Dedication

My Fema (grandmother) who taught me to take pleasure in the little things, the important things in life and who my most cherished childhood memories are with. She will forever remain in my heart and in my thoughts.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Reason I have been too buzy (lazy) to post.

Excuse Reason 

Visit to the Nation's Capitol (pretty good reason, if I ever heard one).



Is it wrong that I was jumping up and down yelling yippee, waiting for the subway?



The view from my room, if you twist to the left...looking backwards...on a clear day.
I just love Georgetown.  Everyone in business attire, shinny shoes and the air of contempt around them.
Potomac River from Key Bridge.  A lot of people have an evening jog across it.  I only crossed it on my way to get champagne, yummy G-Town food or...
oh, so yummy cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake, or...

to get some of the best coffee (sorry Starbucks...it was only one time...I swear) or...



a nice walk through Francis Scott Key Park (not pictured is the homeless man who proceeded to walk to a bench, pull down his pants and sit down.  You are welcome!), or...

because..."THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!"

Thursday, September 22, 2011

...and on the eigth day, he created websites.

A list of some web based faves.

Ok, so a few merchandise websites that I lub, lub, lub.  In no particular order we have:

1.  http://www.shopittome.com/ - Give them your size and fave brands and they send you e-mails when those things go on sale.  Brilliant, yes?

2.  http://www.wishpot.com/ - You can use this for registries (how did I not know about this site when I got married), showers or to make a wish list of things you want to stalk.  When the price falls below a certain amount, they e-mail you.  Woohoo!

3.  http://www.stylebakery.com/ - Way to much going on here and it is all wonderful, ideas on syle, tips, good deals, anything you need to know about the how, when, where and whys of fashion all in one conveniently wrapped site.

4.  http://www.alltherageonline.com/ - Fashion jewelry for cheap, cheap, cheap.  Did I mention CHEAP???

5.  http://www.savings.com/ - Codes and coupons and notices of sales, list of blogs about saving and deals, a myriad of savings gizmos to help you pay less for the things you want.

And now the most fab blogs eva, eva-eva, eva!

1.  http://www.aladyinlondon.com/ - A brilliant travel blog.

2.  http://www.amotherinisrael.com/ - Great information, tips, ideas and news about Israel and about being a Jew.

3.  http://www.erineverafter.blogspot.com/ - At first the name caught my attention but her site is just lovely.  She blogs about all things she finds just lovely.

4.  http://www.fabbrunette.com/ - a wonderful peak into her life, she blogs about baking, heels, family and all things she loves.

5.  http://www.fromayellowhouse.blogspot.com/ - An expat from Georgia, living with her British husband in England.  Envy her much?  Yes, yes I do.

6.  http://www.jennsylvania.com/ - Ok, been following her for years.  One of the few writers that make me laugh out loud so much that I cry.  She is hilarious.  There is a list of the books she has written located on her site.  I devour everything she writes as soon as it hits the shelves or internet.  Beware; she is unapologetically Conservative and snarky.  I simply adore her.

7.  http://littleredboat.co.uk/ - A blogger in England who blogs of her daily happenings here there and everywhere.

8.  http://thepolymathchronicals.blogspot.com/ - Another brilliant writer.  I stalk her books as well.

The following is a list of blogs concerning an interest of mine.  The welfare of Saudi Arabia and the women who live there.  If you have no interest in the Kingdom, you can stop here.

1.  http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/ - A Scandinavian woman living life in Saudi Arabia.

2.  http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/ - An American Expat living with her family in Saudi Arabia.

3.  http://lostinriyadh.blogspot.com/ - Blogging about Saudi happenings.

4.  http://saudiwomen.wordpress.com/ - A Saudi woman's take on Saudi and women's issues.

5.  http://saudijeans.org/ - Written by Ahmed Al Omran, blogging on Political and Social Issues.  The only male on my list of blogs.  I mention him by name because he deserve that respect for his commitment to what is right, not simply what is law.


w/luv E-

Monday, September 19, 2011

One of my many faves

One of my most favourite* pastimes is the weekly Farmers Market.  There are a ton of them, so it is very important to search for the best.  Though I am a sucker for any Farmers Market, there are some I stock regularly in the Orange County area.  These are my wonderful findings from a few weekends ago.


perfect yumminess



bag o'goodies



Look at the Rosemary, basil and mint...have you seen finer?  No, no you have not!

