wide open weekend

so yesterday, the hub took off for a boys-only fishing trip with his dad, grandpa, and brother. he'll be gone for several days, returning on tuesday afternoon. not quite as lengthy as the africa trip, but still a good chunk of time away. i'm cool with that, as i usually am about him taking off sans me - i relish the time alone to do whatever the hell i feel like, and then just as i'm missing him, poof! he's home.

as i'm driving the kid to school today - after which she goes back to the dark side for a week - she looks over mournfully at me and says "mom, how long are you going to be all alone till E gets home?"

i smile and tell her that he'll be back on tuesday. "but that's a long time for you to be by yourself! that kinda sucks, i'm sorry."

SHE CARES! she really cares :) i thought it was sweet.

the doc and the hub have both repeatedly shook their finger at me and told me to make sure i take it easy and not do too much. as much as i really love the excuse to be lazy as all hell, it just doesn't feel right. especially as we finally have an official moving date - which is looming ever-so-ominously near. the kid and i managed to make some headway last night in her room and my office...and then headed to in-n-out for dinner. ha! twice in one week for me. that's pretty crazy, considering i went for months without indulging in a yummy double-double. and this time i didn't hold back - i went for that neopolitan shake, too. oh, so scrumptious.

i've already been fairly productive this morning, too. i kept my word and hit the gym after dropping the kid off, and also dropped off a truckload of shower thank-yous at the post office. i'd love to elaborate, but it'll have to wait till next week. ;)

and last night, as the kid and i relaxed after stuffing ourselves silly, i busted out the bag of hello kitty marshmallow treats. because what i really needed was more snacks, right? there's always room for snacks. i popped one of those squishy puffs in my mouth, glanced down at the bag and found this:


i must've made a face similar to this:
because the kid took one look at me, ran over and saw what i was looking at, and cracked the hell up.

"BWAHAHAHAHA, mom, you're totally eating OLD marshmallows! ew!"

fuck it. i ate a few more and i'm eyeing the bag as i type this. hmph.

it's gonna be a hot ass long weekend, all. keep that water within arm's reach and stay hydrated! i don't want to hear about anybody passing out from the unbearable heat. be safe and have fun!

i'm pregnant.

yes, i realize this isn't news. but honestly, through the last 8 months, i've never felt as pregnant as i did yesterday. like, it just HIT me. i've been waddling for a while, but all of a sudden i just felt absolutely ginormous. i don't even know what it was, but it's like i was totally leading my body around by my belly, which seems like it's doubled in size overnight! my legs feel overworked under the extra weight, i can't breathe, and it doesn't help that it's hotter than the ninth circle of hell these days. still love being pregnant, to be honest, and i'm not ready for it to end yet, but wow. just, wow.

i am, however, happy to say that i've made it to the gym two mornings in a row, and plan to hit it up again tomorrow. having the kid around really helps motivate me, because the gym is right on the way home and i have absolutely no excuse not to go. i'm definitely slowing down - my heart rate shoots up when i'm just warming up - but i figure, it's still better than nothing. i ran a shitload of errands today. it's almost ridiculous, how many times i parked and got in and out of the car. check this:

• took the kid to school
• went to the gym
• came home, saw the hub off for his fishing trip, and took a shower
• went back to dashing diva to get the damn fake nails removed - i couldn't stand it anymore
• stopped in at famima!! (it's a very exciting convenience store, heh) for snacks (mmm, shrimp chips. the calpico drink, not so much)
• headed to paseo colorado for a couple of gifts
• snuck into nordstrom and bath & body works
  
• drove to bed bath & beyond for more stuff
• looked for candy buffet supplies at michael's
• picked up a tote bag at ross (i hate that store, but i had a gift card)
• finished off the kid's school supplies at staples
• picked the kid up from school
• parked at the art supply store before realizing we'd left the supply list at home
• bought stamps at the post office
• quenched the kid's thirst for iced tea at 7-11
• HOME!

dear lord in heaven, i'm pooped.

update: the kid and i are packing (her room, my office) and she just looked at me and said "oh em gee, did you just get bigger in the last hour?" [sigh]

favorite moments from tuesYAY

"hey mom, it's weird - i don't feel nervous or anything about the first day of school." - the kid, just before refusing breakfast due to an upset stomach

"ooh, look, you can hardly see my stretch marks anymore!" - me, prior to the lightbulb coming on and the sad realization that this is because my gut is friggin' stretched out to the max

