found crack for my dog and it's called rotisserie chicken. Let me explain. So last night after work I stopped at the local Vons and did a bit of shopping and happened to walk by the deli. That is when I noticed an employee unload 10 chickens onto the counter. They were still steaming that's how fresh they were. Me and about 9 other people saw this at the same time and we all fought for who would get one of those hot out of the oven chickens. I had a good position at the counter so I got one and I couldn't wait to get home and eat my delectable prize. 10 minutes later I park the car in the back and close the gate and then I open my trunk and let the dog out. Mo who always greets me with such love and attention jumps into the backseat of my car and starts sniffing the bag with the chicken. He too smells the wonderous flavor of rotissserie chicken. I pull the groceries inside and unpack them. All the while, Mo is sitting patiently at the edge of the counter staring ...

This past Friday, I met up with two girlfriends, Cindy and Jessica, at my house. The night was to be simple. Have dinner and some drinks at a restaurant near my house. Given the option of either Mexican (El Iris Taco) or GastroPub (The York), they chose the GastroPub because they had never heard of the word before. Frankly neither had I until I moved into my "up and coming" neighborhood. They asked me and I really didn't know how to respond so I turned their attention to my hubby who explained. This conversation left me hungry for more, so I took to the internet to find our what GastroPub means. Here is what I found.... There’s no single defining element at work, though I’ve heard people trying to argue that things like serving handmade/hand-cut chips, or having a chalkboard with food specials, are the sole feature making a place a ‘gastropub’. Perhaps, though, they could feature on a checklist we might come up with, or a mathematical equation? What It’s Not Even the OED...

As I grew up in Michigan I have had several opportunities to visit Mackinaw Island in the past. It's a very charming if not Victorian type community located to the right of the tip of the Michigan glove. You could really miss the island on the map unless you have previously heard of the following things that make it famous: the Grand Hotel, the Governor's Mansion, Somewhere in Time or fudge. Yes, they make world famous fudge. In my opinion, it just might be the best ever. Mackinaw Island is unique in that no motor vehicles are permitted on the island. So that means you have a couple of options for travelling. You can either find a horse, find a bike or use the legs God gave you and walk. The island isn't very big, only about 5 miles around, so any of these options shouldn't put a person out. While I have been to the island before my hubby, a native of California had not. So we took two days from our recent Yooper trip to visit the island. I had never stayed a...

One of my bridesmaids in my wedding, Mindy, was married over Labor Day Weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Anyone who lives in the UP is called a "Yooper." My girlfriend's parents have a cabin and a house in the UP so my girlfriend visits quite often. The hubby and I left a week early so we could enjoy the great outdoors. We rented a cabin in Deer Park, Michigan. Don't even bother trying to map quest this place because its off the grid! My parents joined us in our two bedroom cabin on Lake Muskelounge and the four of us had a week of fun driving all over the UP. We visited Mackinaw Island and stayed at the Grand Hotel, which was hubby's first visit, we visited a black bear ranch and saw a ton of bears and thought about our friend, Toby and his love of bears, we hiked around Tahquamenon Falls and then of course, there was the main event, the beach front wedding of my friend Mindy to Fred. Here are some gorgeous photos that were taken of the event. The...

You go somewhere cool and people want to know how it was. I promise to keep it short people. It was really cool to spend a week working in London. I debated all week whether or not I could live there and I never really came to an answer. Having no sun for really long periods might be an issue for me. I have always thought it would be cool to go live in a different country and experience the culture. If only for a little while. Work had me eating pretty much all lunches and dinners with vendors. I was booked on every tour there was. It was really cool to be on the "other side of the pond" to see what work life is like for our Head Office. I attended their weekly staff meetings. It was neat to see all the materials they gather from us during the week and how they present the materials to our President and higher up executives. I got to be on a video conference call with Japan (our weekly meetings with them are only conference phone calls). The Japanese were exci...

Well, it looks like my brother and his wife are going to have a little boy! He called me this morning at 7:30AM to let me know the good news. Congrats to Matt and Kate on their little one! The little bundle of joy is expected to arrive January 21st. So it looks like the hub and I will finally be making our way to Chicago sometime in the new year.

While I was in London I found a little piece of heaven. Where is heaven you ask? Oddly enough I found it in a bathroom. My hotel in London was made up of 15 vintage with a modern touch rooms. Or rather, I stayed in this little eclectic hotel. I arrived in London after being up for like 36 hours straight. Suffice to say I was tired. So the first thing I did was take a two hour nap. When I awoke I was all grimy so I took a shower. When I went in the bathroom and opened up the shower I was amazed to find 5 full bottles of product. The name on the bottles was COWSHED. I never heard of it before but the bottles were very pretty, think black and white with flowers. I opened up the shampoo bottle and it smelled so good. I turned on the shower which had one of those huge circle shower heads that came down from the ceiling. I never showered with one before and boy, now that I have I want to swap out my shower head. I can't imagine its good for water conservation but dang it if...

I was preparing myself for rain and what we got was sun and heat. Either way the weather rolled I was heading to the movies and boy did I ever see a lot of movies this weekend! First up was "The Time Travelers Wife', next "Inglorious Basterds" and finally "District 9." The hub's been working Saturday's so I thought I take this last Saturday (cuz he is done with his gig this Friday) to go see a chick flick. There are actually 4 chick flicks I need to see ("Time Travelers", "The Ugly Truth", "Julie & Julia" and "500 days of Summer"). Rather than draggin' the hubby to see something he will hate, I decided to catch up on my cheesy goodness on my own. However, Time Traveler's was neither good nor cheesy. It was kinda just dark and a big downer. I heard this film was a book and perhaps it should have stayed that way. I can only imagine in the book there was more opportunity for dialogue and in...

August is almost over. Bummer. Seems like this summer has flown. Well the good thing is that I live in Southern California so I am sure we are in store for more nice weather but oddly enough it has been quite cool here. I am not complaining at all cuz I am lovin' it as the McD's people would say. Just not this weekend. I heard its going to poor rain. I am looking forward to doing pretty much nothing. I have a lunch date on Sunday with my girlfriend Kristen who is in town from Hawaii. I used to work with her. And then she decided to move home. Who wouldn't want to move home to Hawaii?? I am either supposed to make her lunch or take her to lunch and I am really hoping she likes sushi cuz I am not in the mood to cook. She must after all she is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. I got a gift certificate to Katsuya which is only one of the most amazing sushi places in LA. They opened up a new one in Glendale so I am thinking we can go get sushi and hubby can get his...