A Family Tradition!

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

Happy Hanukkah!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Kwanzaa! 

Santa Button wishes everyone well! She's taking a nap after delivering all those presents last night! 

Glasses My Heart

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Unlike most ladies, I love my glasses. And when I say love, I don't mean oh I like wearing them better than contacts, I mean I'm head over heels for them. I have refractive amblyopia, diagnosed when I was four and a half years old. It essentially means that my brain and my left eye didn't communicate right. I never had strabismus or a floaty eye so no one knew until I went to my pre-kindergarden check-up that I was half blind (18/2500!). When I walked into a wall, they assumed it was because I was clumsy, not that I couldn't see the wall there on the left. In addition to wearing a pirate patch till I was 10, I've been wearing glasses since I was about five. 

Since I've always worn glasses, I've always used them to express myself. I like them bright, unique and with a healthy dose of bling. They're on my face from the second I open my eyes to the second I close them at night so they have to be comfortable as well. They should be plastic, instead of metal with nose pads, in a bright color preferably red or something equally fabulous, and if they don't have rhinestones on them they're not mine. 

The Happiest Place on Earth

Disneyland in the rain. Beautiful!

Somewhere along the way, wedding planning started to get a little stressful. I think it began when we realized that we had very little control over certain aspects of our wedding, important aspects like chairs, tables, linens, etc. This tends to happen when other people are responsible for things, and since our wedding is a multi-funded event, we're counting on a lot of people getting their ducks in a row.

People Count Thus Far:


- Rehearsal Dinner, Reception Food and Cake - E's Mom
- Venue & All Rentals - E's Stepdad G
- Photographer, Candy Bar, Invites, Booze, Flowers - My Mom
- Wedding Dress - My Faux Auntie
- Photobooth - Awesome Best Man
- Farewell Brunch - Awesome Best Man's Awesome Mom
- Flower Arranging - E's Stepdad's Wife
- Save the Dates, Rabbi, Candy Bar, Wedding Party Gifts, Ketubah - E and I

That's only the tip of the iceberg and we're already up to 9 people! I have to let go of my OCD planning and just let stuff happen, but it's really hard for me. We still don't have any rentals booked, the photobooth, the rehearsal dinner or brunch, etc etc. I keep having nightmares in which 200 people show up and we have no chairs or tables! Every once in a while, E and I will look at each other in panic and say "this is going to be a disaster!"

Your Hair Is Everywhere

With the wedding only three months and change away, I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my hair. My hair has always been weeeeeird, as a child I was pretty much bald as an egg until I was three or four. After that, I had white blond peach fuzz that slowly grew out to about two or three inches by five. As I grew older, it slowly turned brown but didn't make it past my chin until I was 11 or 12. Then, it grew out, painfully slowly, to about half way down my back which is the longest it's ever been. It did begin to get super wavy/curly which was nice but never got any thicker, much to my dismay.

Since I've always had short hair or long stringy hair, I've never had a problem cutting it. I grow it out, hack it all off, rinse and repeat. Since my hair grows so slowly, this cycle would horrify most people since it takes at least two years to get it long enough to cut. Every time I sit in that salon chair and say "chop it off till you reach the healthy bits" someone in the salon inevitably gasps in horror and says "wow that's a really big change" or "are you sure you want to cut that much off??" Yes fellow salon patrons, I am really sure.

The last time I hacked all my hair off was January 2010. I was getting ready to leave for Europe with E and told my hairstylist to have at it with the scissors.

So Funny, I Had to Share

Smartest Goldfish Ever

Drench ad - the world's smartest pet goldfish @ Yahoo! Video

A Girls Best Friend

I realized, rather belatedly, that I never shared any pictures of the gorgeous engagement ring E and I designed. If you've read my proposal story, you'll know that since we were traveling in Europe when E proposed, we decided to design a ring together when we got home. It would have been absolutely impossible, not to mention dangerous, to try and carry the ring with him through three different countries and we loved the idea of designing one together.

Une Parfait Demande En Mariage à Paris

This past winter, E and I went to Europe. While planning our trip to London, Piza, Florence, Venice and Paris, E insisted that Paris, France be the last leg of our three country journey. This resulted in my 23rd birthday falling on our last night in one of the most romantic cities on earth. To celebrate, E and I spent the day touring the amazing palace of Versailles, one of the most magnificent palaces we'd seen on our trip.

Me in front of Versailles 

E in the garden of Versailles

Stuck in Limbo

So I was all ready to post something exciting about the wedding, like my proposal story or engagement ring pictures, but instead I've found myself stranded at the car dealership. I started my day productively, my honey and I went to his Doctor's appointment (which took FOREVER) and we dropped by Ross to return a jar and get more for the candy buffet. Ross is an awesome place for apothecary jars right now but you need to inspect each one carefully. We didn't take one out of the box when we bought it and it ended up having a chip in it, hence the return.   A quick stop for lunch and then I was planning to head over to my friend's to spend the day with my favorite little person in the world, Roxie. I loaded up my car with Roxie's Christmas presents and goodies and this is where the problem started.

When I tried to start my car at about 2pm, the engine wouldn't turn over. I'd needed a jump start every day this week and figured that my battery was on it's way out. After six attempts at jump starting, the darn thing turned on and I figured I should call the dealership and check out the battery. It was too much to hope that they'd have an appointment open tomorrow so they asked me to come in right away. If you live in Los Angeles, you'll know that going anywhere on a Friday is a bad, bad idea. An hour later I'd finally made it to the dealer and figured I'd be out in no time to go see Rox and her awesome mama. Boy, was I wrong!