"i just got a call from the principal - and his first words were "i've got good news for you!" - the hub, on our way to the doctor

"oh, we get to move the other black bar over today!" - the nurse, while i'm cringing on the scale

"well, now, you've had a pretty fantastically boring pregnancy, haven't you?" - the doctor, after my repeated "no"s to her questions

"let me know when you're free and i'll schedule a spa visit for us." - my mom, via e-mail

"hey, you just got a package." - the hub, brandishing a box from the fedex man

"did you get the other package that's supposed to be delivered to you?" - lilcee

"hey, there's a box on the doorstep!" - the kid, as we pulled into the driveway

"woof!" - my doggy, as the UPS man made another delivery

"man, packing sucks ass." - the hub, as he sat on the couch with remote in hand and i stood in the kitchen, bubble-wrapping everything within arm's reach (in his defense, he'd just pulled a crapload of stuff out and moved a plethora of boxes)

"i'm gonna go to disneyland next week, because i went pee-pee and poo-poo in the potty A LOT." - my friend's adorable 2 1/2 year old daughter, proudly waving her cinderella doll

"so i made a few friends today. too bad i won't ever see them again. muahahahahaha!" - the kid, upon hearing that her transfer had been approved


and this conversation, while enjoying some fine dining at the old spaghetti factory, which the kid inexplicably ADORES. the hub is less than enthused about this place, as he used to work at one in high school, but he always gives in because he loves to make her happy. we were celebrating the kid's first day of junior high and getting all the paperwork done at the new school. i forget exactly what we were talking about, but the hub was in one of his weird/funny moods:

me: "ugh, babe, you're being obtuse."
hub: "obtuse??"
kid: "yeah, you're obtuse. i'm a-cute."

the kid and i look at each other and instantly dissolve into uncontrollable giggles at her uncharacteristically math-related cleverness, while the hub shakes his head in amused silence.

yup, it was a good day.

let's play a game.

it IS tuesday, after all, so we'll call it "yay!/boo." i just made it up.

today is the kid's first day of seventh grade. yay!

but the kid had to go to the *other* school. boo.

i went to the doctor's this morning, and the bean is nice and healthy. yay!
my belly has gotten so big that when i had to pee in the cup, i couldn't see and peed all over my hand. boo.

we're getting a big chunk of our packing done for the move. yay!
it's kind of depressing to have crap in boxes and the walls bare as hell. boo.

the kid and i ate yoshinoya for dinner last night, mmmm. yay!
it gave me heartburn that woke me up at 3 in the morning. boo.

we finally got approved for that intra-district transfer! yay!
now the kid has to have a whole other "first day of school". boo.

gifts for the bean have been arriving on almost a daily basis. yay!
i can't open and play with any of the stuff until we move. boo.

i traded in the blackberry this weekend and picked up a fun orange lg env instead. yay!

i fucked up and should've waited till my contract was actually up so i could've joined accounts with the hub and saved a shitload of cash every month. boo.

i just had a fabulous double-double and fries from in-n-out for lunch. yay!
now i wish i'd have gotten the chocolate shake to go with it. boo.

i found bags of pink m&ms at bed bath & beyond this weekend that i can use for the candy buffet at MIL's baby shower. yay!
i didn't buy any, and now i can't seem to find them anywhere else - which means i'll have to go back. boo.

and this one is going to be backwards:
i dropped the hub's digital camera in the dog's water bowl last night. boo.
but maybe this means we'll get to get a new one! yay!

wasn't that fun? let's hear your contribution to "yay!/boo." GO!

we are SFAMily.

the amazing group of women known as the SFAMily threw me the most fabulous baby shower that ever was on saturday. there's a really lovely spa/cafe hidden on robertson boulevard below santa monica in west hollywood called kinara spa, which is where we spent a good part of the afternoon - munching, chatting, playing fun shower games, and laughing our asses off. seriously, it was the most awesome time ever, and more than i could have ever dreamed. i had to blink back tears more than once, and forced myself not to focus so much on how wonderful it all was because i would've turned into a blubbering mess, and that ain't pretty. *choke*

here's a few shots of the silly games - when i asked "so who's pissed off at me for saying that i LOVE shower games?" i was met with a few, um, interesting faces. heh.

