a random ass day.

our saturday began with a lovely dim sum at house of louie. now, it's not really "authentic" dim sum - it's far from the hundreds of cart ladies offering all sorts of stuff i don't recognize and are afraid of, out in alhambra/monterey park. but it's close to home, the siu mai and har gow are delish, and it's almost never crowded, so it works for us. of course, it was just the kid and me - the hub is far from a dim sum fan, and he stayed home with the bean and ate tamales instead. heh.

after we'd devoured every last bit, we said goodbye to my cousin r, who's going back home to nyc, and then the four of us hopped in the car and drove up to lake arrowhead. we hadn't been up there in ages, and the hub was hoping to score on a discounted coach briefcase at the outlet store in lake arrowhead's village shopping area.

and although we expected it, damn - it was frigid up in there. i'd bundled the bean up in her new baby gap sweater outfit, and i was glad i did, because what seemed like an overly warm ensemble ended up being exactly what she needed to keep warm. the hub managed to score his briefcase - a $500 item marked down to $260 - and i thought i'd found those elusive tall chocolate uggs. alas, they had only a size 9 and that's far too big for me. boo.

we walked through the whole village, stopped for caramel apples and hot chocolate (of course, i only had the latter - you know me), and then got back in the car and headed back down to rancho cucamonga's victoria gardens mall.

after driving by several restaurants and seeing the hordes of folks waiting for tables, we decided to head over to the ginormous, new bass pro shop and eat at the seafood restaurant there. i was surprised to hear that they HAD a restaurant, but the kid (who doesn't even like seafood) assured me that it was tasty. "they've got sweet tea, mom, and they sprinkle sugar on top of the bread and bake it till it melts a little and it's SOOOOO good."

even this restaurant had a two-hour (!) wait, but the hub managed to score a table in the bar area, which was first-come, first-served and offered the full menu. and i could see why people were attracted to this place - it was cheap as hell and the portions were pretty generous. i chose the shrimp pasta with lobster cream sauce and was really surprised to note that there was almost more shrimp than pasta! the kid was totally right about the bread. yummy.

and the bass pro shop was ridiculous - full of hunting, fishing, camping, etc. gear that just made me laugh. this top, in particular, gave me a case of the giggles that i couldn't shake for a while:
because, i mean, really? really?? oh man, i'm laughing all over again. hee hee!

but i did manage to find ONE redeeming quality about the place - they had every flavor of moon pie i'd ever heard of! i scooped up a vanilla, chocolate, banana, and orange. mmm, moon pies. marshmallowy goodness.

see? it's always, always about the food.

oh, and in answer to a couple of yesterday's comments - if you're ever in old town monrovia and pass by a joint called "devon"...don't. just don't. unless, of course, you WANT some blue cheese ice cream. i'm just sayin'.

happy new year, all! i'm not going to tell you what we're doing tonight till it's over. hopefully i don't get to butter knife status at any time during the evening. wish me luck.

blue cheese ice cream, and other gastronomic delights

that's right. this unfortunate concoction was actually part of our dinner on friday night. the kid wanted to hang with some friends at the local street fair, so we dropped her off while we headed off in search of some grub. of course, as i predicted, there IS no street fair when it's 45 degrees outside, but she happily joined her posse in front of the movie theatre and they took off to the nearest coffee bean.

we found ourselves at a restaurant that was empty save for two couples - one who was obviously on their first date. the hub and i snickered at the wrapped bouquet of red roses on the table and the cautious, probing conversation ("i'm allergic to cats." "my favorite color is blue.")

as we perused our menus. there was a strange combination of sushi/pasta/seafood, but we managed to find stuff that sounded tasty. we skipped the caribou, though. we're not THAT adventurous in our meal choices.

our amuse bouche was a really tasty tidbit that featured a nice little piece of smoked salmon topped with a creme fraiche-like substance, atop what looked like a fried wonton. i don't know if that's what it was exactly, but i popped it in my mouth and hoped the rest of the meal was going to follow suit.

i ordered a fabulous grilled alaskan king crab salad to start, and the hub went with a basic caprese salad. mozzarella is his friend. and then the server brought out the first item that caused us both to raise an eyebrow - "cranberry and basil sorbet, to cleanse your palate", he says.

