tonight...

the hubby is out watching football with his buddy and I'm home alone still taking down the blasted Christmas decorations. I poured myself a glass of wine to unwind after a HELL commute (over 2 hours one way for a 10 second commercial spot) so I thought I'd check up on some emails and correspondence. Well one glass led to two and since I'm staying in tonight...hell, I'll have another. I'm starting to feel drunk a little. But it's ok. It's still holiday time, and the end of another year, and our house is freezing and... I live with a mean cat- who pees all over our house. Need I say more.

I don't like...

to drink alone so I just gave my dog a teaspoon of wine.

I wonder...

how much dog and cat fur I consume on a daily basis.

unimaginable loss...

The other day my mom received some sad news from back home. One of her dear friends lost her son from a sudden heart attack 7 days before Christmas. Then 4 days later, while getting dressed for his funeral, his mother (my mom's friend) has a heart attack and dies. What a devastating loss. How do you even communicate that to the rest of the family on the day of the son's funeral??? I can't even imagine. Makes you realize how the life that you know and live every day can forever change in an instant. Be kind to those in your own little world, love them while you have them and while they have you.

a GREAT film

I am always a year or two behind when it comes to watching movies because I don't like to sit for 2+ hours in a movie theatre seat. So this morning I watched Blood Diamond while putting away the Christmas decorations and WOW was this movie amazing. I'm sure all of you have seen it but if not, I recommend it highly. What made this movie so intriguing to me was that I knew NOTHING about it before watching it. I didn't look it up on IMDB until after it was over so every single scene was a complete surprise. Fabulous job, Mr. Zwick. Keep these movies comin'!

finally, something good

I had to watch something else after that cluster f*ck of a movie Catch and Release, so I switched to The Departed. I've already seen it and damn is it good. Especially the scene when grown up hot man Leo comes in from the rain to his psychiatrist's apartment. Here's a clip though in another language. French? Italian? German? I have no clue. Either way it's still Mmm Mmm good.

our favorite things...

Ok since I can't watch anymore of this ridiculously predictable movie I thought I'd blog about my favorite Christmas present...THE ROOMBA! This thing is FANTASTIC! I know I bitched about Tom's obsessive compulsion when it comes to vacuums but he really hit the jackpot on this one. This machine makes me want to sing. We set the timer on it so every other day at 9am it shoots out of it's docking station and goes to work in the family room. It takes about 45 minutes to clean the room and when it's done it finds it's way back to the station. I am so grateful to have one of these, especially with a houseful of fuzzy animals.

One of Tom's favorite Christmas presents is a remote control helicopter my mom gave him. He played with this thing ALL day yesterday and even let me try it out. We made up a game and would each take turns flying it around and landing it gently (not an easy task). I kept crash landing and instead of picking it up and placing it upright I would gun the motor on the remote to try and get it airborne. The thing kept flipping around on the floor and Tom was not happy about this. He says, "Stop doing that! If you don't pick it up you can't play with my toy!" He was completely serious. I don't think we would have gotten along so well as 5 year olds.

I found some footage on youtube of a similar helicopter. Though, the guy in this video needs to put down the toy and clean his place. He could even invest in a Roomba if he's short on time.

Catch and Release this movie

I am watching Catch and Release right now (about 45 minutes into it) and it is one of the STUPIDEST movies I've ever seen. Is it worth continuing to watch? It's so phony that I can't handle it. Plus, Jennifer Garner's top lip has been puffed full with too much collagen and some scenes it looks like she has an oozing cold sore.


Gross. Stupid. Gross.

Yes...another vacuum!

I know one of my Christmas presents this year is a Roomba. Tom has wanted one for YEARS and I'm pretty sure that he got one as a "household gift". This will now bring our household vacuum total to SEVEN. Tom has a serious addiction to purchasing motorized suction devices and I think I need to find him help.

I must get back to making dinner. Instead of turkey and all the fixins I decided to do a lasagna. We have no room in our fridge for anything else at this point so a tray of lasagna is easier to manage than a 20 pound bird. Ok I must put the lasagna in the oven before the guests arrive!

Oh, by the way...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Peace, love and laughter to all.

Love,
Laura

sometimes only chocolate will do...