we actually do have pro pics of the event - lilcee's second shooter from her wedding was present - so look for those in an upcoming post.

everyone had favors, too - these contained packets of boudreaux's butt paste (just too funny), some strawberry pocky, and of course, some choco-pies - yummy snacks that just happen to go with the pink & brown color scheme.

my favorite baby hater, WeezerMonkey, had a very special bag that was just comical:

lilcee handed me a box and said "your other presents are coming later, but here's something to open from all of us." and inside was this oh-so-appropriate onesie:

and nanette provided yummy treats - mine was lemon (there were cherry cheesecake flavored ones, too). mmmmm!

as the shower came to an end, i managed to get a couple of photos with a few of the main organizers of this fabulous shindig.

it was SUCH a fun afternoon, and just amazing to see everyone all in one place at the same time! we haven't managed to pull that one off since december's holiday hoorah. that's yet another reason why i felt so honored - everyone lives in all different directions, and they all came out just for li'l ol' me. and the bean. not to mention, it's really awesome to have such a group of smart, funny, diverse, and beautiful women who are truly supportive of one another. we can express differing opinions, discuss 'em, and move on. that's rare, and very special.

i went home and showed the hub the pictures and the fabulous polaroid sign-in book that everyone contributed to, and he was just as amazed and awed as i was at these ladies' efforts and love. "thank you" seems so inadequate, and i'm just at a loss for words here.

ME. at a loss for words. this belongs in the record books. y'all know i have words for EVERY occasion. heh.

um, and then i settled my ass on the couch and promptly fell asleep. for, like, four hours. hee hee! i finally woke up around 7:00 and we decided to head out to red white + bluezz for dinner. it was a lovely way to wrap up one of the nicest days i've had in a long time.

i love my SFAMily. :)

give me strength.

here we are - just over 5 weeks left to go. hoe-ley shit. and yes, i'm wearing the same ensemble i had on a few weeks ago in my belly pic. twhatever - i'm starting to run out of options here, and i refuse to buy any more maternity clothes.

i DO have something fabulous to look forward to - my wonderful SFAMily (that's "sistas from another mista, hee!) is throwing me a shower tomorrow! i'm so excited - they've kept a lot of the details a surprise, so look for a full blog entry soon (probably on monday). i. cannot. wait.

the kid's school is KILLING me. they said they'd have an answer for me by today on whether her transfer request was going to be approved or not, and this morning (i even waited until a fairly respectable time to call, instead of picking up the phone right at 8 like i wanted to), they tell me "all requests are on hold until tuesday, when we find out exactly how many no-shows we have." mothafucka.

but in looking for a silver lining, hey - at least they haven't denied the request. right? but i can't get past the thought of the kid having to potentially have a second "first day of school". it's a big enough transition as it is, and i really hope things work out for the best. cross your fingers for us, will ya? i've got everything crossed but my eyes over here. oy vey.

amazingly, the hub stayed home with me again yesterday. two days in one week! this NEVER happens. we worked on finishing up the packing of the kitchen, supervised the cleaning crew, took the dog for a bath, and hung out. it was lovely - until the air conditioning took a shit. so the hub called his dad, who's a construction supervisor and knows all, and the first thing he asked was "have you changed the air filter lately?"

um, air filter? heh. we've had this central air unit for four years and NEVER changed it. and when he pulled it out, it was like a damn brick. clogged to the gills with a note on the side that said "change every three months". bwahahahaha! problem solved, but it didn't work properly until this morning. so we sweated it out all night. and now, the damn thing is blowing like nobody's business. i've got icicles on my nose now, and I LOVE IT.

i'm off to pick up the kid and go get her class schedule for the school she's actually enrolled in. and, it's bye bye blackberry - i've decided to take it back and wait to see if they bust out with any other cool phones. i seriously can't stand not having a camera! you just never know what you have till it's gone. ya heard?!?

blue jelly between my toes

dashing diva was...interesting.

it's a cute place - just north of colorado in old town pasadena. apparently, it's a chain of nail salons based in new york, and my friend A would LOVE it - it's pink, pink, and more pink. the cushy pedicure benches were pink. the floor was pink. the implements were pink. i love pink too, so it was all good.

btw, i'm really leaning towards trading this blackberry in for a different phone. it's seriously KILLING me not to have a camera handy at all times. so the photos you see here are all swiped from google images, folks. hey, it's better than nothing.