it was gross. the basil was overwhelming, and beyond the pretty pink color of the ice, there was no cranberry flavor to be found. the hub and i stuck a spoonful in our mouths and made the same face - man, i wish i could've taken a picture. it was pretty damn funny.

as for the rest of our meal, the ribeye steak was a'ight, but the wine sauce was far too sweet for me. ew. and my poor, patient hub - because we had the bean with us and she was hungry too (she always times her cries for sustenance to coincide with MY food arriving all nice and hot and stuff), he ended up cutting my steak into nice little bite-size pieces for me. yes, i was like a six-year-old who couldn't be trusted with a steak knife. and, before you ask, i don't whip out a boob for all to see. i have a - oh, i can hardly bring myself to say it. um, i'll just call it a nursing cover. this is what it's actually called.

anyway, we finished our entrees and largely ignored the server as we checked out the dessert menu and he rattled off some modifications to that night's selections. the hub ended up being really sorry he didn't pay attention, as the "baked peaches" he ordered turned out to be baked persimmons instead. "this is NOT good," he grumbled - as i happily dug into my creme brulee.

and to top it off, that's where that horrific blue cheese ice cream came in. those slices of baked persimmon were placed decoratively in a floral formation around a perfectly round scoop of the stuff. we exchanged fearful glances as we both stuck our forks in to test it out.

and at first, i thought it wasn't bad. it was definitely blue-cheesy, but with a hint of sweetness that really didn't taste that bad. "this is fucking disgusting," the hub mumbled as he rolled the rest of the scoop onto my plate. and after i finished every last bit of my own dessert (which was different from the typical creme brulee - it was actually layered with slices of phyllo dough that had been baked till crunchy, and the burnt sugar on top was kind of sprinkled on instead of a crunchy layer) and went back to the blue cheese ice cream, i realized it WAS as disgusting as he proclaimed it to be, and i set my fork down in defeat.

no wonder that joint was fucking empty on a friday night.

just what i've always suspected.

shit, man. i thought i could've been at least sophomore-level. must've been my bathroom humor. or the bridal twirling. perhaps the 4th-grade jokes?

eh, whatever. i still think i'm funny ;)

rawr!

tater came to yesterday's lunch with a gift for the bean:

i went right home to put them on her, and they're just so damn cute. i personally think they go really well with this picture:


the bean and i say "thank you, tater!"

no, they aren't undercooked.

i am no longer a soup dumplings virgin, thanks to a fun lunch today with tater, monkey, and lilcee. mmm!

we met at mei long village in san gabriel - lilcee and monkey were both there already, but at different tables. hee! we opted to sit at lilcee's table, because it was bigger and right in front, but as soon as we got settled, the grumpy waitress barked at us to move to a smaller table. i was too scared of her to protest, and we ended up in the same area as monkey's original spot.

a couple of minutes later, tater arrived and then we placed our order. and by "we", i mean lilcee and monkey. all may LOOK same, but all sure as hell don't speak same. and not much longer after that, these arrived:

(i didn't take this picture, but someone else on google images did)

we had two kinds - the "regular" shanghai dumplings and crab & pork dumplings. after listening intently to the instructions on how to eat these little bundles of happiness, i scooped one up, dipped it into the ginger/vinegar mixture, and took a bite.

and fell in love.

i tried both kinds, although they tasted the same to me. and that's a good thing, because they were oh-so-scrumptious! i could probably have eaten more, but i didn't want to look like a little piggy. heh.

it was the usual fun chit-chat and laughter, but it was a "mini-me" sort of GTG, since monkey and tater both had to get back to work. boo. but it was still fun, and on our way back to our cars we stopped in at beard papa's for some cream puffs. how lucky for us that it was in the same plaza! and i found it comical that there were THREE places within feet of each other that compete for the soup dumplings crown.

when i got home, i tried to explain the soup dumplings to the hub:

me: "they're really delicious, a lot like dim sum."
hub: "oh. yum. what are they exactly?" (obviously, not a fan)
me: "they're these little dumplings, and you bite into them and there's yummy soup inside."
hub: "SOUP?? are you sure it's not just undercooked batter or something? why is there SOUP in there? that's just weird. that sounds nasty as hell. i bet they're raw and you're gonna get salmonella and..."
me, fully exasperated: "i'm taking the bean to change her diaper now."