Back on the (Weight loss) Wagon Again

It is my absolute greatest pleasure to tell you all that I have lost four pounds since Monday! Hooray! I'm officially back on the weight loss wagon. With exactly 100 days left until the wedding, I have only 26 more pounds to go until I'm back down to my February weight, and then another 10 after that to reach my goal weight! The hardest part is probably reminding myself that this stuff takes a really long time, and there's no magical program that will make me drop 40 pounds in two weeks. This tiny success does reaffirm what I know about my body though, for me working out for one entire year and eating normally would not equal the amount of weight I lose by only dieting for three months. Stupid girly genetics!

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In less exciting news, I have my last final exam of the semester today so wish me luck! I going to stop blogging now and go study the absolutely riveting topics of personality disorders and schizophrenia. 

Dresses For My Ladies!

We finally picked out and ordered the bridesmaid's dresses!!! After months of deliberation, my four fabulous ladies with four completely different personal styles came together and were able to agree on a dress. In the end it wasn't the dress I originally thought we'd go with but I love it even more, they're all going to look beautiful. My only criteria was that it should be cornflower blue, a vintage-esque style, preferably chiffon since it's a Spring wedding, and that they all like it. I'm really happy with their choice and hope they actually wear them again though I know it's unlikely since most bridesmaid dresses sit in the closet.  

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Mori Lee Affairs Bridesmaid Dress Style 838

Possible HIV cure? Not so fast...

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If you read any news sites out there by now you've seen the many headlines splashed across front pages proclaiming a cure for HIV. While I am the first person who would love to be able to jump up and down and shout from the rooftops, this potential cure is not actually a cure in the way you would think it would be. In this case, the patient in question was a young man who was both HIV positive and had acute myeloid leukemia. To treat his cancer, he was given extremely hard core chemotherapy and radiation to completely wipe out his immune system and in addition received a transplant of healthy stem cells. This first treatment ultimately failed and he received another round after his cancer relapsed. In this particular case, the patient received stem cells that contained a rare, inherited gene mutation conferring natural resistance to HIV infection. Although the researchers thought he would relapse, he hasn't yet so they're calling it a cure. 


While there is a good chance that this patient is in fact cured of HIV, this is unfortunately not an HIV cure. The idea behind this is to eliminate every single cell containing HIV, especially the activated memory CD4(+) T cells. Doing this is extremely dangerous as no immune system means no way of fighting any infection, including HIV which is why the researches anticipated that their patient would end up free from leukemia but with AIDS. Adding stem cell transplant on top means the patient is open to a whole host of common complications including graft-versus-host disease. To have this treatment to cure HIV a patient would have to:


- Be HIV positive
- Have a cancer requiring a bone marrow transplant
- Be able to find a compatible transplant match with a rare genetic mutation found in only 1% of the Caucasian population, and at 0% in the Black population 
- Have hundreds of thousands of dollars or the worlds most amazing insurance 

Catering Conundrum: Avoided!

It's official, we will have food at the reception! Although we've had our caterer Fresco Grill picked out since we decided to use E's step dad's ranch, we hadn't been able to put down a deposit. It was too soon Leone, the charming owner said in his think Italian accent, wait until you have a head count and know what you really want. While we had an idea of what food choices we wanted to offer our guests, Leone was mostly right. We had literally no idea how many guests we'd be inviting and that number would definitely impact the food options. 

Fresco Grill's Charming Patio where we sampled most of their menu. 

Everything was delicious!

Do It Yourself Project #3: Wedding Invitations - Part 1

Since we're on such a tight budget, I'm going to be making our invitations myself. At first I looked through pages and pages of invites, had samples sent to the house, picked out favorites and fell totally in love with one beautiful grey and blue design. Unfortunately, wedding invites can be crazy expensive and the one I picked was right at the top of the are you out of your mind? budget at over 500 dollars for the suite.

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It was love at first sight, Magnetstreet's Something Blue

Since I obviously couldn't have the invites of my dreams, I started designing one from scratch. I made tons of photoshop mock ups and came up with a design I would have been happy with. The only problem here was production. To make the invites work, I would have needed to order each piece separately; a black backing card, a white linen card for printing, white linen cards to print up RSVP and direction cards. This also meant that I'd have to design RSVP and direction cards and there was no feasible way to make my round ornate frame look decent on a small RSVP card. After running the numbers at various budget paper companies, I retired my custom design.

Marrying Your Sweetheart: The Sexy Time Episode

Warning: This post contains discussion of sex. Grown ups only.

In March I will be marrying my high school sweetheart. This also means that in March, I will be marrying the only person I've ever had sex with, or cared to have sex with, although he's not the only person I've dated. For a lot of people, this is a difficult concept to grasp. I'm not religious, not shy, and certainly not a prude. I firmly believe in sex before marriage, gay rights, I'm pro-choice, and all the other things you'd not normally associate with someone who marries their only lover. I don't really know what it is about him, or how exactly it happened, but something clicked for us and we never looked back.

Wedding Diet: Derailed

Well I set up a bunch of dated posts to keep track of my weight loss and haven't been able to post any of them. Our best man came into town to visit and even though he's on a diet too,  we have an engrained tradition of visiting a different restaurant every night. The byproduct of 9 days of eating out, sometimes multiple times a day, is too terrible for me to examine and I have not gone anywhere near the bathroom scale.

Then, as soon as he left, I came down with the stomach flu and am pretty sure I lost 10 pounds in one day. For fear of stepping on the scale and seeing the same number as before I spent a day hugging my trash can, meaning that I had in fact gained 10 pounds and my day of puking was secretly hiding that, I haven't gone anywhere near the scale.

To add to everything, the food you're allowed to eat when you're sick doesn't exactly inspire weight loss. You have no idea how many calories and carbs are hiding in those tiny little saltine crackers. And chicken soup has a surprising amount of fat in it. I thought of changing things up but made the mistake of trying to eat a baked potato last night so I'm going back to my crackers and soup.

