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What to do and Happy new Year!

Oso our dear lovely boy is terrified not just of thunder but of rain. If you seen the news lately you'll no doubt realize that his life has been a living hell this past week. Last night during a very windy rain storm, he spent several hour cowering in fear in Megan's bath tub. At 3 am I finally couldn't sleep with his wimpering and pacing anymore and so I had Jack shut the open sliding door (love that fresh air) while I drug his but into bed and proceeded to cuddle him for over an hour while he shivered in fear. He finally relaxed and passed out.

So what to do - He's safe from say April to November when we are sunny every day, but the rest of the year is rain storm after rain storm. And then there's the issue of if we ever move - say to Seattle (rainy year round) or back to Miami (never going to happen but...) rainy year round. What will this poor dog do.

Today we had a windy rainy morning, but by the time I got out of "the producers" it was sunny. We have a break till the next storm rolls in tomorrow.

And so it is a new year... Jack and I are taking it easy tonight, Jack made a lovely dinner, and then he and Megan made some cookies. Now we have an open bottle of bubbly, Megan is asleep, and we played a board game for the first time in a long while for a few hours tonight. Its been a wonderfully quiet new years eve night.

I'm not usually one to make resolutions, but this year, well since I turned 35, i've been making a few. To get healthier, to eat more bananas ( well more fruit anyway, i've never been a fruit eater). basically to take better care of myself.

all you need to do is ask...

Tonight as I was cuddling with Megan, she commented on how my boobs made her milk and asked if they would make more milk? I told her yes, if we had another baby they would. She looked at me and said that was good and that she'd like a sister.

I chuckled and said I would tell her dad all about it... and she replied

"no not daddy, tell Santa"

Exhausting...

Megan and I are both pooped. We spent yesturday at a over crowded Oakland Zoo and then today went to an even more crowded Children's Museum.

The zoo was alot of fun and Megan was even tall enough for us to ride the tiger coaster in the rides area (oh Joy for Mom!) We also went and explored all the big game animals, the elephants, the camels, and zebras, and giraffes. the Lions where right front and center watching the crowds and the even the tiger was actually visible laying out in the open taking a nap.(I've for a while thought they didn't actually have a tiger cause we never see it!). We ended up having to leave the park to find lunch which was a first - because the concession stand had at least 50 people in line when we got there. So we went to a local restaurant.

The Children's Museum is a place i've heard of but never been, and while it was off the hook crowded, we did enjoy the fire-truck, and ambulance they had to climb around on. they have the best water play area I've seen, and a few other really cool exhibits. I went ahead and applied our days entry to membership because now that i've been, i know we'll be back.

Unfortunately it became evident through out the day that Megan was developing a sniffle. She even asked for a nap when we got home which is rare. i'm sure she'll be fine and i'll give her a bit of airborne to hurry the cold on its way. This stuff works great - I was recommended it by a pharmacist friend who swore by it and i've tried it the last few times i've felt a tickle like a cold might becoming on and it seems to ward them off.

Spot on!

Alec Baldwin tells it like it is. Something i've been wondering for a while now.

The Family Stone

Saw the movie "the Family Stone" tonight. and while I really thought over all it was a great flick, I was annoyed that no one not even the previews or the reviewers thought clueing me in (yes its all about me) that it was a movie about loosing ones mom around christmas, was a good idea. It hit really too close to home for comfort, and while I can always use a good cry, its nice to be prepared.

It was funny at times, but more often than not it was filled with those moments where you tear up and don't say enough.

Cheap and easy fun

Give a blind dog a rawhide. Then tell the neighbor to slam their car door and watch the dog loose the bone and search for it - with out any effort on your part.

Merry Mismiss

Jack is up baking the cinnamon buns, and I'm up cause well the alarm went off twice and Oso has been moaning. Did I mention that Oso is a moaner... like a cat purrs ... its off the hook funny.

I peeked earlier and Santa did indeed come. Jack and I took a few pictures before Megan wakes up and attacks. I'm sure he'll have them up soon. Our plan is simple.... Megan gets up and then we'll let her see what Santa brought, have some breakfast and start in on the pile o gifts under the tree.

Its supposed to rain today, but if it doesn't we'll probably walk down to the park, and drop off some goodies along the way. I managed to give away alot of my baking, including a lb of the fudge.

Anyway - as Megan would say Merry Mismiss to all!