anyway, i was all set for a basic mani/pedi, but i noticed on the way to pasadena that i'd managed to break yet another nail, so i decided to upgrade and try out their virtual nails. it's kind of like" acrylic meets press-on" - it's a full nail "cover" that's thinner and lighter than acrylic, and supposedly doesn't screw up your real nails. and, because i'm such a diva, i talked myself into trying out their fancy-schmancy "isle of capri" pedicure - a special for the summer. i didn't even know how much this thing was going to cost, but the description of it sold me like the true sucker i am.

i was taken back to what looked like a "V.I.P." area - a little room separated from the regular, peon's pedicure stations by floor-length white fringe (again, kicking myself for the lack of camera). i settled back into the pillows and the lady went to work. i was treated to a leg and foot massage with some yummy-smelling lotion, followed by a foot bath in the some fabulous blue jelly concoction. i don't know what it was, but it felt lovely and squishy between my tootsies. i think i got a couple more treatments, like a scrub and more massage, and at some point i fell asleep. of course, i had to force myself to wake up so i wouldn't snore - how embarrassing would that have been? and yet, it would've happened. every female in my family snores. it sucks ass.

as she was finishing up the polish, another girl came in to measure my nailbeds for the virtual nails. i was so relaxed and out of it that i hardly knew what was going on, and she thought it was pretty funny that i was so nonchalant about the process.

"everyone who gets this done for the first time is usually right on top of me, wanting to know about every step of this procedure!"

hell, i didn't give a shit. just make my fingers look pretty, instead of the 8-year-old boy hands i walked in with.

anyway, i wasn't sure if i liked the finished product, because i'm really not a fake-nails kinda girl, but now that it's been almost a whole day, i think it's a'ight. they're definitely much more tolerable than acrylics, but i still can't scratch an itch to my satisfaction. know what i mean? that's what i always hated about fake nails. they look fab, but when this heffa gets an itch, i gotta be able to take care of it. well, they'll last for 2 weeks-ish, and then i'll have them removed.

and as i walked out of the salon - THREE hours later - i realized i was just down the street from chado tea room. and i was hungry (what else is new?). so i strolled in and treated myself to afternoon tea. mmmmm, tea sandwiches, scones and cream, cookies... hey, i don't do this every day. and pretty soon, i won't be able to do it at all, right? i gotta take advantage while i can. oh, and i totally biffed the corner of my thumbnail, and how did i do this? reaching for my crackberry, of course. i was so pissed, i muttered curses under my breath as i checked my emails. well, i'd already done the damage, might as well follow through, right?

on my way home, i thought it'd be a great idea to pick up a rotisserie chicken from costco. and while i was there, i remembered to scoop up a couple of other items we were out of. but i groaned out loud when i waddled to the check-out lanes and got in line - long. ass. lines. thankfully, the lady in front of me (who was juggling not one, but TWO overstuffed carts) took one look at me and my belly juggling my paltry three items and offered to let me go in front of her.

and my faith in humanity was restored.

good news/bad news/good news

at least there's SOME good in there. read on:

amazingly, the hub's schedule was totally clear yesterday, and so we spent the day together, which was a fabulous change from the norm. i mean, that NEVER happens! i'm sure some of you can relate ;) we actually started doing some packing - for the move that may not even take place. mm-hmm. i found out on monday while enrolling the kid in school that we're literally ONE stinking block out of the district boundary for the school that she's supposed to attend. son of a... you can only imagine how pissed off we are. now, while we really like the house and the future landlord, the school was the ONLY reason we were moving. she was rather shocked to find out the news as well. and the only other house on the market for rent that's in the district is far from ideal - but we may have to resort to putting in an offer to lease it after all. meh.

now, i'm on pins and needles till friday to see if my inter-district transfer request gets approved. i've even tapped my ex-boss for help - his wife had told me at the last christmas party that they were friends with the school principal. and this morning i get an email from him that says "better get her enrolled in the other school, just in case" - they'd filled in the principal, who has a rep for being a really nice guy, and i guess he knows of the situation and will do what he can, but "space is tight". SHIT. cross your fingers.

