Product round-up

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Sarah

It’s that time of year to talk about what products we’re all using. I think I’ve done this before, but things change, so I thought I’d give an update. My skincare routine is very basic. Very, very basic. I’m sure your fancy products work really well, and god knows I need to probably invest in some because I am looking OLD these days and it’s really sad, but I kind of can’t be bothered.

My morning routine is to wash my face with whatever face wash is in the shower. Right now it’s an Aveeno foam situation. I didn’t take a picture of it, nor bother to find out its actual name, because it’s fine. It doesn’t change my life. I’ll probably buy it again or maybe I’ll buy whatever else looks fine. (I’m obviously really attached to face wash here.) Truth is, I sometimes don’t wash my face. I don’t wear face makeup, minus under-eye concealer and blush, and I remove both every night, so I don’t feel like my face needs daily cleaning.

Moisturizing, though? My moisturizing routine is very important to me.

In the mornings, I use the CeraVe lotion (4 pumps.) It’s SPF 30 and it doesn’t sting, which so many SPF moisturizers seem to. If I’m feeling extra dry, I’ll add a half-pump of the Cetaphil to the CeraVe. At night, I use the Kirkland (Costco) brand makeup remover wipes. These are the best I’ve found. If Costco is out of their brand, I will use Neutrogena, which they usually have in stock. After I remove my makeup at night, I use a full pump of the Cetaphil.

For the all-over moisturizing, here are my faves:

I saw this Jergens hand cream featured in Allure and grabbed it up the next time I was at Target. It was like $6 and I bought it back in December and I’ve used maybe 1/4 of it, so it wins all the awards from me. I put this on my hands right before I fall asleep at night.

I used to be really loyal to the Jergens body lotion, but they never have that at Costco and man, I am a sucker for a deal. I tried to the Kirkland brand lotion and I love it. It’s got a nice plant-y scent (like, it doesn’t smell fruity or floral, but it smells like plants. I don’t know.) In the winter, I also use the Neutrogena oil because sometimes it’s too cold for lotion (I remember saying this exact thing in the last post I wrote and someone thought that was weird. I can’t be the only one who thinks it can be too cold for lotion, right?) Anyway, if I’m extra dry, I’ll combo the oil and the lotion and be all slicked up.

So that’s what I’m using these days! Anything I have to try? Bonus points if I can buy it at Costco or Target.

Posted in Beauty & Fashion | 3 Comments

My favorite podcasts

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Sarah

I’ve been introduced to some new podcasts recently, so I thought I’d share my favorites here. My taste varies from very lowbrow to smarty-pants, so there’s really something for everyone. I’d also love to hear your favorites, so please share them in the comments!

Watch What Crappens
About: I’ve only mentioned it one or one hundred times before, but this is my very favorite podcast. It’s about “all that crap we love to watch on Bravo,” including Housewives of course, but also shows like Top Chef. The hosts live in L.A., which makes the podcast even more interesting because they always have Bravo-lebrity sightings to share.
Length: Typically between an hour and a half to two hours long
Updates: Once a week, usually on Wednesdays

Fresh Air
About: Fresh Air is pretty much my favorite NPR show and since I so rarely sit down to listen to the actual radio on weekdays at 1pm (when Fresh Air is on my local public radio station), I subscribed to the podcast. This one features interviews with tons and tons of different people from all walks of the entertainment (and beyond!) world. My favorites recently have been interviews with Tim Gunn, Ann Patchett, and Matthew McConaughey.
Length: Around 40 minutes long
Updates: Every day, two podcasts a day. Because the show is on daily and usually includes a short musical feature at the end, I get two new podcasts (one with the main interview and one containing the musical feature) dropped to my phone every day, PLUS an extra weekend episode (the weekend episode is not new; I think it’s just highlights of interviews from that week.) I try to go into this podcast daily to delete the stuff I don’t want to listen to, that way the episodes don’t stack up. This usually includes the musical features — not that they’re not interesting, but I put a podcast on so I have something to listen to for an extended period of time. The music segments are 5-6 minutes, which, no thanks.