Last night I had one of the worst bouts of PMS. I was ransacking the freezer, pantry, couch cushions, old purses for anything that had a trace of chocolate. I wasn't having much luck then I remembered one of Tom's stocking stuffers was a big box of Hershey's Pot of Gold Caramel Assortment. Have you ever tried these? OH mY God are they good! So I brought the box over to Tom and asked him to please open one of his stocking stuffers early. He said he didn't want to, he'd rather wait until Christmas. I Begged PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE open it NOW and I started to rip the box open a little so he could see what it was. Tom is a certified Chocoholic so once he saw the Hershey label, he tore off the rest of the paper and we both couldn't get the plastic wrap off the box fast enough. We managed to eat the ENTIRE top row in a matter of 15 minutes.

Now I must brave the elements the weekend before Christmas and replace this box with another. Not looking forward to that. I am still looking for one more gift for my mom but am not having much luck. I'll try and update more later.

slow news day

So the news tonight featured a segment on airplane food and how most of the stuff we eat on the plane has more fat and calories than a Big Mac, fries and strawberry sundae combined. The field reporter was interviewing random people on the street asking them their opinions on airplane food. This woman ranted about how awful her tuna sandwich (or was it salad!?!) tasted...


Oh the HORROR!

And then I snapped a photo of this woman, who stated her opinion on airplane snack boxes. Read what's under her name...


Did they really just waste 12 seconds of critical news time with this??? I guess I wasted more than 12 seconds blogging about it and also capturing film and photos (thanks to DVR). But I'm sure we can all sleep better tonight knowing that Emma Davis likes snack boxes.

Aww, how sweet.

Brit's little sis, Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. Good thing she waited 'til the ripe old age of 16 to pop one out, and thank GOD she's got Britney for a role model on motherhood.

Good golly, studio execs! Settle this strike! We need the late night guys on this one.

have to make these...

I'm sure the men at our holiday gatherings will enjoy biting some bits off this cookie. Speaking of bits, perhaps I'll make a "boy" version for my lady friends. Oh, this could be dangerous...

Airborne Power Pixies

This time of year everyone is rushing and pushing themselves to the max, which often leads to sickness. If you start to feel run down, take these. They taste great and you don't need water, just pour the crystals onto your tongue and let them dissolve. I just bought the last 3 boxes at our local Target. Hopefully you'll find yours somewhere else.

really bad dreams

Lately, I've been having some really REALLY disturbing dreams. I won't get into that on here, but I just have to get the one from last night out of my head because it's been on my mind all day. Tom and I were buying a car, and we decided to get a used Cadillac Brougham which is what I drove in college. (And back then I could fit 10 people in that thing, sometimes when I was driving I'd look in the rear view mirror and see a whole bunch of arms and legs sticking out everywhere. Good times.) Ok, back to the dream...so Tom and I found a car we both liked and on the outside it was the exact replica of my college car but the inside was like an airplane cockpit, so many instruments and hi-tech gadgets to play with. We made the transaction with the sales guy and I don't think any money was exchanged but I left my current car there and also told him he could have all the clothes stashed in the trunk that I was planning on giving to good will. The sales guy seemed ecstatic about this. So Tom and I drive off in the new wheels.

We're going pretty fast along the coast and it starts to rain. I tell him he better slow down and he says he doesn't know how. He starts fiddling with the gadgets on the dash board and I tell him those won't do anything, just use the BRAKES! The road is starting to curve and we're headed straight for the side of the mountain at full speed. Tom looks over at me and I'm screaming "BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!" and he screams back, "WHERE ARE THEY!?!?!" and then we SLAM into the mountain. We are now inside the mountain and it's sooooo quiet and peaceful and we both don't have a scratch on us. I say to him, "Tom...we just died." He smiles and says "No we didn't, we're fine." I say, "Yes we did- look at us." The realization hits us both and I start crying in the car because I'm sooo upset for our families. He hugs me and says that we're going to be fine and not to cry and then all of the sudden this heavy gray tarp falls over us. The tarp weighs a lot and is smushing us down and it hurts my head and neck but we continue to cling to each other. I can't see Tom anymore but I hear his voice and he whispers in my ear, "We'll be ok. We have each other." And then I woke up.

more Chum attacks

Here are some Chum attacks from last week that I forgot to post...

