bullets of randomness

i usually have no shortage of things to talk about - blogorrhea, if you will. but today i just seem to have a bunch of random items, so i'll take my cue from tater and amber, who love to post in bullets.

• priceline rocks the house. the dude who owns the vacation rental in nyc that i thought i'd booked for our trip emailed me last week and said "i'm so sorry, i screwed up, i can only accommodate you for the last 3 nights of your trip. but here's a hotel i can book for you for the first 2" and linked me to some shitty ass looking place that i wouldn't have dreamt of reserving. ugh. so i managed to finagle us free airport transportation as compensation for the inconvenience, and got to work. after looking at a zillion different places, all $300+ per night, i decided to give priceline a shot. at first, i bid $150 for a 4-star hotel in the times square area, but it wasn't accepted (ha!). so i bumped it up to $175 and was rather surprised to score on a room at the millennium broadway hotel. whee!
• that "cutest baby in southern california" contest on kiis fm that i entered the bean in has apparently been overwhelmed with the zillion entries they've received. um, duh. you ask folks to submit pictures of their cute, cuddly offspring and you're bound to get bombarded - we parents are quick to whip out photos of our rugrats. anyway, they were supposed to start voting on monday, but when i looked at the site, they were still uploading pictures and were on gallery #60 - with 25 pictures in each one. oy. and there aren't any names or any way to search for a particular entry. so i looked through 2,200+ pictures, and...zip. the bean wasn't up yet! and today, with another 30 galleries uploaded, she STILL isn't there. grrrrrr. voting is now scheduled to begin on friday, so i'll just have to keep checking. and you know i'll be whoring here for votes as soon as i can pinpoint exactly what gallery and photo number she is. stay tuned.
• as i was perusing the kiis fm website, i stumbled upon some news that is going to send the kid over the freaking moon. they do a concert every spring called "wango tango" and she's always wanted to go. of course, it always falls on a weekend that she's with her dad, who's never been particularly flexible with scheduling ("you better check the schedule before you buy tickets for stuff, because if she's with me, oh well"). this year is no different, but this year she's older and more willing to incur his wrath for something she considers worthy. and of course, guess who's headline this year's wango tango? oh yes. that's right. my future SIL, apparently - the jonas brothers. heh. and miley cyrus, too - who she also likes, surprisingly. i love it when she's a typical tween-almost-teen (holy shit!). anyway, i'm going to see if i can discuss it with her dad and get tickets for her. we'll see - chances are decent, considering that's the day before her big 13th birthday. send us "cooperative ex" vibes, will ya?
  
• oh, and the website also says that the jo-bros (mm-hmmm) have set dates for their summer tour. the kid has mentioned about 298374203984 times that that was "the best concert ever, mom!" so of course, i'm going to do whatever i can to get my hands on some tickets again. which also means that i'll be ponying up the bucks for the fan club, who gets to buy tickets before they're on sale to the general public. i swear, i'm such a sucker for making my girls smile. i should just tattoo that shit on my forehead.
  
• the hub and i have been amusing ourselves lately by giving the bean a little taste of whatever we happen to be eating - a little ketchup here, some ranch sauce there, a bit of grape jelly. and the really amusing part is watching her facial expressions after that little tongue finds those surprises on her lips. oh man, it's comical.
• in more bean news, she's finally grown into a gift that her SFAM aunties gave her at the fabulous shower they threw for us way back when. she models it for you here:
• i have a few more orders that i'm working on, and i'm hoping to push them out fairly soon so that i can get started on something else that i've been mulling over in my head. it's something that i think could possibly take off, and i'm dying to get to work on a prototype to see if it actually works. i've already bought the supplies, and i'm hoping that i can manage to make my sewing machine work for me rather than against me. keep your fingers crossed.
• i'm looking forward to having dinner tonight with the monkey and lilcee at crepe vine. apparently, i didn't get my fill of crepes this weekend at farmers market, so i was quick to suggest this place, which i've heard good things about. mmmm. the hardest part is going to be choosing flavors, and tonight i'm not gonna hold back. sweet AND savory! no holds barred! livin' on the edge!
  
• lastly, bubbles are fun. at least, the bean sure thinks so. yay!