tomorrow i get to have dim sum - making up for the lost dinner with r and k. we're going to house of louie, which is far from the hordes of siu mai and cha su bao of alhambra/san gabriel/monterey park, but it's not bad. and it's close to home. fabulous.

and, i have a totally random, totally off-topic request for those of you who know me "in real life". working on our wills and living trust and crap like that got me thinking about part of the reason i blog to begin with - my girls. i've never shown it to the kid, partly because i love to drop the f-bomb and other fun words in here. but if something were ever to happen to me, will someone out there make sure she knows it exists? not that i think i'm the most captivating writer that ever was, but it might be fun for her to peek into her weird mom's head and see what i was thinking, how i saw things, and most of all, how much i love her, the bean, the hub, my friends, family, etc., etc., etc. i think she knows how much i love her, mainly because i tell her every time i see her, and plant big fat kisses on her when she's not expecting it (which usually results in squeals of "moooooooom!! omg, someone could be looking!"). anyway, that's my request. um, thanks.

and, to end this post on a lighter note, here's a new picture of the bean. gotta love the tee:

heh. i don't even really like oprah that much, but the shirt was a gift. the hub just rolled his eyes, as i'm sure y'all are doing.

too many damn cooties!

so i was totally looking forward to having dinner with my cousin r, who lives in nyc and is home for a very brief holiday visit, and our friend k, who's my cousin's ex-girlfriend. we always have a great time together, and the last time we had some bonding time was this past summer in vegas. good times, good times.

i got a text yesterday morning from k, who said she was feeling like crap but was still planning on heading out. and then r called and said she was going to spend the afternoon napping, because she was feeling kind of out of it, and was hoping to sleep it off.

you can guess what ended up happening. we had to give in and cancel, because both girls still felt like shit and didn't want to give me any germs to take home to the bean. boo. but we rescheduled for saturday morning, when the kid would be around - we could have dim sum! mmm.

and i was supposed to drive out to BFE to see my BFF this afternoon - we had gifts to exchange, and she still hadn't met the bean. we'd been trying to schedule a visit for weeks, and i was finally set on driving down to her casa today. and guess what?

yup. her kids were feverish and yakking and crap. ew. boo x 2. so we've now postponed to next week.

plus, the hub's grandfather and brother were both sick on christmas day. we still went to have dinner with them all, but had lots and lots of purell on hand. heh.

so now we're sitting here waiting for my parents to come and take us to lunch. yay! at least SOMEONE'S well enough to spend time with us.

post-holiday letdown

i remember reading "peanuts" comic strips when i was younger where lucy talked about experiencing a little bit of depression after all the christmas gifts were opened, trees were dismantled, and decorations put away.

i go through this every year. i so love christmas. i love the smell of a fresh tree and drinking hot chocolate while pulling ornaments out of the storage boxes and reminiscing about holidays past. i dig making our list of people and thinking about what gifts to buy for them. i enjoy lugging the bags (or, like this year, bringing the boxes in when the ups man drops them on the doorstep) in from the car. i have a ton of fun wrapping and labeling each present, imagining the recipient's response when they tear apart the pretty paper and see what's inside. and i like how the giving and love of the season brings out the best in people. what can i say, i'm a sap. but y'all knew that already ;)

and now...it's over. boo. i know it'll be here again before i know it, because this year absolutely flew by, but i'm still a little sad that all the planning and anticipation is over. and it was the bean's first christmas! awwww.

we're trying to think of something fun for new year's eve now. the kid is all over us to figure out a cool way to ring in 2008, and so far we haven't thought of a single damn idea. the hub's got tickets for the rose bowl game, so at least he'll have fun on january 1st, but that just means we damn well better think of some new year's eve fun for the rest of us!

so this is christmas

and what have you done? [breaking out lighter and swaying]

well, i've given and i've received. boy oh boy, did i receive!

