Hottest weekend of my entire life

And here's a cute little girl we played with while it was hot


And after my first dinner at Ruby's since 2001 and some pinkberry with the Lewis fam, we helped Sara and Ashlee ring in their new year on (I'm not kidding) a yacht.


Weekends make the world go round, and I would like to see anyone just TRY to convince me otherwise.

-- Post From My iPhone

Ignorance was bliss.

One of life's untainted delights has just been irrevocably tainted.  

The Grilled Vegetable Salad at California Pizza Kitchen.  Oh how my heart's pulse would hasten for it!  This thing is the most idyllically arranged anything.  To the shadows with the fact that the "While You're Waiting" bread slices are not as warm, dense, or varied as at Macaroni Grill or The Cheesecake Factory, this salad was my soul mate salad.  It exists to be eaten and loved.  As an added bonus to its perfection in instant taste gratification, it was surely serving my mortal shell with ample amounts of chlorophyll, Omega 3s, fiber, and protein in the version I like it best.

Thanks to the Kill Joy Patrol, they now are listing calorie counts in every single thing you can shove in your mouth.

This thing is outlandishly calorific by anyone's account.  Even the half!  I wash my hands of it.  Woe be unto I.

I think Jeff was getting sick of that place anyway.

This week I've been reading all the blogs written by lovely mommies taking their lovely kids to first days at school.  These lovely moms cried tears of nostalgia and woe or felt woefully guilty about feeling no nostalgia whatsoever.

I did not start school this week.  It may surprise you to know I am FINISHING a quarter of "school" this week.  One Paralegal class down, boom boom pow!  It's been 10 weeks already!  I can tell you in a most definite way that there will be no tears shed over this wind down.  No, this sunset on Civil Lit I will not result in me wailing in a lonely corner amidst a pile of soggy kleenex, empty Frito baggies and whipped cream cans strewn about.

I can tell you about something that has watered my eyes lately:

- A few days ago I remembered anew the story an unnamed sister tells about the long ride home from her junior prom.  She'd invited a guy from a neighboring high school that she'd quietly admired for years.  Years.  They made it almost all the way home before she realized her hand, which she'd thought was resting on the seat beside her, had indeed been on his leg.  Woopsie-Daisies. 

- Oh one more, one more!  My cultured, intellectual Dad, my cultured, intellectual brand new brother-in-law, and my cultured, intellectual boyfriend all somehow ended up watching a movie over waffles on Saturday night.  Of their own volition!  "You're my own personal brand of heroine."  Give me a break.  I'm begging you for a break.

So how come it was so much crazy fun??  Maybe it was so wrong it was right.

 

Perhaps the Best One.

Maybe I'm the only one who has feelings so potently positive about this particular episode, but I really love the Gilmore Girls Season III episode with the 24 hour Dance-a-Thon. I believe they in the studio named it, They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They? I love it.

Do you ever think that there's a Stars Hollow as well as a Hogwarts?

Just a couple more

I wish I could do this day all over again. *sigh*








-- Post From My iPhone

Back in the Saddle Again

I got a text message from my Elizabeth on Saturday night selling me on running a half marathon with her. I thought, "Maybe...if I have time to train...." and then the next morning I had an email waiting for me with the details. It's in May 2010.  So that means I have time to think about it, think about it some more, and then work up to it in a semi-frenzied state, but it will be worth it because I'm 99% sure that Sarah will run it too.  Fer CUTE!  3 Eatons wielding their limbs.  Together.  Pronounce that last word however you you wish to make it resonate with the most resonance. 

I suppose that means that at some point in the next 9 months I will start running plural miles.

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I picked up a book last week all about the wonderful department of Cookie.  Martha Stewart's very own cookie world is now my oyster.

I tried to make 2 of my new cookies last Sunday.  Jeff helped and is quite the knowledgeable kitchener.  One, I am most sorry to say, was a flop.  Sometimes I like to decide what really is a necessary ingredient and what isn't.  Sometimes it asks for 3 ounces of almond paste and I can't find it at the grocery store anywhere so I say, "Whatever, forget it."  Sometimes I don't have a Cuisin-Art so "finely ground" almonds and pecans become "chopped as small as I can chop them."  And sometimes the German Christmas cookies fondly known as "Lebkuchen" turn out to be, as Jeff Brown called them, "Almond Crepes."  Sometimes I have conversations that end with me saying defensively, "I can cook anything!  Just...when I follow the directions!"

The Surprise Cookies, I'm proud to say, were every bit as artery cloggingly delicious as I'd hoped.  

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My bangs are back.  I missed them so!  But unless you've seen my bad se'f since Friday, you wouldn't be privy to this fact.  Because I have become a lazy git who cares not for taking photographs.  Maybe it's an August thing.  I'll get back on the wagon.  Anyway, it was just as it always is: totally a dream to get an hour to chat with Madam Natalie Dulaney, champion of the heads of hair, and totally awesome to be spiffed.  

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I think the I am Legend zombies are far enough away from my mind now to allow sleep to come to me before 1am.  But you know, Will Smith is an idiot; he did not have to be a martyr.  He could have chucked the grenade at the zombies and then fit in the vault with the vaccine or antidote or whatever you'd wish to call it.  

He is Legend,

and I am scared.

Scared enough to almost wet my pants after parking and walking down the eerily quiet, abnormally long street to my humble abode.

Anyone have some Excedrin PM to spare?  I might not be sleeping tonight...........

The very same.