Stuff You Missed In History Class
About: The stuff you missed in history class! I like this podcast because it’s about really random stuff you probably wouldn’t learn about otherwise or it goes in depth about some of the stuff you learned only a little bit about in school. I have heard the hosts now are not as good as the old hosts, but I never heard the old ones and I like the gals who host now. Their voices are very nasal-y (which people have actually written in and told them, oy!), but you get used to it. It’s funny — for being basically radio, podcast people often do NOT have good radio voices. Anyway, the recent podcast about Rosa Parks was fascinating. One of my favorites — one that made me get on that Google machine right after hearing the episode — was about the Nazca Lines.
Length: Usually about 30 minutes long; occasionally they run into the 40-45 minute range
Updates: Twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays

Stuff Mom Never Told You
About: A lot of stuff about the female body, historical stuff relating to women, feminist topics, etc. Chick shit, basically. Some of the topics are little…much for me, so I just listen to the topics I think I’ll find really interesting. I liked the recent episodes on women in hip-hop and Dolly Parton and am looking forward to listening to the episode on Susan B. Anthony.
Length: Usually about 30 minutes long; occasionally they run into the 40-45 minute range
Updates: Twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays

Wine 4 Sophisticated Homies
About: This is my high-school friend Ben’s podcast. Ben and his co-host are sommeliers in southern California and bring humor, as well as a ton of wine information. They also occasionally talk about non-wine topics — I loved their podcast on the history of vodka and gin.
Length: Usually around 20 minutes long
Updates: Usually once a week

NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour
About: I enjoy this show because they talk about movies/tv shows in such way that they articulate a lot of what I think about movies/tv shows. Sometimes I think the hosts are a little too into it (bordering on condescension), but with four hosts, they bring each other back to reality pretty quickly. They’re really just very passionate movie/tv watchers.
Length: About 45-55 minutes long
Updates: Once a week, on Fridays

Totally Mommy
About: Forgive the name, but this podcast is great. (I’ve only listened to two episodes so far, but they both made me laugh out loud, so there you go.) I don’t know much about the host other than that she is a comedy writer, lives in L.A., and is hugely pregnant. The show is newer (a spin-off of her show with her husband, Totally Married, see below) and features the host talking with different mommy friends about mommy topics. The guests seem to be on some end of the celebrity spectrum, which makes the podcast even more fun.
Length: A little over an hour long
Updates: Once a week, on Wednesdays

Honorable mention: Totally Married
About: As I have only listened to one episode so far, I can’t give this a glowing review just yet. But, I have another episode queued up for tomorrow and I did like the first episode I heard, so I am sure this will make it into the regular rotation. I’ll report back when I have formed a more solid opinion.
Length: A little over an hour long
Updates: Once a week, on Mondays

And that’s that! What are your favorite podcasts? Do tell!

Posted in Book, Movies, TV, & Music | 8 Comments

All in good fun

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Sarah

I listed to a podcast the other day that got me a-thinking (as so many podcasts do.) It was an interview on Fresh Air with Jennifer Senior, who wrote the book All Joy And No Fun (about parenting, are you shocked?) I haven’t read the book, so I can’t really talk about that, but I loved the interview. What got me thinking was something the author said about becoming a parent in your 30s (specifically stay-at-home-parents.) She said that for the last almost-decade we have spent most of our time [in the work force], talking to adults and having rational conversations. Now all of a sudden, we’re talking to these people who don’t get reason and logic at all and that can be frustrating (understatement.)

I FEEL THIS so hard, guys. It is my natural instinct to talk to LG like an adult. Not necessarily because I am used to the workforce or whatever, and not even as a conscious thing; it’s just what I do. And let me tell you, it does not always work. She does this thing (as so many threenagers do, I am sure) where she just FREAKS out about very little, dumb things. Like her chair won’t push out from the table because the legs are stuck in between tiles. Or her books won’t stack and they keep falling over. Or she puts her sock on backwards. These are things I can totally help her with, they are not emergencies, and yet she freaks the fuck out over them.