i got two of the biggest things on my wish list! the hub said "we tried to get the uggs too, but they were sold out EVERYWHERE."

no biggie! i received some cash from the ILs, so i'll just scoop those up after nordie's has a chance to restock ;) i also scored some new paige premium jeans, a book by one of my favorite authors, and a stocking full of yummy snacks and treats.

and it wouldn't be christmas without the yule log on tv (i tried to explain this silly tradition to the hub, and he actually sat and gazed at it with glazed eyes for a while before switching over to tbs and "a christmas story"):

some of my gazillion cousins and i took a group pic at last night's family gathering:


and the kid had been looking for "footie pajamas" for months. i managed to find some, in flannel, no less - and they have the drop seat! just a quick rip of velcro and she can go potty without having to get nekkid. and she really loved 'em (yup, the run dmc shirt was on her list too):


here's the bean in her santa outfit before she started drooling on the fur collar and we had to put something else on her:

the hub dug his new ugg slippers and workout clothes. plus, we scooped up "the perfect pushup" as a joke, after he'd eyed the infomercial for a full five minutes last week. ha!

him: "hey, that's kind of cool. pull up the website, will ya?"
me (sitting at the mac, as usual): "bwahahahaha! they have those at sport chalet! i saw it there."

and then i tried to change the subject really fast. sport chalet ain't exactly one of my usual haunts, so if he'd been listening to me (hee hee! i couldn't even type that without bursting into laughter at how inconceivable that would be), he'd have questioned me on it. i'm not sure if he'll keep it, but it was funny to watch his reaction when he pulled the wrapping paper off.

quite a lovely christmas, indeed. hub didn't get peace on earth, but otherwise, i think everyone's wish lists were covered.

now i must get cookin' on those au gratin potatoes for dinner at the grandparents'. the giving and receiving ain't quite over, folks.

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night!

some unexpected alone time!

i'm sitting here with dye in my hair, waiting for my grays to magically disappear. the hub is out with the bean, playing santa and delivering gifts to friends. and i get to pick up the kid in about an hour. this is weird. i haven't had time alone like this since before the bean was born. and i don't really know how i feel about it!

so my family gathering is tonight, at my gram's. yup - party at the senior center rec room! two years in a row! woo-hoo! break out the ben-gay and jell-o!

i finished wrapping every last gift last night. finally. sheesh. every square inch of space under our tree is occupied by presents! i think we probably went way over our budget for gifts, but then again, what budget haven't we blown to bits? heh.

the kid's got a crapload of stuff to open. it was funny - at the age of twelve, she finally figured out that she could get everything she wanted by giving each parent a different wish list. bwahahahaha! i don't know exactly what she asked her dad for, but from us "the only thing i put on my wish list for you guys is an iPod touch. that makes it easy, right?"

i actually wanted one of those things, myself, because i can't have the iPhone. i refuse to switch from my beloved verizon, and i thought it was the next best thing - just without the phone part. but my dear friends monkey and tater quickly educated me when i said it was going to be on my own wish list for christmas. since i'm not that big into music (i have a pink iPod mini that i got for my birthday three years ago, but i only use it at the gym. and we all know how often that is these days), the internet connection only works when you're in a wifi area, AND there isn't a camera built in (apple, that's really stupid. but i bet you're going to come out with an iPod touch with camera AFTER the holidays, aren't you?), it would be one big fat waste of cash. cash that could be spent on other useful things for me, like those tall chocolate uggs. or the nikon d40x. hell, i'd be happy with some new nursing bras. how sad. how very, very sad. oh, well.

the hub's going golfing with his gramps, brother and uncle tomorrow morning, right after we drop the kid back off at her dad's for christmas day. i may actually have time to blog! haha! but if i don't:

happy holidays, from the bean (and the kid, the hub, the dog, and me) to you!

yup, that's my baby.

so we're sitting there in church this morning, enjoying the music of the orchestra and choir. the bean is blissfully sleeping, looking like an absolute angel, and folks are oohing and aahing over her left and right.

and then the music stops, and she awakens with a start - opening those gorgeous eyes, arms and legs flailing in the air, and smiling a sweet smile. it's a moment of silent prayer, and what does the little booger do?