we stopped at the verizon store to get the hub's bluetooth earpiece hooked up to his new phone and i walked out with this (totally biting off of my friend M):

the new blackberry is quite a fun toy - e-mails in real time, full keyboard, ability to open attachments, internet access, etc. it's ALMOST the perfect phone...but it doesn't have a camera. now, the verizon rep uttered a "pshaw"-like grunt when i expressed my shock and disbelief at this fact, but seriously - i use my cell phone camera a lot. A LOT. and i have been a crackberry addict before - i had one of the very first versions, way back in 2002-ish. but the lack of a camera could very well be a dealbreaker. i've got 30 days to try this thing out to see if i really like it enough to keep it for two years. my cousin's BB has a built-in camera, but she's with t-mobile. damn you, verizon, and your lack of up-to-the-minute equipment!! for those of you who have the verizon BB, WDYT?

and then, when we got home, we found a box on the doorstep. one glance told me it was from one of our registries (at pottery barn kids). woo-hoo! it reminds me of the weeks before our wedding, when we were a regular stop on the UPS man's route. so. much. fun. i opened the box to find this:

but no card. argh. luckily, the PBK registry has a "gift and thank you tracker" feature, so i logged on and was able to figure out who the giver was. time to bust out the thank-you notes! now, if i can get my hands on a photo that we took with crissy expressly for this purpose, i'm all good.

now, i think i deserve a mani/pedi, don't you? my friend A was looking for nail salon recs yesterday and i decided to give dashing diva a try, so i could report back about the experience. and why? well, i'm just a good friend like that.

exploding vajay-jays, costco gas rage, and firefly.

i had no idea that costco gas inspired such anger! haha!

i was coming home from the gym just now and stopped to fill up my near-empty tank. i was sitting in the rear seat while it was filling up because i was pooped (lame) with my eyes shut (even lamer), and my gas catnap is interrupted by a really loud, obnoxious horn. i turn to see an old man in a toyota prius pulling up to the pump next to me, with a really mad mom in a minivan right on his ass, honking like there's no tomorrow. like, this chick was bent. and the poor man threw his hybrid in drive and BONED OUTTA THERE. it was comical. and the lady pulled up to the pump, got out, and started pumping her gas, bluetooth earpiece in place and muttering angrily. and her kid was sitting in the front seat with wide eyes and jaw on the floor. obviously, i didn't see what had happened before the honking erupted, but it was pretty damn funny. i was still chuckling when i got to the stoplight on my way out of costco and saw prius man waiting to turn left, cowering in his seat. comedy.

so we went to the first installment of "prepared childbirth" class yesterday. it really wasn't that bad - we started a little after 9, took a break at 10, lunch at 11:20 till noon, and were outta there by 1:30. much better than the 9-3 published schedule. i'll spare y'all the details, because i'm cool like that, but as the hub was describing the class to my bro, the words "exploding vaginas" were used several times. hilarious. poor guy - but although he talks a great game ("i'm so gonna be in the waiting room with a cigar"), i know he's going to be a great source of calm and support for me. he kept most of us giggling in class too, including the instructor - but he is the most patient and supportive man i know, and i don't have any doubt that he's going to think of ways to keep me relaxed and focused. awww, i sure do love him :)

last night was dinner with my immediate family to celebrate my mom's birthday. for a change from our usual list of venues, i'd suggested firefly bistro - that's right, the site of the first annual SFAMily holiday hoorah. while the weather was drastically different from that day, there were fans stationed around the restaurant and it had cooled down considerably by the time we were having dessert.

it was a fun evening - lots of yummy food and easy, light conversation. i learned that my brother and his g/f are graduating from grad school on 5/12/08, my sister's really enjoying her job, and BIL was the recipient of the "clean plate award" at one of his first jobs out of college :) my mom showed me a picture of the flowers that we'd sent her for her birthday, and the hub regaled the table with tales of the birthing class we'd just gone through. actually, that's kind of what ended the evening. haha!

i didn't take any pictures, but i did enjoy a lovely BLT dungeness crab napoleon appetizer - it was sweet dungeness crabmeat and goat cheese piled on top of a juicy slice of beefsteak tomato, with a piece of yellow pepper on top of that, also topped with the crabmeat/goat cheese mixture and a bit of smoked bacon. everything's better with bacon, you know. plus there was a drizzle of vinaigrette and some arugula leaves, and it was really tasty. the hub ordered their version of a "wedge" salad - but when it arrived, we both looked at it sideways, because it was like no wedge salad we'd ever seen. i mean, it wasn't even a wedge! it was just a regular salad with all the typical wedge trimmings. weird, but he ate it anyway. for our main courses, i opted for what sounded like a really weird combo - shrimp and grits - and he decided to go with the seared ahi. both were delish (i'm guessing his was, because he earned his own clean plate award), and now i know that grits aren't as gross as they sound ;)

i enjoyed a vanilla bean & chocolate creme brulee while my sister hunted down the waitress to have her bring a mini cheesecake with a candle for my mom. it was kind of weird - she'd already told her that there was a birthday at the table, and all the waitress said was "sure, i'll bring dessert menus." [scooby doo noise] but whatever - she brought it and we sang "happy birthday" to my easily-embarrassed mom.