I try to be rational and explain to her that these are not things to cry about. If you’re stuck in your chair, Mom will help you. If your books keep tipping over, Mom can show you how to stack them so they don’t fall over. If your sock is on backwards, Mom can show you how to put it on so the heel is in the right spot. But, for the love of god, please do not scream about any of these things. Despite the fact that talking rationally to a two-year-old is kind of ridiculous, I am at a loss for what else I should do. I am certainly not going to swoop in and console her over spilled books. I am also not going to ignore it. I feel like it has to be understood that there are moments in which it’s okay to get frustrated for a second, but then we move on. I am a grown-ass lady and I’ve been known to throw things in frustration, so I get it. Just, you know, not 30 times a day.

(Funny aside: I’ve been trying to get her to take a deep breaths when she’s about to freak out and she does NOT like that. “No, Mommy, no breathe!” Okay then!)

Another thing the author mentioned in the interview is how we’re expected to be our kid’s playmate. Oooooh boy. I can’t tell you how much guilt I feel for not actively playing with LG each day. There are plenty of times when I send her upstairs to nap and she…does not nap. She plays and and reads and I can hear her chatting away and part of me feels like I need to go be involved in her playtime. Like it’s not fair that she’s playing alone or something? Which is ridiculous because I loved being alone as a kid, so who’s to say she doesn’t also? She practically sprints upstairs after lunch each day. And beyond the fact that she appears to enjoy playing alone, I am not 30-going-on-3. I’ve got adult things to do and I do not need to play with an almost-three-3-year-old doing almost-three-year-old things. I wonder why I don’t feel like it’s enough that I clean/clothe/feed/read to/take to the park/cook with/set up with various crafts and art stuff. That is most certainly enough! And yet here we are.

Where do you fall on reasoning with unreasonable toddlers and playing kid games with your kids?

Posted in LG | 5 Comments

Smug lettuce wraps

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Sarah

I feel like kind of a cheater for posting this recipe because it’s not even a recipe, really. But, I’ve made this many times now and so I finally figured it was time to share the method. It’s stupid easy and it involves a bottled sauce SO SUE ME. It also involves quinoa and lettuce, so at the end of the day you can be very smug about having this for dinner. Unless you have it with potstickers, in which case…maybe never mind.

Anyway, I have done this lots of different ways, used different meats or added different veggies in, etc., so it goes without saying you can add in based on what you like or what you have in your fridge. Anything goes!

What You’ll Need
2 chicken breasts, diced up into really tiny pieces (or save yourself the time and buy ground chicken or turkey)
A big handful of baby carrots, cut into small pieces
1 cup (dry) quinoa, cooked to package directions
A big healthy glug of Veri Veri Teriyaki (or your favorite teriyaki sauce/marinade)
Olive oil
Black pepper
Dried garlic
Dried onion
Sriracha

Toppings & Such
Lettuce cups
Sesame seeds
Green onion
Avocado slices
Chili garlic sauce
More sriracha
Hot mustard

What You’ll Do
– If your quinoa isn’t already cooked, start cooking it now; mine takes about 15-20 minutes.
– Add a drizzle of olive oil to a wok or pan and cook up the carrots for a few minutes, then add the chicken. I keep the heat pretty high so all the liquid cooks out, but obviously you don’t want to burn anything, so, you know. I’m sure you know your burners better than I do.
– Add that healthy glug of Veri Veri; sprinkle some black pepper, dried onion, and dried garlic, plus a little sriracha. Just keep stirring over medium-high-ish heat.
– When the quinoa is done, add it to the chicken and carrots and mix it all up; at this time, you may need to add another glug of Veri Veri, as well as some more of the spices.
– I let all this cool until I’m ready to eat so as not to burn my throat like I did the other night. I recommend letting yours cool, too.
– While it cools, you can get your toppings ready, slicing and dicing and whatnot.
– Top your lettuce wraps (romaine is not ideal, but it’s all I had this time) with the chicken and quinoa mixture, plus whatever other toppings you like. Eat three or four of them. Feel very smug.