SHE RIPS ONE.

actually, not just once, but twice. her little hiney absolutely explodes with the loudest, juiciest farts ever. actually, this is not out of the ordinary. as cute as she is, the bean's got the most extraordinary farting skills i've ever experienced. the hub and i are always pointing to each other whenever someone jokingly questions where she could possibly have gotten that from.

and for the rest of the service, the hub and i are giggling like naughty children. lucky for us, we're sitting in the very back of the church, largely unnoticed by most of the congregation.

hee hee! why is bathroom humor so damn funny?

i couldn't stay away.

the hub and his bro took off to have some male bonding time, and so i decided i'd do a rundown of the weekend thus far. besides, if i wait till after christmas like i promised, the recap would be so long, i'd lose readers. y'all would drop. like. flies. so, here goes:

friday:

we didn't end up doing the santa thing after all, because we simply ran out of time. instead, the hub ran off to the mall to pick up some last-minute secret santa gifts for his team dinner and get his hairs cut, and the bean and i just hung out at home and relaxed. and when he got home, the tales he told of parking hell, hordes of folks shopping frantically, and the mile-long line to see santa were enough to curl my hair. well, maybe not. my fabulous new flat iron is far too good to be ruined by nightmarish retail stories.

and then it was 5:00. MIL arrived to take care of the bean for the evening, we got ready, and then we were off to the party. i'd really wanted to skip it, and the hub was totally cool with that, but i really didn't want him to go alone. besides, i dig the CW's wives, so it wasn't going to be that bad.

or was it? dun dun dun!!

we ended up getting there so early that it appeared that we were the first to arrive. and we certainly couldn't have that! so we pulled a u-turn in search of the nearest starbucks. mmmm, cinnamon dolce latte. anyway, we killed a little time, checked out the gorgeous homes in the neighborhood, finished our coffees, and then headed back to join the party.

and by then, it was in full swing - we hugged and air-kissed our hellos through the crowd and found our way to our seats. it was one hell of a setup - the house was a beautiful, sprawling one-story (the hub said it was a little too modern for his tastes, but i dug it), and there was one long rectangular table and four rounds to seat the 40 guests in attendance. of course, i had to sneak this picture, but i'm glad i did. visual aids are oh so helpful for my blog entries!

the hub and i have a running joke about things like this - i always say i'd rather poke my eyeballs out with a rusty butter knife than sit through these things, and after the first six speeches and toasts, i was definitely at butter knife stage. his partner's wife and i huddled together and muttered comments to each other about everything from what folks were wearing, what was being said, and how much we'd rather be ANYWHERE else but there. heh.

in the past, we spouses were given "small tokens of appreciation". the first year, little blue boxes (you know what kind i mean) with sweet little silver heart necklaces were placed on our seats. last year, it was a nice, soft coach knit scarf. i couldn't wait to see what trinket we'd receive this year.

but, hmph. apparently, they decided to cut out the spouse gifts this year. bastards. i leaned over and told the hub "next year, y'all had best put the spouse gifts back in the budget. you gotta give us some kind of incentive to sit through this shit." i got a sheepish grin and a halfhearted comeback about "hey, you get to stay home with the bean. isn't that gift enough?"

well, hell. he was dead on, and i shut my piehole about it for the rest of the night.

anyway, we finally got out of there at midnight. their secret santa exchange was absolute chaos, but it was full of laughter and everyone had a good time. he took this picture of me, and it's not my favorite, but i'll post it anyway. because i promised i would. and i am a woman of my word. you can't really see the whole dress, nor the shoes, but you get the idea. i told him that next year, i was going to find a smart pantsuit or a very short dress. he didn't get it until i started pointing out the attire on the other females in attendance.

i was thrilled to get home and cuddle the bean. we'd been gone for all of six hours and i missed her like mad. i mean, how can you stay away for too long from this?
she's discovered that snacking on her fingers is fun too:
oh, i just melt into a puddle. i love the bean so much! and the kid is definitely getting into this sister thing. she's gotten to be much more hands-on and holds her arms out to snuggle with her, and does everything she can to console her when she cries. it's so sweet to watch them together.