Since this is clearly a message from my stomach that it's time to get back on my diet, I promise to get back on the diet as soon as I can keep my food in my stomach.

4 Month Check In!

Holy crap, now is about the time to start panicking. We have so so much we haven't done yet and most of it is out of our control or someone else is supposed to be taking care of it. Careful observation of the following list will reveal that crap to be done >>> crap already done. We need to step up our game!

Done:

·      Decide on a wedding budget and hash out who's contributing to the wedding. 

·      Make sure everyone in the wedding party is aware of what you expect of them -- especially your bridesmaids and groomsmen. 
·      Choose your florist and send a deposit to reserve their services. - Stepdad's Wife!

·      Reserve your wedding photographer and videographer. Decide on the packages you want, sign the photography contract, and send in your deposits.

·      Set aside blocks of hotel rooms for out-of-town guests.

·      Book your cake baker, choose a wedding cake design you love, and send a deposit once you've signed the wedding cake contract.

·      Brides: Collect necessary measurements from bridesmaids, or ask that everyone gets measured by a tailor or dress store (specifically if you have out-of-town bridesmaids). Then ask everyone to order their dresses

·      Order your wedding invitations and wedding announcements (don't forget plenty of extra envelopes).

·      Grooms: Start planning your groomsmen's attire. Tuxes!

·      Grooms: Start looking to buy or rent your tux, suit, or other formal attire.

·      Pick out or design a ketubah or other marriage contract required by your religion.

·      Decide whether you want to give out wedding favors. Shop for wedding favors online or consider making your own wedding favors. Allow extra time for custom-made favors (i.e., chocolates in a preprinted box). Candy Bar!

·      Talk to your maid of honor and best man about any prewedding party plans (such as the bridal shower, bachelorette party, and bachelor party). Oy Vey Don't Ask

·      Brides: Confirm delivery date for your wedding dress and schedule your dress fittings. If you are handling the bridesmaid dress order, confirm the delivery date.
·      Make sure your out-of-town guests know all the details. Add hotel reservation and city information to your wedding website and/or compile hard copies and mail out.
·      Start looking through reception centerpiece photos. Figure out what flowers you like and which ones will be in season on your wedding day.
·      Gather all important documents that you'll need for an international honeymoon (passport, birth certificate, visas, vaccinations, etc). We have passports but no honeymoon!

·      If you haven't registered for wedding gifts yet, be sure to do so.

Mom Ears Come Standard On My Model

I'm not exactly sure what it is that makes parents able to hear their child sniffle from across the house, cough from their neighbor's backyard and catch the soft intake of breath that precludes a nice big crying fit. My guess is its a delicious cocktail of biology; genetics with a little natural instinct thrown in to ensure the continuation of the species. However, I'm beginning to think that there's also quite a bit of learned behavior thrown in there. I know I don't have children yet but have cared for them long enough to pick up the first whimper that says they're waking up from a nap or the first breath through a rapidly stuffing nose that heralds the arrival of a cold. Since I'm not sleep deprived like their lucky parents are, it's even easier to pick up on their cues. I thought this was a mostly human interaction, that it was natural to be attuned to the discomfort of tiny humans but it also appears to extend to furry babies as well.  Exhibit: Haji.

As you know, Haji has asthma and has been slightly prone to throwing up because of his coughing. Over just a few throw up incidents, the one in which he threw up on the bed, and another where we caught him making the hacking sound just in time to move him, I have developed surprisingly reliable mom ears for the  sound of my kitty feeling ill. This morning I woke up in the wee hours after hearing a single hack and was able to move Haji off the bed and onto something much more washable and give him some love. Thinking back, the same is true of the scratching sound he makes before he pees on my shoes/pants/purse but it's certainly not so reliable as to wake me from sleep to put him outside, probably because he's not actually ill, just incredibly annoying.

Fear has also trained me to hear the sound of Button's bell when she moves outside her designated area of the house. My sister's cat Devlin once led my indoor kitty Button underneath the house and left her paralyzed with fear in a corner for days while E and I drove home from Oregon in the middle of the night and then frantically searched the crawl space for her. It took us days to find her since she was in a part of the crawl space I couldn't fit into and I had peppered the neighborhood with missing posters by the time we were able to get her out. While I'm not sure if I'd hear her moving outside her space in my sleep, I can't go to sleep without making sure the baby gate to her room is closed.

What about you guys? Anyone else have mom ears come standard on their model?

Happy Hanukkah 2010!

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

We managed to get our Jew tree this year by the skin of our teeth. We only purchase them from Santa and Sons in Sherman Oaks because they use environmentally responsible farming practices and don't use pesticides or other unfavorable growing agents. Because of the snow storm in Oregon, where their tree lot is located, their trucks carrying the trees were delayed a few days. This delayed the unpacking process and meant that they had almost no "thrifty" trees or as we like to call them, disabled trees. 

The standard price for an environmentally responsible 8 foot Noble Fir is somewhere between 150-250 depending on the grade. Since we're nowhere near able to afford a tree like that every year, we take advantage of their thrifty section which sports slightly imperfect trees for less than half the price. I'd been calling daily per their recommendation since Thanksgiving to ask whether they had unpacked any thrifty trees yet and the answer had been no each day. 

Then, on Tuesday evening, I called and they said they had three truck loads come in. They hadn't been unpacked yet but they would find us a thrifty tree in there somewhere. Lucky for us, they kept their word! When we showed up Wednesday afternoon, the first day of Hanukkah, there was one single 8 foot Noble Fir waiting for us in the empty thrifty section. It was clearly meant to be so we snapped it up for 59.99 and brought it home where we covered it base to tip in our Hanukkah paraphernalia.