When I was a freshman in high school they in the drama and choral departments dared to pull off Fiddler on the Roof. Elizabeth smacked herself the role of the eldest daughter and so we ended up watching the VHS about 20 times a week to GET INTO IT. Then when E had gotten her mimicking down to a T, we lent the videos to a girl named Christina Rivera, an extra, and we never saw them again. Movie thief.

Anyway, tonight's performance at the OCPAC was sallied forth by none other than Topol. This was actually pretty cool for me. He's still got it.



That's all.

it's time for an update because i have time.

- i am still grateful for my job every day.

- i moved to california 1 year ago yesterday. can't believe it.

- my sister sent me this picture and i was thrilled to realize that i had finally found my cheek flub soul sister (niece). look at those suckers! gravity's got loads to work with there!

- i'm going to see fiddler on the roof tomorrow at the orange county performing arts center. i haven't been there in years! i think if more people would just watch more musicals evil doing would largely dissipate. no one can find it in their heart to go participate in a drive-by-shooting after they've see lovebirds in a surry with fringe on top.

my dad is going straight to heaven for giving us these tickets to see tevia shimmy across the stage melodizing his unattained wealth.

- i had a dream about depositions and melodramatic plaintiffs the other night. vivid dreams are back.

- yesterday during the hour in between work and school i zipped over to the book store to pick me up lief enger's first book, peace like a river. the employee who directed me aright told me that all purchases accompanied a free book which could be selected from a shelf by the cash register. it took me about a zillionth of a second to NOT be excited anymore because the books must be pretty creepy if they are giving them away. i was right. slim pickins. but i did find one that would do; it makes a great coffee table addition. pages and pages of tinsel town residents posing or posing candidly for the camera and sometimes giving advice.

- hmmmm not much else to say...... i wake up, i go to work, i eat food, i hang out with jeff, and go home, read some of the good word, and try and get at least 7.5 hours of sleep so i'm not a total grouch the next day. when i don't get that much sleep i try and think of my friend's husband who's in his surgical residency or my friends with babies who don't sleep through the night for some perspective. ah, but then i still just snap at whomever is testing my patience anyway. bahahahaah. not really, i'm not confrontational enough to be snarky at people unless they've penetrated my inner sanctum.

babble blogging has ensued.

goodnight my funky freshes.

what was i thinking??

my life is pretty tame.

no behavior so wild to knock out very important teeth.

i don't have many regrets.

but today when i was at work listening to my ipod on shuffle, a song i'd purchased last year on itunes came on. i'd forgotten about.

i had just gone through a big break up, ok?? i'm not holding myself responsible.

Weddingpalooza -- last leg

I'm in Vegas with my nephew, the next cirque star.

Child protective services, the car was not in motion, indeed the engine unignited when this picture was taken.




-- Post From My iPhone

don't get too excited -- i am half asleep.

remember those days when i'd blog allllllll the time?

things i've been thinking about lately:

- whether or not i should cut blunt bangs again (mine are getting to a funky length)

- why my left ankle hurts -- it has suffered no injury that i can recall

- why i am so tired lately?  i am unabashedly brain dead after work, especially on wednesdays when i have class, which makes for some interesting conversations with jeffrey.

- i had been having very freakishly vivid dreams -- i would have blogged them but they were all sorts of crazy, i haven't had time, and really, what would be the point anyway?  they have died down now and i sort of prefer it that way.  i am usually frustrated in these dreams.  

- what happened to BB Mac?  margaret, i bet you know.

- back to the dreams -- i am not actually frustrated with my life, which is why the frustrated tone of my dreams perturbed me.  2009 has seen loads of things falling into place.  my life's not perfect but i never wanted it to be.  i just want it to be cozy.  it feels cozy right now.  so what's with all the stifled angst in my visions?  what happened to those dreams i used to have about dinner dates with the likes of ryan gosling?

- i think about the things i want to make when i have a weekend that's not overrun by all sorts of this and that.  i want to make something to hang from the hook right above my bed (shauna gave me an idear), i want to cook something from the new vegetarian cook book elizabeth gave me for my birfday, and it should be divinity puffed up.

- you might want to slaughter me for saying this but i can't WAIT for labor day.  that means it's kosher to wear tights again.  i love black tights -- they make everything so easy.  i hate my bare legs because of my sovereign lack of coordination and the insanely visible scars on my gams.  i just like tights, ok?  i was bummed about summer hunkering down for a nap until i realized that's coming.  it's terrific.

i am so going to the land of complete sleep now.

My plane won't take off for a few more minutes

And we are already 30 behind schedule.

Pfft.

It's times like these that I love me my iPhone, because now I can blog a few juicy tidbits from Annie Warner's (now Kimball) wedding o' love!


I am quite bothered with myself to realize this is the only picture I got of the bride and her dress on my phone. I'll have to load others from my camera when I get home (IF I ever get home...we still have not departed). Suffice it to say she looked divine.


Aly, her darling mother Randy, and I hung out all weekend. Lucky girl me. :)


Annie garlock may have a You-Owe-Your-Happiness-With-Your-Eternal-Lover Belt that's dipped in Peruvian gold and ruby encrusted, but I have one that's not too shabby myself, and I daresay that cute little family was suggested and prodded by M-E. Boo ya. It was a delight to see them.





The bride y yo as we got our crafty on at the sundance resort for the festivities. Those fans dangling were made by the bride and sisters and sisters in law and were most impressive. The entire affair was heart warming and beautiful and very Annie + Jon.

It also proved once again how unnervingly small the Mormon community is, but that's another story for another delayed flight.

-- Post From My iPhone