saturday:

we slept in. well, the hub REALLY slept in, and the bean and i sat and caught up on a week's worth of general hospital. and then around noon (yes, i said NOON), we finally got up, took showers, and then headed out to old town pasadena to grab some lunch at sushi roku.

and, ohhhhhh. baked crab hand roll = heaven on earth. seriously. i mean, come on - it was crab claw meat baked in a buttery sauce with rice all rolled up nice and purty in rice paper and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. oh, mylanta (as the kid would say) - i could've eaten about five of these things. THE most delicious thing i've had in a very long time, unless you count the smoked salmon rolls at cafe japengo a couple of weeks ago. and the bone-in ribeye steak for wan-niversary dinner at fleming's. ooh, or the fluffernutter cupcake from crumbs bake shop.

what was i talking about?

um, yeah. so anyway, we discovered that santa was right outside the door of sushi roku, all ready and waiting for a little bean to come visit and take a picture. for $20, we could have five pictures on a CD, or $10 would give us the chance to take three snapshots with our own camera. and hey, i just happened to have the camera in my bag. whaddaya know!

but she was sleeping, so we did a little shopping at paper source and sur la table, and then went back and took this:

no lines, no screaming kids, no crowds of parents invading my personal space. effing sweet.

we capped our day with a birthday dinner with the hub's grandfather at a local italian restaurant, and now i'm going to finish wrapping a few gifts and snuggle with my baby till the hub gets home.

damn, i wish i had a baked crab hand roll right now. [drool]

it's here! it's here!

this is most likely my last post until after christmas. that's a yay! AND a boo. all in one. heh. things left to do:

• take the bean to see santa. why we put this off till the very last minute, i'll never know. then again, i'm the girl who just sent out christmas cards YESTERDAY.
• make more nipple treats. yes, i know i said i was all done with 'em, but i have a lot of leftover pretzels, and it's a shame to waste them. especially since i searched high and low for the damn things.
• finish wrapping gifts. i thought i'd be done, but i have every last one of the kid's gifts to do still. i didn't want to do it while she was at home, and now she's at her dad's till monday.
• scoop up a few more stocking stuffers for the hub. this is the first year that i don't have a lot of personal cash to spend on a nice gift for him, so the best i have to offer is a new pair of ugg slippers (which he wanted, but is less than stellar in the "exciting gift" category). at least they're cool, though - not your typical beige uggs. he'll like them. i think. oh, and the framed picture people photos. those, i'm sure, will be a hit. he's a sucka for his baby girl.
  
• find something to wear for christmas eve and day. my wardrobe is pretty limited these days - everything has to have a nice big v-neck. i enjoy nursing, but don't dig the restrictions on my attire!
• put up the new ornaments we bought the other day at the hallmark store. each of us gets to pick a new ornament every year, and this time we got to pick one to commemorate the bean's first christmas. awwww.
• go to the grocery store to buy the makings of au gratin potatoes. i volunteered to make them for christmas day at the hub's grandparents' house, and i don't have any of the ingredients on hand, of course. that would imply planning ahead. psh.
  

i think that's it. i'm sure i'll come across more things that need to be done, but right now i need to figure out what the bean's gonna wear to see st. nick. and i have to get all snazzy for tonight, which is the hub's team christmas dinner. i finally get to rock the gold dress i bought months ago! hopefully it'll look better on me tonight than it did when i was pregnant. we'll see.

merry christmas, everybody! hope santa brings you everything on your list, whether you were naughty or nice ;)

what do you call folks who are afraid of st. nick?

claustrophobic!

okay, i'm sorry.  i had to.  i heart stupid ass, cheesy as fuck jokes like that.  like:

if you're american when you go into the bathroom, and asian when you come out of the bathroom, what are you when you're IN the bathroom?

get ready to laugh.

or groan.

whatever.  