Mr. Pisser In The House

From previous posts, everyone knows I have a cat named Haji. I am pretty much out of ideas when it comes to this particular feline and could really use some help. He's always been a vindictive peer, peeing on shoes and luggage when you go on vacation, making sure to go right in front of you so you can see how angry he is. This I can handle since it has a clear cause and I already feel guilty about it anyway. The problem is that lately, he's been peeing inside the house ALL THE TIME. He's been to the vet, had two urine samples taken and according to them does not have crystals or a UTI. He's not peeing in one place or even one room so there's no way to predict where he'll go. Last night in a move that has me fully believing he understands the concept of irony, he peed on the clorox wipes. This morning it was the vase in the living room. A few days ago the treadmill in the living room got the royal wash. He's been known to pee if he wants chicken and you provide beef.

I can't see any clear reason for this behavior. No new animals have been introduced to our house or the neighborhood. He has a dog door he can go out to pee outside or we're happy to open the front door for him whenever he walks up to it. He has two big litter boxes inside including one in my room where he spends the most time. This new peeing has him ignoring the litter boxes entirely and instead of going outside he seems to leave the bedroom (sometimes, last night he peed in the bedroom), pick a spot to pee, and then come back to bed. He can jump and run and has no problem getting inside or out, he's choosing to pee inside and be a dick. And he'll do it right in front of my face. It's not even spraying vs peeing since he'll squat if he wants to pee on something on the floor and stand if he wants to pee on something upright. He's just that much of an asshole.

To complicate things, it's really cold outside and given his asthma I don't feel comfortable throwing him out. I've done it a few times but he sits by the door and waits to come back in and then pees on something anyway. Mostly he just wants to sleep on his perch in the warm and I want to let him as long as I can be sure I won't be stepping in any puddles. Does anyone else have a problem pee-er with no apparent preference for pee place? If I knew where he wanted to go I could put down foil or sticky paper or spikey plastic or something to deter him but there's no way to guess. We already spray him with a water bottle if he looks like he's about to go. We need some new ideas!

Black Friday Madness

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Unless you live under a rock, don't have the internet, don't have television, don't shop in stores and don't talk to people who do any of the previously mentioned things, you know that the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. Black friday is a genius marketing scheme cooked up to get people into stores while they're still high on turkey so they buy excessive amounts of crap they later give for Christmas. On this day, crazy people stay up all night in line outside stores so they can rush in at 3, 4 or 5 am and buy some magical doorbuster items that are priced radically below retail. Stores usually only have a limited quantity so you'd better be at the front of the line.

Traditionally, I'd go to bed thursday night full of turkey, potatoes and veggies snug in my bed and laughing inside at all the crazy people standing in line. At least, that was until last year when I became one of the crazy line waiting people who got up at 3:30am to stand in line at Target. My mom really, really wanted an HDTV for her bedroom and the damn things were still outside our budget. However, for one day, they fell into our budget and we had to take advantage of it. Now that the precedence has been set (we didn't die AND we came home with a TV) it's really really tempting to do it again.

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This year, the big doorbuster deals are super tempting but not reaaaally needed. We'd really like a new HDTV but ours still functions so we don't need one. And, we have much better ways to spend 300 dollars. Plus, with the advent of the "cyber monday" or "black friday week" deals, we don't even need to stand in line anymore unless we need the big stuff. There are some great blu-ray deals and small item sales online that I think we're gonna take advantage of this year. Hanukkah is freakishly early so it's our only real shopping option to finish the rest of our holiday shopping.

What about you? Anyone waking up freakishly early to stand in line? Anyone score awesome deals last year? Or have plans to get some this year?

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Wherever you are I hope you're having a delicious day with good food and even better company!

Meow.

A Jewish Tree Topper - They Exist!

 As any Jewish or interfaith family that has a holiday tree knows, it can be tough finding Hanukkah themed tree decorations. The past few years have seen a welcome increase in the amount of available Hanukkah ornaments, likely in response to the number of interfaith families and the secularization of the holiday tree. They have silver and gold glass menorahs, colorful dreidels of all shapes and sizes and traditional balls with "Happy Hanukkah" and "Shalom" sparkling across them. Every year I add a few more to the collection and they cover the tree adding punches of color between the snowmen, the Dodger baseballs, and the kitty cats.


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Although there are now countless Jewish ornaments available, there is a serious lack of Hanukkah themed tree toppers.

The "Jew" Tree

Although both my honey and I were raised Jewish, for the past 4 years we've enjoyed having a holiday tree in our home. They smell delicious, look beautiful and generally add a lot of festive cheer. We cover it in blue and white lights, hang little menorahs and stars of david from it's branches and stash presents underneath that we doll out after lighting the menorah on the eight nights of Hanukkah.

When you get right down to the history, the Christmas or Holiday tree was not born a Christian religious symbol. It was originally a symbol of the Pagan festival Saturnalia and the Winter Solstice. Pagans used to bring cut boughs of evergreen into the house, decorate trees with bits of metal and tiny figures of their fertility god Bacchus to celebrate the Solstice and fertility of the earth. They sometimes added candles for the sun god and the ancient Germans added fruit and candles to honor their fertility god Woden. So, the Pagan Greeks did it, the Pagan Romans did it, the ancient Egyptians did it with palm trees and the ancient Germans did it too. I'm sure that there were people doing it before them too since the evergreen, retaining its beautiful green leaves throughout the winter, has always fascinated human beings with a promise that all life is not lost in the winter.  All of this far predated Christianity and establishes the tree not as a symbol of religion but as a symbol of life, the changing seasons and the fertility of the earth.