okay - it's 11:30 and i've already done two loads of laundry, hit the gym, dropped off and picked up drycleaning, got gas, fed the dog, and posted my blog entry for the day. now it's time to start packing up the kitchen and get the kid enrolled in school - which starts in exactly 8 days. i'm thrilled. she's not. muahahahahahaha!

a minor freak-out, and karma is a bitch.

so yesterday, i was bored and decided to check out the zillion new baby-related boards on the nest. as i pulled up the first one, the very first thing i noticed was a countdown at the top of the page. "34 weeks - 44 days to go!" it said.

forty-four days? FORTY-FOUR DAYS?? are you effing kidding me right now? i got up in a daze and went over to the hub, who was reading e-mails on his laptop.

hub: "what's wrong?"
me [in a robot-like, monotone voice]: "i was looking at a webpage that i'd entered our due date on once, and it said we only have 44 days left. holy shit."
hub [with a giant grin]: "well, babe, did you think we had more time than that?"
me: "i guess not, but we have SO MUCH SHIT TO DO. "six weeks" sounds better than "44 days" to me."
hub: "don't worry! we'll get it all done. piece o'cake!"

and then the tears came. hell, i'm tearing up a little just thinking about it. holy mother of poo, i almost channeled jessie spano - sans caffeine pills. again.

so today, i dropped the kid off with her dad at the usual spot and then headed out to meet with a florist near the country club to check out centerpieces for the 09.09.07 shower (again, i know i shouldn't be as involved as i am, but the hub and his entire family are all out helping his great-grandmother move all her worldly possessions into his grandparents' house this weekend). i knew i wanted simple and cheap - but no carnations - so what we'll have is a 6" bubble bowl (sounds better than "fish bowl", even though that's pretty much what it is) containing hot pink, orange, and white gerber daisies, plus a couple of roses and some curly willow stuff in the bottom. not very imaginative, i know, but i actually do love gerber daisies and it was easy. flowers, check.

this morning, before he left for BFE, the hub handed me his leftover cash from his quickie vegas trip and said "go get the stroller and the car seat, and whatever else you feel like picking up today." woo-hoo! and the right start store was oh-so-conveniently located a couple of miles down the street from the florist. yay! i scooped up that stroller and bassinet and was on my merry way within about 15 minutes. sadly for me, the car seat still wasn't available in-store, and i'm too cheap to pay the extra shipping costs, so i'll just continue to wait. hell, i've got 44 days, right? well, i guess it's 43 now. :/

and as i'm sitting at the freeway on-ramp waiting for the meter (why it was metered on a saturday afternoon, i couldn't figure out), i look at the receipt and realize that the lady had grossly undercharged me. like, she rang up the stroller correctly, and then got distracted and scanned a sticker for something significantly cheaper than the bassinet. i feel guilty about it, but obviously not guilty enough to drive back and fix it. :X and then as i go to take a sip of my mocha joe (shut up), i tilt the cup a little too far and D-OH! end up spilling down the front of my shirt. and not even on the part that would have hidden a stain easily - right on the beige part. greeeeeat - i can't go around with coffee on my top! so even though i'm trying to get to my next stop with some time to grab lunch, i run into target and pick up a new tee. and, of course, it doesn't match with my shoes, so i scoop up a pair of flip-flops in an appropriate color. heh.

we've been trying to tour the birth center at the hospital, which is done on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd saturdays of the month (unless you want the tour in the super secret language, in which case you'd go on the 4th saturday). last weekend, i stupidly forgot all about it and we hung out at home, blissfully ignorant instead. and when we looked at the calendar, we realized that we're almost completely out of time to get this done. so i told the hub i'd go today, and he could go during the baby shower weekend extravaganza. not the greatest scenario - touring the birth center separately - but it seems to be the only way we can do it. it's almost more important for him to do it than for me, because if things go naturally, i won't be of much help when i'm in labor and he's behind the wheel. ya know?