EUROPEAN!

shut up.  i still think it's funny.

done. with. holiday. stuff.

okay, i'm nipple treats-ed out. i was seriously up till 1am making these damn things for the kid to take to teachers and office staff and the hub to take to his co-workers. it's a hell of a lot easier than last year's cookie extravaganza, but still...

but i guess i shouldn't complain. not at all. my holiday prep this year was so easy compared to previous years - and i did most of it with the bean strapped to my person. i swear to you, i'll never do christmas shopping in the mall again (at least, not the bulk of it). online is king.

yesterday's visit to the picture people (sorry, monkey, i know you cringe every time you see that) was quite a success! of course, i got a little sweaty and flushed, and the kid did a lot of eyerolling, and the bean was crankified by the end of the session, but we emerged from that joint less than an hour later with printed photos in hand. now i just have to get my ass to aaron brothers or something to find a nice frame. the hub is picky about what goes on his desk at work, but i'm hoping he'll be so bowled over by these snapshots that he'll scurry right in to the office and plunk the frame in his cube without a second thought. heh.

omg, i'm a little cleave-tastic in that last one. oops. and please excuse the "zazzle" watermark. of course, i swiped these off the website. i don't have the time to scan 'em in for now. heh.

aaaaand, i finally got the christmas cards done. all 120 of them. it was a royal pain in my ass, and i really don't like how they turned out this year, but they're done. the hub and i had quite a tussle over design and colors, and i actually didn't think we were going to end up even DOING the damn things. but we'd had the photo shoot, and i refused to settle for just giving framed photos as gifts to our folks. so we both sucked it up, gave in on several points, and voila! and then i went to print the envelopes and - nothing. the fucking printer totally shit on me. it would print other things just fine, but for some reason, i couldn't get it to do the envelopes for the life of me. and so what did i do?

i bought another printer.

granted, i needed another one anyway as my old black & white laser wasn't mac-compatible. so i trekked my happy ass out to office depot and picked up a snazzy all-in-one. and it wouldn't print my damn envelopes, either. i couldn't figure it out, and i didn't have the luxury of time to sit there and figure it out. so what did i do? get ready to clutch your pearls, folks.

I MADE LABELS.

that's right. clear labels. i'm so ashamed. i'm hoping that i can play the "i have a newborn, i was lucky to get these out at all" card this year. and now i'm off to the post office to drop these things off. ugh.

bring me food and i will like you.

last night, monkey, tater and i met up with venn diagram and jane18 from the l.a. knot board. our original plan was to have some oaxacan food at guelaguetza restaurante (in koreatown, which still makes me giggle), but somehow they accepted our reservation even though there was a private party going on in there. this seems to be a pattern for me these days - remember the arena club debacle at staples? oy vey.

so we ended up actually having korean food (in koreatown! wow!), which was absolutely delicious. the place was packed, so we waited at the front of the joint and the waitress took our order while we sat and chatted. sweet - food was ready for us once we finally had a table!

monkey has a very detailed recap and pictures here, but here's my version of our group pic:


hee hee! i find it a little sad that we (and winnie, but she couldn't make it last night) seem to be the last of the SFAMily who still troll the l.a. board, but that's okay. we still manage to find entertainment there, i guess! and we found it funny when we came to the realization that food is most definitely the way to our hearts. heh.

and now, i must dash off to finish our christmas cards. yes, 6 days before christmas. hell. i have to make a bunch of nipple treats too, for delivery tomorrow. and we're headed off to the picture people this afternoon. holy hell.

how much fun can you squeeze in one weekend?

well, a LOT. really!

saturday began with my cousin's daughter's baptism - you know, the one who was born a mere week before the bean. we, of course, were running late - the ceremony was set for 10:15. we thought the time was really odd, but then i thought maybe it might've been the only time available. or something.

we arrived at the church at about 10:25 and were a little confuzzled when we pulled into the parking lot and were directed by a couple of teens wearing safety vests to the adjacent lot. and then turned our heads and noticed a SHITLOAD of kids lined up near one of the buildings. great timing for a baptism - seemed it was some kind of holiday toy giveaway or something like that. crap. we parked where we weren't supposed to and strolled into the church.

our 2nd confuzzling moment of the morning came when we saw yet another shitload of folks in the church. i thought, "wow, there's a whole lot of folks here for this kid's baptism, how cool" and then realized i recognized not a single soul.