This made 4.5 meals for us. Dinner for the three of us and lunch for two of us the next day. Viva la leftovers!

Posted in Food & Wine | Comments Off on Smug lettuce wraps

A birthday story in two parts: Food and booze

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Sarah

My birthday was last week and it was my very favorite birthday in recent memory. I very rarely feel the need to recap my own birthdays, but this was a great one. The weekend before my birthday, I got to spend 48 hours with my favorite person ever, celebrating in one of my favorite cities. We went to San Francisco, which incidentally is where we spent my birthday four years ago, when we first moved to northern California, even staying in the same hotel (thanks to my favorite in-laws for hooking that up and also for flying down to watch LG!)

San Francisco holds a special place in my heart because it’s kind of where Chris and I decided to “make this thing happen,” if you will, and where he met my parents for the first time (more on this later.) This was all about a month or so into meeting each other, so forgive me, but San Francisco just brings back a bunch of warm fuzzies for me whenever I’m there.

Anyway! Onto the birthday recap. Once my in-laws arrived on Saturday, we fled the house whooping and hollering and made our first stop to Napa to pick up our champagne shipment and grab a little snacky lunch.


Rough stuff.

Then it was onto the ferry which was…stranded in the middle of some kind of body of water. No matter! We hopped on a bus (LOL LOL I don’t do buses, but I survived) and got to our hotel.

First stop on the agenda was drinks at the Top of the Mark at the InterContinental. We’ve done this before and had a great experience, but this time it was just okay. Kind of shoddy service, a not-great view (not the Mark’s fault; it was rainy), but fueled by gin drinks, we soldiered on…


Martini for Chris, French 75 for moi.

…Followed by dinner at my most very favorite restaurant in San Francisco. A blog reader recommended Osteria to me years and years ago, back when I blogged under a different name and when I still lived in San Diego. Since then, we’ve been back countless times because it is just. So. Good.

This salad is one of the greatest things I’ve ever eaten in my life.

After dinner, we trudged through the rain (I…might have been a touch cranky) and finally ended up at our hotel where we watched the Olympics and passed out like the 30-somethings we are.

On Sunday, I had high hopes of tracking down a croissant or other breakfast pastry, but after walking around North Beach for awhile , The Hangry hit and so we had to find a place to grab breakfast. Like, immediately. We stopped at Caffe DeLucchi and were quite pleased.


The eggs were poached so perfectly, I thought they were little dollops of sour cream.

The it was onto the Buena Vista for Irish coffees. When Chris first met my parents, the four of us hunkered down here and drank 18 Irish coffees in about two hours. Not to worry, we did also share a grilled cheese sandwich. Between the four of us.


Yes, sir, just another 17 more and I’ll be set.

Then it was once again back to the hotel for some R&R before heading back out in search of Chinese food. Our hotel is very close to the entrance to Chinatown, so of course I insisted Chris pose with this lion:


For LG!

The we went to Hunan Home’s (thanks for the rec, CH!) and ate way too much food.


This is not Hunan Home’s. I ate way too quickly to take a picture. Imagine tasty green beans & pork and orange chicken.

After Chinese, we were in one of those states where we were too full to do much of anything but sit around, but it was too late in the afternoon/early in the evening to go take a nap/turn in early and so we powered through. First we stopped by Comstock Saloon for some craft cocktails:


Bourbon, gin.

Then we got a real hair up our asses and decided to recreate that first trip to San Francisco. On that trip, I had a guidebook that listed all of the diviest bars in San Francisco and we made it our mission to go to all the places on that list. Some of them were no longer dive bars and were instead other kinds of bars and some of them were very, certainly, decidedly divey. One was a bar/convenience store/recycling center. They’ve since revamped the place — and yet didn’t change the name; it’s called Grasslands, if you’re interested — but when we stopped in for a drink this time, it just didn’t have the same je ne sais quoi as the last time. (Yup. Just used French to describe a dive bar.)