The squash, onions, beats, green beans and kale; all perfect accompaniments to any protien.
* Yes I know.  That is all.




w/luv E-

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

No Kids = Lazy

Having young kids, from time to time, you tend to wish for a “grownups” only day.  You know the kind of day, yes; sleep in late, eat at some trendy gown up place that doesn’t have a kids menu, spend quality grown up time with your spouse, maybe hit a club and make a night of it.  So with this all in mind, let me awe you with our wild and crazy adult weekend.

First was our afternoon out at a pub


Not pictured here: sausage roll and chips...ok, maybe it was kid friendly, we have to ease into this crazy adult only stuff (strike 1).

Then a little of this at the Long Beach Convention Center

Yeah, I don't care.


...because for the 405, you need this


apparently rush hour traffic demands....a Wii...in the trunk, really??  Which I'm sure the kids would have loved to see (strike 2).

...but dinner, now dinner will be all posh and grown up-y!  Dinner was...at home once we tore ourselves from the TV - shameful (Strike 3).

Then there was the idea to go find a little cute cafe for dessert which was followed by several minutes of:

her - "we can go if you want to"
me - "well, do you wat to" 
her - "only if you want to"
me - "ok, well I'm changing into my pajamas (this was before 9pm, I know...I know) if we aren't going" 
her - "well, I'm getting my socks on"
me - "ok lets go...I supose"
her - "ok...if you want to"

(is there such a thing as strike 4?)

 

 So we decided on:
Nice eatery at the Shoreline Village in Long Beach (now we're talking)


great nautical ambiance (that's more like it)


A rather nice view


Blah dessert and an annoying 10 top at the table next to us, at least the baby behind us was cute, so there's that.



w/luv E-



Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Now with 100% more snackiness

There are two kinds of food.  The kind you eat due to necessity and the kind you plan for, wait for and savor.  The former is at times hurried, basic and mundane.  The later is usually divinely prepared, aesthetically pleasing and delicious.  In today’s case it is the mixture of the two. 

Today I have discovered the bad-assery of snackiness.  They are nothing short of snacktastic, snackalicious, the super snack, snack-o-rama, snacktopia….and now I am annoying myself.

Behold…..


This amazing bad-o-wonder from Starbucks has the very slightest hint of sweetness; something akin to Kettle Corn but with a bold pepper and salt flavor.  It is THE perfect sweat/savory combo.


We bought these at an Asian market down stairs from out usual dim sum hang out in San Gabriel, CA.  All other dried fruit snacks are crap compared to these mangos.  They are slightly sweet strips of mango and you can taste the mango.  There is a slight sweet dusting on them but nothing at all like the sugar coated dried fruits or blah shriveled dried fruit I have tried everywhere else.  You can see the meat of the mango just as if you cut it fresh.  Take a careful look at the bag because any other brand will not be the same. 
 Now, I must go, my bags are empty.

w/luv E-

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Face lift...the blog, not me.

Sooooo, a bit of a face lift for the blog.  A bit of change is good, yes?  Some new posts coming soon.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I'm not a bettin' Lady

This past weekend travels saw me no further than 20 or so miles down the road.  Although just a hop, skip and or jump away I have only been to this location once before, years ago.  I have to say for myself, I resisted the temptation to jump up and down and say "I want one, I want one".  Maybe because I have an ounce of self control but I'm willing to bet it's because I don't have the required knowledge, training or hundreds of thousands of dollars available to me. 

We arrived at 7:30am for breakfast, it was a wee bit overcast and slightly chilly...maybe because it was 7:30 IN THE MORNING!! I blame my mother.

Sooo pictures, yes?



Home of the horses that make me squeeeeeeeee!!!

The afore mentioned squeeeeeee!!!
Ditto
Breakfast mmmm!
Oh, the kid's college tuition lost here.
Pictured here: someone I'm taller than.
Not pictured here:  The unholy amount of bees around this thing.

So, what I have learned on this fine Saturday morning at the track is that....I WANT NEED A RACE HORSE! 

w/luv E

Thursday, March 17, 2011

...of beards and birds

So let's pretend its yesterday and this post was written when it should have been, yes?

Upon reaching my beloved Starbucks yesterday today, I crossed paths with a red Ford Focus.  Driving this Ford Focus was a man of about 60ish, heavyset with long white hair, a long white beard and what looked like (from the waist up) red Long Johns with suspenders.  At the same time I noticed him, I noticed the front of his car had a big red nose on the front bumper and on the back window the words "got toys?"  What the...how the...I understand it is not December, I understand I am grown and I do not believe in Santa, furthermore I understand I am a Jew and therefore do not celebrate the holiday associated with Santa.  That being said; none of the above came into my mind as I bounced up and down in my car yelling, "Hey, there's Santa...look it's Santa...why is Santa driving a Ford Focus...dude it's Santa!"