Busy day

UPDATE: we ended up with 2 get togethers. First Winsha came over and brought gifts and hung out with us for a while. Then an hour after she left Pam and Yvonne came over with Josephine, and we had wine and cheese and the girls opened gifts. Then the girls rough housed, followed by another viewing of Rudolf the red nose reindeer classic. The girls had some pasta and the we shared some take out chinese. Then they were off and Megan and I set out cookies and carrots for Santa and the crew, we also sprinkled some reindeer food thanks to Gee's school in the yard (1 cup of oatmeal to 1/2 cup glitter) in the yard. I'm sure the mice will love that!

Megan's now in the bath then we'll have a reading of the night before Christmas.

OH the high light is tivoing the Yule Log ! ... and this year we have competing Yule Logs - gas on 26 and a really big wood-burning one on 36. The drinking game is when ever they throw a log on (like ever 10 minutes) you have a drink, and when they poke you drink, and of course drink when ever they have a pop up ad.

Busy Morning

Jack and Megan are off on a treasure hunt, and I've spent the time, cleaning (I had to unplug the dyson again - its astounding what that sucker will pick up. The roller brush was a tangle of fabric sheets and a couple of Megan's smaller toys were blocking the tub.). The house really smells great (help also by Sadie getting a bath yesterday)

I then worked out on our new Elliptical trainer (MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US FROM JACK AND LORI- Jack even installed our 3rd tv from the extra bedroom to the garage, with a TIVO so now I use the elliptical trainer when ever I want to watch GH).

After working up a good sweat I went out and cooled off while hosing all the leaves off the patio... yes I know its supposed to rain again tomorrow - well let it. I just wanted to get all the crap that blew on the porch during the last 2 storms. Off to the shower and I started some laundry.

Now i'm taking a break, looking a few things up I've meant to do for a while, and then I'm going to make a goat cheese pesto cheese ball for our Xmas Eve get together later, and then I'm going to take Oso to get a bath.

Baking and more baking

Last night Megan and I made spritz cookies, I made the dough and pressed them out and she decorated them with lots and lots of sprinkles. This morning I made Orange Bread and Spiced Pumpkin Bread. To say the house smells yummy is an understatement.

I still plan on making fudge, and 2 pies for xmas day. Jack is going to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast xmas morning. And to top it all off, we're thinking of making Calzones for the dinner on xmas.

Lestat

UPDATE Found the link for Lestat

Jack and I went and saw Lestat last night, the Anne Rice Vampire novel put to music by Elton John and on stage. It wasn't bad, and will be a pretty good show eventually, but it needs some work. Turns out we were at the 3rd performance of it, ever!, and they are still tweaking it. I say cut out an entire character (Nicolas the violin player), cut out a couple of songs including Lestat on the boat which was just pretty pointless and made it too long.

They need to strengthen some characters a bit, Marius is important to the story but completely unbelievable as an ancient vampire. He didn't have any sort of air of authority.

It took the better of the first half, like 3 parts to turn Lestat into a vampire and that should be trimmed down, course if they cut out Nicolas they loose 3 scenes here - go from Lestat and his mother to him going to paris to be an actor.

Oh and cut out some effects during the killing and converting to vampire scene, its just too much.

OK I know the production team isn't reading my blog, but they've got an interesting and new premise here, and a couple of great songs (Claudia's I want more will probably be nominated for a tony), It'll be interesting to see how it evolves. To goto it again in 5 years and see how it changed.

Happy Birthday to me...

Its been a really wonderful birthday so far...i'll start the saga, friday night. Megan's school had its Holiday show, and Megan just shined. She sang Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad and was just so cute. Jack got it on video and hopefully he'll put it up. After the brief show, Santa came and gave each kid a goodie bag, and then we headed out to our favorite Thai restaurant for a late dinner. We ended the evening driving around looking at xmas light and then Megan and I walked around our neighborhood looking at some of her favorite displays.

Saturday Jack had a phone interview with a radio show, so Megan and I headed up to Lakeshore Learning to do the saturday art project. It was a new years noise maker, and Megan had alot of fun.

Then we returned home and Jack and Megan headed out to "treasure hunt", while I headed out to see BrokeBack Mountain This movie was if not the best than one of the best love stories i've ever scene put to screen. Heath Ledger should get the oscar, so should the movie, and the director Ang Lee.