We couldn’t quite remember the name or location of one of the dive bars that really tickled our fancy, but checked out the maps on our phones and thought we’d found it. As we walked down the alley where we thought it was, hoping that it hadn’t closed down in the last seven years, I heard the telltale sounds of Chinese karaoke. I knew we’d made it.


No filter needed — the Bow Bow Cocktail Lounge is really that red.

We karaoked, drank g&ts, and had an all around fun time, culminating in late night pizza and popcorn in the hotel.

The next day it was time to head home. Not to worry, I did manage to get a croissant before we left.


Until next time, m’ lady.

Posted in All About Moi, Chris, Food & Wine, Travel | 1 Comment

Toy talk

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Sarah

I am always interested in how other people arrange their homes. I am sooooo not a home style/feng shui kind of person, but I know what I like and I know what I hate. Something that is not particularly interesting, but damn if it doesn’t need to be handled somehow, is how people deal with the kid’s toy situation. Here’s how it works in my house.

First of all, in an ideal world, we’d have a rec room type situation. It would always be organized and toys would never leave that room and make their way into other areas of my house. Unfortunately, we are only working with three bedrooms and a little over 1600 square feet of space, one-third-ish of which is upstairs, an area of the house we never use except to sleep and shower. I also live with a toddler, so, as you will be shocked to learn, toys somehow make their way all up in my space.

Given that the rec room is a no-go, I’ve had to come up with a situation that I can live with in our downstairs area. Here’s the living room:

To the left (not pictured) is just the TV and a half-wall separating the living room from the dining room (see below.) On the coffee table’s bottom shelf are LG’s books and stacking blocks, as well as her library books, which she keeps separate from her other books (gee, where does she get the need to order and organize her things? HMM.) Over in the corner, to the left of the big couch, is her rocking chair with some of her stuffed animals. I’ve covered it with a blanket.

As you can see, she has a lovely play kitchen, which was a Christmas gift from my parents. It fits quite nicely in that little corner there and I do not hate it. Then of course there are the foam letters and numbers, which take up quite a bit of space, but which also fit quite nicely between the couch and the kitchen (the real kitchen — not pictured.) (I’m just realizing maybe the secret with kid things not making me crazy is that they have to FIT and MAKE SENSE. I can’t just have things thrown around all willy-nilly.)

Anyway, over to the left is the dining room, which we rarely ever use. There is a lot of empty space in here, so this is where I store LG’s “active” toys. Like so:

There’s a little chest which holds her dress-up clothes (hanging out is the cape my aunt bought her. Funny story about the cape. When she first got it, she put it in my purse. She never puts anything in my purse, so it was kind of strange, but like Chris said, it makes sense. If she ever needs to fight crime, her mom will be with her and can help put her cape on.) There’s her shopping cart with sundry items, her tea party supplies, her mini kitchen, and her beauty shop stuff.

In that same room is the front closet under the stairs, where we store a whole hell of a lot of crap, including toys that I switch out to keep things new and exciting. A little drum/music set, blocks, her spinner. AND, there are more toys in her room that I also switch around from time to time. Legos, farm toys, a baby doll and stroller, etc.

In the (real) kitchen, I have allowed some pantry space for crafty type things — coloring books and markers, Play-Doh, etc. — that is at LG level so she can grab them as she wishes.

So that’s how it works here. (There is an opportunity for the dining room to be used as more of a rec room type situation, but I just don’t see that jiving with LG. She likes to be where the action is and in our house, that is in the kitchen. I think a rec room that far away would just go unused. (But oh, there is such good light in there — uhh, during the day, obviously not pictured above — and I would love to turn it into a nice cozy reading nook for ME. No toys allowed.)) Anyway, all this works well and it doesn’t make me crazy. I had an old coworker over the other day (she has seen how neat I keep a work desk) and she almost mentioned the foam letters, but then didn’t say anything. Listen, no matter how OCD a person is about their space, kids have a great way of really fucking all that up, so you just do what you have to do.

How do you handle all the toys? Bonus points if you answer and you don’t have kids. Juuuuuust kidding, keep that to yourself.