In completely unrelated news:

I came into the office after the Santa sighting (still a little on edge that Santa drives a red Ford Focus) to see this:
You don't know it, but I'm faking!

You see; my coworker found a baby hummingbird outside our office.  Naturally we tried to help it.  We made a sugar water concoction, our hearts were breaking that this little angel could be very hurt and in need of medical attention.  It's chirp was so sad, it seemed so very, very sad.  We called a vet, apparently they don't see birds, um...are they not a vet, do they not treat animals?  Right, so we tried a second vet who said to bring it in...since they are...your know...a VET!  So the diagnosis is the bird is fine, we were to take it back and let it go.  Ummm, yeah, this is the same bird we had in a Tupperware (IKEA brand not Tupperware brand, so probably more like just a plastic container), the same bird that was lovingly covered with a tissue blanket, the same bird who let people pick it up!  The bird was brought back and it proceeded to fly away and not the least bit bothered!  Point of this story...bird owes us $5 in gas money!

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day today damn it, tomorrow!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Pemberley in Cypress


It is official, the Pemberley Estate has moved to Cypress.  The Master and Mistress, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy along with their dear friend Mr. Charles Bingley have moved in safe and sound.  We servants are busy night and day making sure they have every accommodation.  Though they are a very demanding bunch, we are happy to oblige their every whim.  The Darcy's have not yet spoke of when they will be entertaining guests but the word around the servants quarters is that the Darcy's are expecting to send out invitations any day now.  I must say the town is lively with anticipation.  Here is a few shots of the much talked about Darcy's.

More on the social calendar later.


Welcome to Pemberley
 





The Darcy's & Mr. Bingley

Friday, February 11, 2011

"Oh, honey, no!" Moments

3 things that were "Oh, honey, no!"  moments on the way to work today.

1.  Girl walking to high school, well, more like waddling and nearly falling half a dozen times, in 3" stiletto heels.  "Oh, honey, no! Stay out of your mommy's closet and give the grown ups their shoes back."

2.  Lady behind me at the stop light putting on eye liner.  "Oh, honey no!  Not behind me you don't.  Really, it's not going to help what you got going on there anyway."

3.  About 15 people total on each of the 4 corners of two intersections with tall yellow placards letting the rest of us know just how much we are going to hell...there's more, the signs were two sided so you can be told twice as much how much you NEED Jesus...there's more, they forcibly giving out pamphlets to passerbys who had no intention of taking them...just one more, one sign said something about sinners but the word sinners stopped at the end of the placard with the rest of the word ners vertically under the first n.  Really?  They were professionally made too.  "Oh, honeys no!  You know you can pay homeless people $10 to twirl your signs for you (it's a good deed, yes?  Employing the homeless and all), also if I would get a refund on the jacked up sign and oh, by the way why do you have teenagers out there on a school day?  Can you say truancy?"

So, how was your day?

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Temporarily incapacitated or lazy!

Where have I been?  Isn't the question, where have YOU been?  No?  Ok then.

I have been on a great number of escapades since we last spoke; wonderful places like here and there, this place and that place.  Doing wonderful things like this, that and the other thing.   I know, I know.  The sheer excitement of my happenings is to much for you to bare.  I did have a small vacation though.  I went to one of the most wonderful places in the America's, Nay the Solar System...Canada (Oh Canada la.la..la..la)!  Can I tell you I love, love, love, love Canada.  They have some of the nicest people ever.  Like stab yourself in the eye nice.  Really, nice people.  Canada is clean, not like lightly dusting around the edges clean, more like OCD; scrub the paint off the wall clean.  Canada has a great lack of bugs which I enjoyed tremendously.  I wonder if the shortage of bugs had to do with the freezing temperatures?  Of course by freezing I mean, sunny weather in the 40's...which IS freezing.

Needless to say we had a wonderful time and saw some wonderful sites.  A few bits...


Our suite view in Victoria B.C.
 
Our suite view in Victoria B.C.

                                              








                                                       


The Legislative Assembly of B.C.

Inside the Legislative Assembly of B.C.




Stain Glass window in the Legislative Assembly
 
Butchart Gardens Victoria B.C.


                               

 
Butchart Gardens

 
Craigdarroch Castle,Victoria B.C.

    
 
Craigdarroch Castle
Thus a peek into my Canada. 

**Note to self: Convince U.S. to use the Canadian Dollar.....because it's prettier.