Saturday night Megan and I met my friend Kari and her son Derek for dinner at a local Pizza place. After we headed back here and the kids watched Rudolf the Red Noise rain deer while Kari and I drank a bottle of wine and entertained Jack with our crazy talk. The evening ended with a bang, the kids beating drums and running around making lots of noise.

I started my b-day celebration officially there cause well Kari gave me a really cool gift basket of gourmet wine and sauces that looks yummy.

Sunday came and Jack had me kidnapped by Pam and we went off and had hot stone massages at a day spa. After some pampering we had lunch at Max's Opera Cafe before heading home to cake and presents. Jack and Yvonne and the girls decorated the cake, and then enjoyed a morning of bouncing. Jack gave me a new telescope, a small compact one ( I think the one I gave you dad), and last night despite the clouds we went out and looked at Mars. Its great and very light weight. It'll probably inspire me to drag out my big one, since I'll look at things, and think, you know with that 80lb monster i'd be able to see this so much better!, but for introducing Megan to the stars, its perfect.

Last night I had a holiday party with my mom friends. We met at Lavanda which honestly while the company was wonderful, the food was a bit over priced for what it was. I had a nice butternut squash soup and a salad for 19 dollars, with a soda and a bottle of water we all split, cause I didn't know that flat wasn't tap, we each paid 31 bucks. Desserts would have added another 10 on top so some of us enjoyed some gelato on the way to the car.

Today is my actual birthday, so Megan and I are going to Color me Mine and then we're having lunch with friends. Tonight Jack and I are heading up to the city to see Lestat in the pre-broadway release!. we'll have dinner first somewhere in the theater district. So I have to say its been and is an excellent birthday!

Late night...

Its after midnight and i don't feel tired. I didn't even had caffeine tonight! But I did use the time for good and finish up my holiday cards. ... yes dear friend I who bragged a month ago about getting all my nieces and nephew gifts in the mail, have procrastinated on doing cards, and the reason is a good one... I wanted a better picture of Megan for the card (for why do we have children if not to adorn our xmas cards!) , and our good camera is in the shop for repairs. The sad part is if your at the beginning of my list (family mostly) you got a nice note, a hand written (in my chicken scratch) note about how we are doing and that Jack has 3 books published. If however you were one of my later cards than you got nothing. I did spit on the back of the envelope, but my hand cramped and I just let the generic greeting that shutterfly let me put on each card suffice.

I played a few games of gammon, one 3 good matches and then lost 2 so I quit that, since it tends to balance out.. there is no hope for my next game, so I quit that and then I paid a few bills.

Its raining heavily. I have so wanted rain. California is great for its sun, except when you've had months on end of endless sunny day and then you'd give anything for rain. When the hills are green I feel relaxed, feel at home, but by the end of summer the hills are brown and i'm ready to move. I hope the rain continues for a few days, though I just checked and Its suppose to pass tonight.

Bird Seed

we have two feeders in our yard, one out front and one out back. The one in the back is never full, I fill it and the squirrels have a party. It gets empty so fast, i tend to give up on it. The one in front though takes forever to empty, dangling from a hook the squirrels to heavy to hold on and the holes too small for them to access the feed. this morning I watched as 5 little birds all fought over the two holes on the bottom, because they have finally eaten enough that the holes on the top have no seed. I'll have to buy more seed, good stuff for the front, and cheap stuff for the back, and maybe a new feeder out back, on that dangles from a hook so we can feed the birds as well as the squirrels.

Santa!

Megan told Santa she wants presents for christmas... it was really cute. We made a whole day of it, like my mom did with me when I was a kid. We shopped alittle, saw Santa, went to Bounce A Rama for an hour, then had lunch before coming home for a good nap.

Purple Dress

My second sewing project. -First without an instructors guidance.

Right after the pictures where taken, she twirled around and around until she was dizzy. I think she likes it!

Oh Yum

When Jack and I decided to become vegetarians in 1993, we were both fairly meat and potatoes sort of people. At the time I never made a meal without meat, so in the beginning it was a challenge. But giving up a whole food group basically opened up our taste-buds to alot of possibilities. I now eat lots of veggies I thought I hated, including Brussels sprouts, Spinach, mushrooms (raw only still can't stand cooked ones) and eggplant. It also opened me up to different cuisines, like Indian. I now love a good curry. In Australia we used to go to a Gaylord's hidden in China Town.