"are we at the right church?" the kid says. and i look at the invitation again and confirm that yes, we're in the right place. and then we finally see my aunt and uncle and take a seat behind them.

dudes, it was some kind of mass ceremony. there was a long ass line-up of babies being held by their parents, waiting to receive the sacrament of baptism. i'd never seen anything like it before! when the kid was baptized 12-ish years ago, it was just her - we had the church to ourselves and didn't have to share the spotlight with anybody. and then another aunt and uncle came to sit beside us, and after i expressed my bewilderment, my aunt said "this is how they do it now. they just do a bunch at one time." heh. yeah, like cattle. how special. sheesh.

and then she leaned over and said "i bet you could squeeze the bean in and nobody would even know! haha!" and i just kind of gave a half-assed smile. i didn't have the heart (or the time, or the energy) to explain that the bean wasn't going to be raised catholic. nope. uh-uh. not gonna do it.

after it was all over, we got back in the car and decided to find a starbucks before heading over to the reception. we weren't sure what kind of eats were going to be there, and we figured we'd better be prepared. yeah. and when we arrived, we were even more glad that we'd stopped first. just...yeah.

we hung out for about an hour (55 minutes longer than the kid was willing to stay, ha) before heading home. my friend A was coming over and we were going to work on our christmas cards together while munching on treats and gabbing about anything and nothing. this has turned into a regular thing for us, although last year we managed to squeeze it in a little earlier in the season. oh, well.

she brought over a fabulous little package of cupcake bites from crumbs bakery, a couple of full-sized cupcakes, and a sweet little pink & brown outfit for the bean. of course, the latter was beautifully wrapped with lots of tape and a decorative ribbon :)

the pictures i'd sent via costco.com for our cards ended up all fucked up. they cut off the tops and bottoms of my design, and this was totally unacceptable. so i worked on cutting the paper for the layers while A was able to assemble a good number of her cards before leaving for a holiday shindig with her hub.

later, the hub, the kid, and i scurried around the house getting it nice and clean in preparation for the next day's holiday hoorah with the SFAMs. and then i wanted to finish my party favors for the girls, which the kid helped me with - these are so delicious (even though they look like nipples, as the kid noted with a guffaw: these are pretzel rings filled with white chocolate and a festive m&m placed in the middle. might sound kind of gross, but i swear, they're really tasty! those pretzels are ridiculously difficult to find - locally, i can only find pretzels in the traditional shape, rods, or "snaps" - or pick the round pretzels out of bags of chex mix. i've resorted to the latter in the past, but i really wanted to have the original rings that i'd first tried at a friend's party (her SIL made them but stubbornly refused to reveal where she got them, even when i threatened to beat it out of her). so with the magic of google, i found a company in chicago who sells them via www.mybrandsinc.com and voila - i had a case of 6 POUNDS of pretzel rings at my doorstep. eeeverybody's getting these for christmas this year!

and then it was sunday morning and time for the SFAMs to descend upon BFE - otherwise known as my home. most of the girls live out on the west side, so i was particularly grateful that they were willing to come out for our holiday gathering. and the monkey has a great recap here, so i won't reinvent the wheel! instead, i'll share a few pictures of my own, including our holiday decorations.

this is what i put those nipple treats in:

the bean spent most of the hoorah snuggled in the wrap on my chest, kangaroo-style. she slept through almost the entire shindig, but managed to wake up at the tail end long enough for nanette to hold her for a bit.

we also had a lovely assortment of holiday cookies sent to us from our friend madisen, who'd recently moved to florida and wasn't able to join us. and i[dot]j brought a magnificent spread of krispy kremes, plus sugar cookies decorated by her sweet hub.

and a few more comments:

• yup, that's a container of bacon. bacon is good. i like bacon. so i took a picture of it.
• that's one of about 7 different group pics, all taken with different cameras. heh.
• tater's fruit cups were so pretty! again, while i don't eat it, i can certainly appreciate the beauty of it.
• that's the bean in her festive attire, before i wrinkled it all up by carrying her in the wrap.
• and, yes - that's last year's white elephant score, sitting all comfy on the sink. i didn't fill him with any soap, but it was fun to see him again.

lastly, thanks to monkey for my fabulous hot chocolate pot. i so love this thing! i can't wait to whip up some dee-lish cocoa in it. YAY!!