Given it's history, I'd say the holiday tree has come a long way. More than anything, it's now adopted as a secular symbol of the holiday season (as in all of them, regardless of religion). Since I've always been down to boogie with a bit of Paganism and have great respect for all peoples and cultures, I tremendously enjoy having a tree to decorate and admire. It's certainly the only one of its kind in my neighborhood and actually had the bad fortune of making some of my more religious family members a little bit uncomfortable. While we definitely don't want to make people uncomfortable with our tree, it's also important to us that people respect our decision and understand that we do NOT have a Christmas tree but a holiday tree, or even a Pagan tree. I never got to enjoy one growing up being that it was "far too Christian" and intend to let my children enjoy one every year for the sheer pleasure of having a bit of life inside when the outside is all cold and frosty (or as frosty as it can be in Los Angeles).

Thanksgiving Recipe: Stuffing to Inspire

For me, Thanksgiving has always been a holiday that has varied across the years. There was never a real set house, style, meal or tradition that endured year after year as our family changed. When my honey was little, he used to do the traditional turkey thing with his family and his neighbor. Once he was a teenager, he and his mom used to jet off to Mexico to lay by the water and drink margaritas every Thanksgiving.  I even went with them in 2004 for a nice change and we had a fantabulous time. There might have been an incident where I ended up spitting margarita down the side of the rock hot tub, but I blame E entirely for not telling me it was alcoholic.

Whenever someone mentions Thanksgiving, there's inevitably at least one person who goes "Oh stuffing!! yum!". To inspire your Thanksgiving table, I present a couple different stuffing recipes from all over depending on how much work you want to do.

Uh oh, I think my inner dork is showing

As you might have gathered from the previous post, I'm a little bit of a Harry Potter fan. Not fanatical enough to dress up  only because I don't have Hogwarts robes. I totally dressed up for Pirates of the Caribbean  but crazy enough to have to see it at midnight. This proved to be more difficult than I expected since tickets apparently went on sale over two weeks early. Back when we kicked it old school, I used to stand in line for hours and hours to get tickets. Once we could buy them online, I stood in line for hours and hours to get the best seats. Now that there's assigned seating, all that line waiting craziness has transformed into obsessive refreshing to buy tickets before they sell out. The local theatre by my house has 15, count them 15, theaters showing Harry Potter 7 part 1. Since I wasn't fast enough, I had to wait for the first 7 or so theaters to fill up those annoying front row seats so they'd open the 8th which I got tickets in. It was nerve wracking I tell you, and I was just getting ready to shell out the big bucks (as if movies weren't expensive enough as is) to a scalper to get my HP fix when I got ahold of four prime seats. They're in a theater that's smaller than I'd like but I'll take it.

While I really like having guaranteed good seats for my movie, I kind of miss the fan line waiting experience. There was a certain camaraderie in waiting in line with other people as crazy as you thats really been lost. No more geeking it out with total strangers over favorite books. No more checking out everyones cool costumes. But at least I get lovely seats and don't have to show up till right before the movie.

----------------------------------------------------Update--------------------------------------------------------

Just arrived home from the movie and WOW. I totally love Harry Potter but it kills me when they cut stuff out!  I would totally have gone to see two or three or four or more movies of each book in theater, even if I had to shell out 20 bucks a ticket for each one. They should have made a minimum of two movies per book starting with book two but I must confess I love them regardless. Anyway, no spoilers for those who haven't seen it yet, so I would highly recommend you go out and see it ASAP! And then, come back and talk to me about it!

Wedding Diet: Day 8

Well the first week or so of wedding dieting has been a mixture of successes and failures. I really, REALLY should have gone shopping first because there was almost nothing on diet to eat in the house which made starting the diet almost impossible.  Normally when I'm going to start a diet I pack the house full of fruit, vegetables, rice cakes, lunch meat, sliced cheese, low calorie popsicles, yogurt, nuts and a variety of easy to grab snacks. Instead, my house is packed full of bread, pasta, cookies, hot chocolate, no fruit, no veggies, popcorn and hot dogs. Oh boy. Most days I've managed to stay mostly on diet while other days like yesterday end up with me eating 4 tacos for lunch and two corn quesadillas for dinner. It wasn't even that I wanted Mexican food, it was just the only thing left in the house that my family ended up having. This is a big difference for me since I normally diet all or nothing, I've never had a diet where I "cheated" before.

So, one week in, I have lost a whopping 1-2 pounds. Depressing, no? I know it's on track with healthy weight loss, but after working all week to scrounge up edible food I wish there was a bigger result. The last time I started a diet for my friends wedding I had lost almost 7 pounds in a week and a bit. Seeing only 1-2 missing pounds feels like a failure even though it's technically progress. I'm going to try and go shopping to make things a bit easier on myself. I should also probably stop eating popcorn, but in my defense it's only because I've been watching all the Harry Potters in preparation for the seventh movie coming out tonight.

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Wish me better luck for the next seven days! 

There's Nothing You Can Do That Can't Be Done

My honey, E,  has a very good friend, D, whose had a really tough life. It's a really difficult situation because he's a fantastic guy who is really smart but has made some bad decisions and they've resulted in him really living day to day. He's one of the people you could have expected big things from, but instead he's looking for work at McDonalds and paying for food and cigarettes with change.

A child of divorced parents, D was raised by his pot smoking father with little to no involvement from his mom. They did okay as long as his father was employed but things were difficult when he wasn't. In the beginning of 9th grade he was pulled out of high school after an incident of bullying and was home schooled. Thankfully, he was able to get his GED so at least he "finished" high school. While bullying is difficult to deal with, the prevailing school of thought is to let your kids try to deal with it before pulling them out. Learning how to deal with a bully teaches children really valuable coping skills for dealing with difficult people later in life, a disagreeable coworker or an annoying boss. While you're supposed  help manage the bullying and advocate for your child, you're not supposed to pull them out after one single incident at the beginning of high school. It literally programs avoid and escape conflict into their brains instead of handle and resolve conflict.