Boycotting Albertson's

(at least for the rest of the day)

Why? Because of today's shopping experience...

Today I had planned to finish Christmas shopping for my mom who is now visiting. She was the only person left (besides Tom) who I had to buy for and since I didn't have to ship her gifts I had a little more extra time to shop. So I got to the mall right as it opened and was finished with shopping by 10:30am. Next on my list were a few errands and then grocery shopping and my plan was to be back home by noon so I could spend the rest of the day baking/cooking for the week's festivities. We have something planned every night so I wanted to use today as a preparation day. I was going to make another Gingerbread spice cake, another batch of sausage/cheese balls and I found a recipe online for date/nut cream cheese bread that sounded so good so I wanted to try that. So I rushed through my errands, zoomed through the grocery store and was home by 12:04! For once, ON SCHEDULE! Well as I'm putting the groceries away I realize, hmmm where's the cream cheese for my cream cheese bread? Then...wait, there's no pork sausage for my sausage balls and Dag nam it! There's no cheddar cheese either!!!! I checked my receipt and there was at least one entire bag of groceries missing. All of my refrigerated stuff, including lunch meats and sliced cheeses I had waited in line for at the deli counter!!! Oh I was not happy about this. If it was just the stupid cream cheese I could have waited but it was the majority of my ingredients that I needed to use for baking!!! And I made sure that ALL the groceries were out of my cart when I brought it back to the cart return. I learned that lesson after leaving a case of beer on the bottom shelf of the shopping cart, not once, but twice. I shouldn't have just admitted that.

So, I'm back in the car, rush over to the grocery store and head to the check out girl that helped me. Of course there is no sign of my bag. They tell me just to grab the items that were misplaced. UGH!!!! So I waited BACK IN LINE for lunch meat and sliced cheeses at the deli counter, and Oh - My - God, the guy was S-O-O-O-O S-L-O-W. It was obviously his first time operating the slice machine because he had to stop every few slices and ask for help. After that, I got my cream cheese and shredded cheddar and then ran to the other side of the store for the pork sausage....which....THEY WERE NOW OUT OF!!!! So now, I'm really not happy about this, but I'm not one to make a big deal out of things (except on here) so I was polite and just asked to have the money refunded. Oh that was a cluster f*ck in and of itself. They told me that I could just drive to the other Albertson's in the next town over because they probably have more in stock. I said, no thanks to that and then they said they could check the shipment schedule for the sausage and see when the next truck load comes in. At this point I'm about ready to pop but I calmly continue to tell them that I'd just like my refund NOW please. I had called my sister in the midst of this debacle and she said that she will pick some up for me later in the day at VONS.

Of course I know in the big scheme of things this is nothing to wad my panties over but still, it was just a waste of time and energy. And unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened at this store. I'm not going to make any remarks about the attention span of the baggers at the store but like everything, there is always room for improvement. So to end on a positive note I will plug another one of my favorite holiday items from Trader Joe's. I just ate 3 with an ice cold glass of milk and ahhhh, my anger is subsiding.

These guys have talent!

Straight No Chaser

I miss Chicago...

this time of year.

This picture looks like our old street on the north side...

And then here's a shot of the city decked out for the holidays...

I actually dreamt the other night that Tom and I moved back on a whim and found a gorgeous rehabbed brown stone in Old town to live. I was sooo excited to be back in the city and loved how I could walk to everything again. But then after a few days I missed California sooo much that it made me physically sick. I begged for us to move back and we did. Then when I woke up in my bed here at home I was happy. But I still miss it soooooo much right before the holidays. If I could go back now I would but we can't because of Tom's work schedule. Once Dec. 26th comes I'll be over it but between now and then it just doesn't feel like Christmas here! My mom is coming tomorrow for almost 3 weeks so that should help a little too. And it's been getting down to the 40's at night so when we walk through our neighborhood and look at all the Christmas lights it does feel a bit more festive. It's just hard during the day when the sun is shining amidst a bright blue sky and the grass is green with palm and orange trees everywhere!

POSH SPICE

Why the hell doesn't she EVER smile? It annoys me. From now on she should be called "Sour Puss Spice."