so i pull into a parking spot at the hospital, change my top and shoes, and waddle my ass into the building. now, i'm not completely sure where to go for the tour, so i'm looking at all of the signs in the building and find nothing that references the tour. crap. and on top of it, i have to pee. luckily, i'm about 10 minutes early anyway. and after i do the deed, i walk over to the elevators and find a lovely yellow sign that tells me "birth center tour cancelled for this afternoon. sorry for the inconvenience." son of a....

this is what i get for not going back and paying for that fucking bassinet, isn't it?

boredom + cell phone camera =

a silly ass blog post ;)

my cousin C, the kid's most favoritest family member ever, called yesterday morning begging for a "giant favor", as she called it. apparently, she was off to san francisco for a fun trip with some old friends and needed a ride to the airport. she'd managed to score a great deal for a round trip ticket on southwest, but had to depart from LAX as opposed to the oh-so-convenient ONT or BUR. meh. but luckily for her, we had absolutely no plans for the day. and then i asked her what time her flight was. "5:00", she says. oy vey. RIGHT in the midst of rush hour. ack! but being the helpful soul that i am, i threw on the plastic smile (so as to sound cheerful over the phone, of course) and said "of course we'll take you! we'd be happy to help! be here at 1:30, so we can beat traffic, okay?"

well, at least we were able to avoid traffic going DOWN there. i knew coming home would be a bitch, so we left knowing we wouldn't be home for hours and hours.

and how did we kill the extra time? shopping and snacking, of course! i dragged 'em to the right start to look for the car seat we've been wanting, which is a european import and was scheduled to finally be available mid-august. didn't find it, but they had fun playing with the toys and laughing at the potty-training books. ha! and then we went next door to mrs. beasley's for some treats and took them to coffee bean & tea leaf to enjoy. btw, mrs. beasley's cupcakes? NO BUENO. all frosting and just gross. ew.

by the time we were done snacking, it was time to take C to the airport, which was only about 3.5 minutes away. this put us at around, oh, 4:10? so we headed back towards manhattan beach and decided to walk around manhattan village - a teeny, tiny "mall" chock full of fun stores like victoria's secret, sephora, apple, babystyle, etc. small but powerful! and it was inside babystyle that we took these:


i tell you, when the kid made this face at this tee, i thought i was going to pee my pants. "that's disgusting!!" she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. but she gamely reenacted the moment for the camera, like the sport she is. and these are quite possibly the most fun board book and playset i've ever seen. "realistic choppng noises as you cut your sushi rolls!" it took all my willpower not to scoop it up and start playing with it immediately.

then, at pottery barn kids, the kid somehow managed to find a superhero costume - mask, cape, and gloves - that she absolutely fell in love with. she put it all on and zoomed around the back end of the store, and of course i had to capture it (it's horribly fuzzy, but you'll get it anyway):



i loved every moment. it's times like these that remind me that she really IS still a kid - my kid. as grown-up as she is most of the time, when she gets really silly, it brings a tear to my eye and i remember what a sweet girl she is.

we went through all the stores that caught our attention and then it was "stick a fork in us, we're done." and on the way out of the parking lot, i drove by this car and HAD to throw it in reverse to snap this picture:

nice, huh?

so it took about 42.9 seconds to hit horrific traffic trying to get home. we'd talked about going out to the valley to hit up our very favorite pizza/pasta joint, but i'd nixed the idea because i thought it'd be a royal pain in the ass to get there. but sitting in the stopped carpool lane, i re-evaluated and decided that i'd rather deal with traffic and have yummy dinner at the end vs. going home and most likely picking up some drive-thru. i called my brother to see if they were available (sadly, they weren't) since they live right around the corner from the restaurant (chi chi's in northridge), but no go. ah, well, we went anyway. and it was DELICIOUS.

thank goodness, because our adventure wasn't quite over - on the way home, we hit even MORE horrendous traffic. thanks to an accident, what should have been a 40-minute drive home turned into 90. yay. and then as we set foot inside the house, we quickly realized that the A/C was on the fritz - it was going like gangbusters, but no cold air was coming out. that meant it'd been running all afternoon, sucking up power and running up our electricity bill for nothing. son of a...