Money Matters

As we get closer and closer to the wedding, I'm really going out of my way to try and pin people down for the things they've agreed to pay for. Some people like my aunt have been utterly amazing, offering to pay for even more things when she sees that we're struggling. She's really been a life saver and we need to think of a super creative way of thanking her. Other people like my honey's mom have been not as helpful and it's starting to make me a bit worried and stressed.

Me: Ahhh what do you mean you don't want to pay for the food, we already sent Save the Dates to 200+ people!

Wedding Diet: Day 3

I'm beginning to think that I should have gone shopping before starting this diet. It seems to be a lot harder to follow when you don't have fruit, veggies, rice cakes, and protein in the house. Thus far I've had to supplement two meals with a subway sandwich (6 inches per meal) but aside from that have been mostly on track. I also heard the news that our best man in the wedding has just lost 30 pounds!!!! I'm crazy super proud of him and totally need to step up my game, I think I've gained about 30 pounds in the time it took him to lose it.  We've reached crunch time, I know I can drop 31 pounds in 13 or so weeks when I'm either treadmilling or walking 5 miles a day in Europe. We have 19 weeks till the wedding and  I'm not in Europe so I'm hoping to drop the 30 pounds again in the time we have left. 

Day 1:

Breakfast:

- Eggs with cheese, salsa, and guacamole 

Lunch:

- 3 baby carrots dipped in ranch 

- 1 tablespoon peanut butter

- 1 small apple

Snack:

- 1/2 banana 

- 1 low fat yogurt

Dinner:

- 1 baby box raisins 

- 6 inches of turkey and veggie subway sandwich 

Right off the bat, can you tell I'm having a hard time finding food? It's day three right now and I started off my morning with two hot dogs free from artificial colors, flavors, additives etc. It was that or a slice of lunchmeat which also wasn't that appealing. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get a nice salad later today but it'll have to be a purchased one since we're out of lettuce here lol. 

On the bright side, I get to spend the day hanging out with my favorite little person and her awesome parents. She's getting so big that I'm gonna have to go shopping again, my stash of gifties for Roxie is down to 2-3 outfits and a birthday dress!

A Weighty Matter

I really struggled with whether or not to post this, especially with pictures. I don't normally share my chubby pictures but in the interest of honesty and other people who might also be struggling to stay slim, I decided to go ahead and bare it all.

I've been a bigger person then average my whole life. Even born three weeks early, I was well over 7 pounds and assuming babies gain 2 or 3 pounds in the last few weeks I would have been one big kid. I doubled my birth weight quickly and was on the higher end of the growth chart throughout my childhood, usually running a couple sizes ahead of my age in height and in weight. Up until puberty I was all muscle and bone, but after 12 I started to get hips, thighs, boobs, and a belly. Since then, my genetics have been working against me to hoard every calorie I consume and stash it away in my fat cells, even when I'm eating healthy foods.

Cold Weather Favorite: Sarah's Hot Chocolate

As the days get shorter and the weather turns nippy, people (and by people I mean me) get the urge to curl up in front of a fire and live off of hot chocolate. There are tons and tons of hot chocolate recipes out there but my favorite by far has been one that I made up myself after being influenced by the zillions of others. Be advised, this chocolate is rich and addicting so be prepared to share with whoever else is around. To make your winters a little sweeter, I present my hot chocolate recipe!

The Ingredients. You probably have most around the house already. Marshmallows can be substituted with whipped cream if they aren't your style. Cinnamon got left out of the shot as someone was using it.

32 ounces of milk, chocolate and salt in the sauce pan. The salt brings out the chocolatey flavor. 

Marshmallow and cinnamon topping. Delicious!

Sarah's Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

- Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa
- Low Fat Milk
- Salt
- Ground Cinnamon
- Mini Marshmallows

Directions:

1. On the stovetop, pour 8 oz of milk (per person) into a pan.
2. Add 3tbsp Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate and Cocoa (again, per person) and whisk into the milk.
3. Heat until steaming and warm.  Be careful not to burn the milk here, it can form a film if heated too long.
4. Add a dash of salt per 8 oz of milk.
5. Ladle into a mug and top with a handful of mini marshmallows and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
6. Serve immediately and try not to drink it all at once :)

Enjoy!

(Dis)connected

Like everyone else living in the 21^st century, I spend most of my days plugged in. I rely on the internet for everything, from shopping to classes, from talking with friends to earning a living, from morning until night. Computers make up the majority of my livelihood and I am perhaps more intimately acquainted with my Macbook than with any other item I have now or have ever had in my possession. While I previously prided myself on restricting my internet access to my laptop and choosing not to put it on my phone, I am now violently kicking myself in remorse over that long ago decision. Why did my past self ever desire disconnection from the life giving internet? It was only 30 bucks a month, 30 bucks I could have saved on gas by looking up more fuel efficient routes on my phone! No, I told my ignorant, naïve self, that’s what I had a GPS for. Couldn’t I have foreseen the eventual event that would require 3G through which to tether? Oh how our flaws are so glaringly exposed in the light of an internetless laptop at 2 in the morning, through the lens of crystal 20/20 hindsight.


It appears that after many faithful years of service, my cable modem, my physical cable line or possibly both have died a violent and untimely dearth. Due to the laws of probability conflicting with the more powerful law of Murphy, this astronomical event occurred precisely as I was completing a single admittance online exam. Following the aforementioned law, this exam, which just became available to take today, is due tomorrow, November 7^th, and Time Warner cannot send a technician till the 8^th.  I am one of those annoying people who compulsively turns in extra credit even when I already have 104% in the class, the possibility that I might not complete an exam is outside the realm of my comprehension. Unfortunately, I am also one of those people who bombed physics but want to go to medical school so I cannot afford to have another a bad grade in my GPA.