When we moved here I was stoked... with such a large growingIndian Population We were bound to find some incredible restaurants. The truth however is that every restaurant we've tried is way to spicy for me, even when I order mild I can't seem to eat the food brought.

When Megan was first born I was told she was allergic to dairy and since she was only breast feeding it meant i had to give up all diary. I was really craving for Indian and since there is alot of diary in it, I decided to try my hand at making it. I used goats milk and made paneer (indian cheese) and then I cooked a couple of dishes. But in reality it was a bit of work and as Megan got older making my own cheese, seemed too time consuming. So we relied on the other cuisine of yummy curry - thai. After a while, we found ourselves eating alot of pasta and pizza, and japanese, because that was something Megan would eat, Ok so what is the food history all about?

Well Trader Joes the best store in the world now sells blocks of Paneer. which inspired me to try cooking Palak Paneer(Spinach), Matar Paneer (Peas), with Yellow rice and some naan. I started at 6 and everything was on the table by 6:40 - almost qualified for Rachel Ray!

The best part was it was yummy. I left out most of the chilies, so it wasn't spicy, and as usual I didn't follow the recipes exactly but I used them as a general idea. (Case in point - i didn't make the spinach paste - instead opting for putting fresh leaves in the sauce and letting them cook down) I also never bothered to measure amounts ingredients (except for the rice).

Remembering

6 years ago today my mom died. Saying that out load still puts a catch in my throat. I miss her so overwhelmingly sometimes. Now that I have Megan, I want to talk to her again, to share with her, and ask her questions. But sometimes really is just a hug - to have and give a big hug. Mom was great for hugs. They meant so much, only at the time I thought I'd have them for a long long time. What I would give for one of her hugs.

I tried to donate blood today in her honor, but I'm anemic and they didn't want my blood, try again in a week they said.

To bring the mood down even more, I think Sadie is taking a turn for the worse. She peed all over the sofa today in her sleep, and her urine glucose has been very wacky, and very low. She had been staying moderate to high, but while we were away her numbers sunk low and there they've stayed.
The goal now is keeping her comfortable, and preparing Megan who is absolutely in love with "her dog" Sadie.

Pain in the ...

Turns out I managed to burn off all my callous but the foot will survive. It'll hurt like the dickens for the next week or so, but the Doctor seems to think I'm very lucky - it could have been much much worse.

shit

we're at the airport in Greenville having dinner, but I will first update you all on my shitty afternoon. I put a pan of water on to boil to make Megan some Edemame for the ride home. I sat down and blogged and got sucked in to a cheesy movie about Diana. Well when I remember the pan the water was gone and the bottom had melted. I pulled it off the stove and liquid metal fell and splattered all over the ground. This I missed, so I of course stepped in it, burning a huge hole in my sock and my foot. It hurts like hell, on par with labor. I'm planning on several cocktails on the plane, and would have started now with dinner but South Carolina is a dry state on Sundays!

Tomorrow, after some sleep I will go to the urgent care center near the supermarket and let them doctor it up, till then I have neosporin and bandage.

Update: We made it home, all exhausted, Jack and Megan sleeping. I just redoctered my foot and am heading to bed as well. Had to blog this update though for the east coast folks. I had 3 vodka tonics on the plane and that helped a bit, so did 2 ice bags. Now I just need sleep.

Going home...

We're heading home today after an all to short visit with "Grandma and Pops". We ended the trip with a very successful geocache on an island in the middle of the lake. The boat ride out was chilly, but the hike was fairly easy and Megan found the treasure!. Unfortunately the last finders had left the lid off so everything was a bit wet and dirty but we got it all back together.

Now i'm doing a final load of laundry and packing up while Megan watches Kiki's Delivery service with grandma and Pops!

We have a late evening flight out of Greenville, and should get into SFO after midnight.

Star Sightings

One thing that did happen was we had 2 star sightings while at the Washington Dullas airport. The first was after our first flight was canceled and we were wandering around the terminal. We bumped into Andrew Firestone of the bachelor fame, and he is very attractive in person.

Then on our flight out we had the pleasure of sitting 2 rows in front of Al Franken and his radio crew who were on their way to Asheville to do the show live from University of North Carolina. Jack managed a "hello Al", and I enjoyed the team discussing the content of the next days show through out the flight.