nooner with the hub! okay, it was just lunch.

the hub is a busy boy. more often than not, he finds himself double-booked for lunch with clients or vendors or CWs. but in this shitty economic climate, when nobody's buying shit and those who are can't seem to get loans, the phone's not ringing as often.

this sucks ass. but one good thing came out of it for us yesterday - the bean and i got to meet up with him to have lunch! see, there's always a silver lining in everything. you just have to look for it.

we decided to meet in claremont's "village." it's always been super cute here, with locally owned shops and restaurants, but they've recently revamped the adjoining area and added lots more - shops, restaurants, movie theater. i think it's a nice addition, although it's definitely got a different vibe than the sleepy, small-town village.

so our pick was an old favorite - the claremont juice co. they have yummy sandwiches and smoothies and coffee drinks, and we always, always split the ginormous italian club sandwich.

i dressed the bean most appropriately and she enjoyed toddling around, waving to everyone who walked by, and checking things out.

but when the food came, we sat her down and used the carrier to strap her in. haha! she's beginning to get used to being tied up in a chair. those carriers are multi-use, i tell ya.

it was a gorgeous day, and we had fun sitting in the sun, munching and chatting. but it came to an end far too quickly, and the hub walked us to the car and put the bean in her car seat. a quick hug and kiss, a wave, and he was gone. back to the salt mines, at least for a few more hours.

and before i even got out of the parking lot, i looked back and saw this (via the backseat mirror clipped to the headrest):

so i took advantage of the opportunity and swung into a drive-thru starbucks on the way home. i wanted to try out their new "london fog tea latte," which claire had been raving about. look, you can see me!

i thought it was kind of weird that they left the tea bag in.

and when i was finally able to take a sip, it was...meh. after a few more tries, i decided that it tasted like a bowl of trix cereal, which isn't necessarily bad, i suppose. i want to go back and try out the vanilla rooibos latte.

oh, but wait. that thing is caffeine-free? what the hell's the point of that??