What good is the knowledge of how to fix a computer when you a have an unfixable problem? When the closest solution lies in a new modem at the Time Warner offices in Culver City, or up the telephone pole in the backyard that you shouldn’t be climbing at 2am? Why did you take physics when you should have been taking cable internet maintenance?? The little green lights blink a mockery at me while the customer service representative in China reads the same apology off her script for the third time, “I am sorry ma’am for the disappointment this event has caused you”. Yes, Chinese customer service representative, I very am disappointed though that would not be my first choice of vocabulary. I do not anticipate that I will be “havin’ a good one” tonight.

A Squiggly, Sparkly New Friend

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of spending the day with one of my best friends and her insanely adorable 8 month old daughter. While my friend worked on an aquarium, I got to prance around Manhattan Beach carrying the sweet and smiley Roxie while she waved and beamed at every passerby.

Roxie is so talented that she can convey her wishes with just a two toothed smile and a loose fingered wave.  "Why hello Mr. Bicycle delivery guy! Hello there puppy! OH tree I didn't see you there! Hello Starbucks Man, may I have a cup?". She often gets what she wants, it's impossible to resist her.

Aside from making me seriously reconsider why my honey and I are not having a baby right now, she helped me pick out a sparkly new friend from the amazing little shop whose aquarium her mom takes care of, Magpie.  They have beautiful fare, if a little pricey, from a variety of local artists that make you feel better about spending those extra few dollars. We spotted it at the same time, artfully arranged in an expensive and breakable wine glass, little string peaking over the edge. I was going to attempt to resist when Roxie decided that she I had to have it and made the decision for me. Since he was so cute and so breakable, I decided she was right.

Note environmentally friendly recycled bag with awesome stamped logo

There he is!

I would say "blub blub" but jellyfish sea jellies make more of a "swish swish"

That's right! Roxie picked me out a pink sea jelly ornament, she must be paying close attention in her mommy's fish store. This adorable pink fellow is the first of my ornaments purchased for this season, and while he was a little more expensive than I usually spend per ornament (we have a lax strict no more than 10 dollars per ornament policy) the people at Magpie were incredibly sweet and gave me a 10% discount. Now I want to go back and buy pretty much the whole store. If you're looking for anything unique, locally made and awesome, I would highly suggest checking them out. This isn't a sponsored post either, though if they'd like to sponsor me with gift certificates I'd be more than happy to buy most of their store!

Now I just have to wait till next Friday to get my hands on that delicious girl again. Why, oh why, are weeks so long??

Holiday Cards!

At some point in your life, I'm sure you've encountered the holiday card. You have probably posed for them, loved them, hated them, displayed them and chucked them but it's almost impossible to grow up in America without seeing them.

Previously reserved for pictures of posed families or horribly dressed up children, the holiday card has morphed with the times to reflect our changing definition of "family" and social norms. Last year we got a few traditional family shots, but mixed in were pets with and without costumes, couples both married and unmarried, new babies with naked tushies and even a goldfish in a bowl made an appearance. They were actually a nice window into people's lives and I really enjoyed seeing how much families had changed.

Gone were option A, the christmas tree or santa and option B, the menorah or l'chaim and in their places were tasteful, modern designs that appealed to all religions and creeds. Some were so fabulously un-tacky that we proudly displayed them without embarrassment for the world to see.  I think we actually got more "Happy Holidays" and "Happy New Years" than "Merry Christmases" and "Happy Hanukkahs". This refreshing trend is probably due to the crazy variety of holiday card designs that you can get online, especially from websites such as Shutterfly.

I still have a couple shutterfly cards tacked to the fridge from over the past year showcasing my nieces and kids I babysit that are growing up so quickly it's hard to keep a clear image of them in your head. When I picture the twins I've watched since they were 3 months old  I see chubby cheeked babies, rambunctious toddlers and bright eyed first time sleep away camp campers in addition to the smart, wonderful 11 year olds they've grown into. When I picture baby emily I have to remind myself to stop calling her a baby since she's now 4 years old and look over at the picture of her new baby brother Jonah on the fridge. Oh yeah, he's the baby now, she's technically a big girl.

Since this is the last holiday season my honey and I will spend as single chums, I was toying around with the idea of sending out a holiday card reflecting our merging families. Our friends and relatives have become scattered across the globe from Los Angeles to Istanbul and while technology keeps us connected there's something special about holding a physical object like a card. Now that we've sent the Save the Dates I also have everyone's updated address so tracking people down should be easier than ever.

I've been toying with the idea of something sweet and vintage like this Mint Frame Holiday Card:

Something funky and modern like the Mod Ornaments Holiday Card:

Or something traditional but still secular like this Vintage Provence Holiday 2011 Card:

I personally tend to stay away from any overtly religious or holiday tied cards. No Merry Christmases or Happy Hanukkahs, even Joyful New Year cards tend to feel a little too Christian. Seasons Greetings or Happy Holidays tends to cover everyone without offense and with the huge selection of neutral holiday cards Shutterfly has this year the only difficult part will be narrowing down my choices. Even picking only three for this post was tough so there should be something for everyone.

This year Shutterfly is doing something a little special for bloggers. If you blog and want 50 free awesome holiday cards of your own, check out this link. Just apply for the promotion, write up your post, and try to make up your mind!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010 

One of THOSE Days

So today has turned out to be one of those days. You know the ones I mean, where the day starts out great and then somehow everything seems to go wrong in a quick succession of events that leaves your head spinning and wonder "did that just happen?". In this case the answer is yes, that did just happen. Be prepared people, this will be a TMI episode.

To set the stage, I think we need a little back story. I started on birth control pills at about 13 years old to control killer cramps and periods that seemed to last for months. I'll stop you now to say NO! I am not pregnant. Back to history. Way before there was Seasonique or it was cool to limit your periods, my OBGYN had me take my pills one complete box at a time, so I would take active pills straight for 3 months and have a light, cramp-free period four times a year. For reasons to be discussed in another post, I kicked the BC habit last February and returned to the land of the normal perioded. Man, having a period every month simultaneously sucks and blows. I'd forgotten what bad cramps felt like or what it was like to bleed like a stuck pig ever 25 days. It's now November and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell my body is doing every month.

Extremely disturbing anime period picture to follow. Proceed with caution.

First Wedding Present!!

Today, my honey and I get our very first wedding present! Well, technically it would be our second since my mother bought me some gorgeous placemats that were being discontinued, but she isn't giving them to us till the wedding. So, this is our first that we actually get from a member outside our immediate family! It started with a phone call from my mom, saying that a family friend had emailed to say we should expect a package, probably from Bed, Bath and Beyond. We quickly rushed to our online registry and were surprised to see no purchases made. We decided to check our other registry, Pottery Barn, juuuuust in case, and BAM! There it was. When we registered at PB they explained that we needed to register for some big ticket items that guests could give giftcards towards. This seemed to make enough sense so we registered for a gorgeous mahogany entertainment center and the matching coffee table. Never in a million, zillion years did we ever think we'd get to take either of these items home, but today one is being delivered! We were SO beyond any expression of shock, awe and gratitude and in about 4 hours we will be the proud owners of the gorgeous Hudson Coffee Table!

Hudson Coffee Table, from Pottery Barn

Can I get an OMG?? 

Can you wolf whistle at furniture?

I'm sure for most people a coffee table is just a coffee table, but we've never received a present like this before! Most if not all of my furniture is an antique I purchased myself (dresser, table, headboard & footboard), something bought second hand (aquarium, bed), a childhood relic (bookcase, couch) or ikea (bookcase, etc). I don't think I've ever received a gorgeous new piece of furniture like this before that's actual wood and not particle board, assembly required,  whoops we forgot to send those screws or punch the screw holes or some other variety of do it yourself required. Not that I don't enjoy stalking craigslist for good stuff or drilling new holes because the factory forgot to, I just can't wait to get my hands on this solid, mahogany gorgeous coffee table that should be perfect just as it is. 

Course now that I've said that I'm sure the delivery people will accidentally drop it or something, but if all goes well we should be getting it today!

Which unfortunately brings us to the next point. We live with my mother and sister. My bed frame, dining room table, couch and the rest of my house lives in our garage. Last night I had to go rearrange things, get rid of stuff and strap my bike to the wall  so that there is room in our icky garage for our gorgeous coffee table. It's essentially sacrilege to put something this beautiful in a garage that icky but I don't see any other options. We can't put it in the house because there's no room but we want to keep it in pristine condition. Do we ask them to open the box first to check it out and make sure it's perfect before storing it in the icky garage? Or put it right into storage? Gosh I hate to do this to such a pretty gift, but it won't fit in the bedroom :(

At least my honey and I made a deal, if someone gets us the gorgeous matching entertainment center we'll get rid an older beat up piece of furniture. I can't see that ever happening but just in case!

Vote!

Hello Readers!

It's November 2nd and that means.....Election Day! 

Get out there and vote! Or if you've already voted by mail, go you! 

If you need even more incentive, check out that nifty sticker there on my shirt! That's right, not only will you get to contribute to Democracy and determine who will be making political decisions on your behalf, you also get a sticker! Just make sure you make INFORMED decisions, do a little research and find out what you're voting for or against. 

If Haji can do it, so can you!

Meow.

Halloween Brownies!

Since we weren't trick or treating or partying this Halloween, I decided to make some epic Halloween brownies. I got the perfect recipe from Picky Palate for Shortbread Candy Corn Kissed Brownies and they turned out beyond delicious. To save you the trouble of clicking the link, here's the recipe.

Shortbread Candy Corn Kissed Brownies

1 family size brownie mix (9×13 inch size)

2 sticks softened butter

1/2 Cup granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 3/4 Cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 bag Candy Corn Kisses, or any flavor you like, unwrapped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare brownie mix according to package directions, set batter aside.  In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy and light.  Slowly add flour and salt until combined.  Press shortbread dough into a 11×7 inch baking dish lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.  Top shortbread dough with 50 kisses then pour brownie batter evenly over top of kisses.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick comes clean from center.  Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

2.  Place remaining kisses in double broiler to melt.  Spread melted chocolate over brownies, sprinkle if desired and serve.

12 brownies

Now when I made them I made a few changes. I used an 11x13 glass pyrex pan and it made 32 nice sized brownies, not 12. I used Ghirardelli brownie mix and definitely couldn't fit 50 kisses in the pan, I fit 40 tops and they probably could have gone for about 65 minutes.  I also topped mine with melted kisses and covered them in a mix of sprinkles, though I needed more than one bag for the topping. 

Now, I present some remarkably bad iPhone photos after the jump:

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! I hope you, my imagined readers, have a fantastical evening filled with candy, costumes and pumpkins. Since I have no tiny person to dress up in an adorable costume, I give you this: a Harry Potter kitty cat.

Expelliarmus!

I would dress Button up if I had a cute costume for her, but all of Haji's never lasted more than one Halloween.  It's probably because I made them by hand when I was a kid and then he may have viciously, on purpose accidentally ripped them.

I would say that I'm going to be doing awesome, pumpkin, costume, and candy filled things this evening, but sadly my neighborhood is extremely orthodox so there will be no tiny people in colorful costumes running about or jack-o-lanterns glowing. Plus, my honey has to be up at the chipper hour of 5am the next day so parties are kind of out. I do, however, anticipate some awesome scary movies and good company, possibly with my favorite tiny costumed person.

What are you all going as for Halloween? All in, balls out Harry Potter style? Or writing facebook phrases on your arms ala lamesauce  my honey last year? I leave you with a terribly photoshopped photo of Button in a hat, and eagerly await your creative responses and costume pictures!