Posted in LG, Mediocre Homes & Gardens | 3 Comments

A day in the life: Me and the illusive LG

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Sarah

I’m pretty sure I’ve done one of these before, but I saw my girl K do it, so I thought I’d do it again. Here’s a day in the life of moi — bonus points because this happened to be my birthday, so while a lot of it was the daily boring crap, I also got to leave the house and go have FUN, which is not normal.

6:53am – Wake up, stumble out of bed, go downstairs and turn the coffee pot on (I always set it up the night before, but it was still set to the weekend time — 7am — so I had to wait several minutes for my coffee to brew. Big mistake.)

7am-7:50am – Sit in bed, sip coffee, watch GMA (who ruined the WKC Best in Show winner; this happens every year, you’d think I’d learn to just not watch GMA if I didn’t finish the dog show the night before), and check social media/read some blogs.

7:50am-8am – Get ready (put on workout clothes, make bed, etc.), then go get LG, who’s been doing god only knows what in her room. (I tried to get a picture of her, but this is what I got.)


“Don’t take my picture! Go away!” (Great.)

8am-8:20am – Get LG ready, have major standoff about brushing her teeth. This has been an ongoing struggle as of late, where I tell her, “I can do this all day” (how very mom-ish of me) while I wait for her to decide to brush her teeth. The threat of no breakfast usually helps this process along.

8:20am-8:50am – Go downstairs and start the dishwasher, then settle in to work on our ‘puters. LG plays on her new LeapFrogPad, learning the alphabet or something, and I look for jobs. (“You look for the dogs, Momma?”) Check the social medias, write a cover letter, boring boring.

8:5oam-9am – My mom calls, so I talk to her for a bit, which is very difficult with LG’s LeapFrogPad thing being at the loudest volume ever and my radio in the background. (Sorry, Mom.)

9am-9:40am – Do some more computer work, Gchat with Akymbo, then make breakfast tacos. Eat breakfast, do dishes, more computer work (like, for instance, starting this blog post.)

9:40am-10am – Begin the process of getting out of the house for a walk. It always takes forever, which makes no sense, since really all we have to do it put on our shoes, but no matter what, it takes forever.

10:04am – Leave for our walk to the park. I go to one far-ish away, so that way it’ll be a 3-mile (round-trip) walk. I listen to my new Watch What Crappens podcast (I watched RHOA and Blood, Sweat, and Heels the night before so I’d be ready. Priorities.)

10:31am-10:53am – LG plays at the park while I listen to my podcast and try to take her picture.


Fail.

She asks to leave, which we do, and then she proceeds to have a meltdown and tries to extract herself from her stroller because she wants to go back to the park. I get us out onto the main street and we have a serious heart-to-heart about why we left the park (because she asked to) and why I won’t bring her back (because she’s acting like a maniac), and then we decide we’ll go home and eat lunch, so that’s what we do.


SIT YO BUTT DOWN, LADY.

11:30am-12:15pm – Arrive home and unload the dishwasher, make lunch (kale salad for me, peanut butter roll-it-up for LG), then it’s upstairs to nap (LG) and shower (me.)

12:15pm-1pm – Eat lunch (kale salad and also a pastrami sandwich because balance) and watch RichKids of Beverly Hills. I would like to mention here that I don’t normally watch this show, I really don’t, but sometimes, IF IT’S ON ALREADY, I’ll watch an episode. Two of the girls are kind of endearing and not terrible and I find myself (gasp!) agreeing with them on a lot of points (no high heels when yachting, for one thing. You know, because I yacht so very often.)

1pm-3:30pm – Turn on Almost Famous, which I set to record awhile ago so I could watch it on my birthday. This was before PSH died and now I’m kind of sad all over again, but I watch it anyway because it’s such a great movie. While I watch the movie, I read a couple chapters of my book, dick around on the Internet, text with various friends and family, and prepare for a job interview I have the following day. Balance, balance, balance.

3:30pm – Head upstairs and start getting ready for dinner out with Ms. Holly. Up until about 20 minutes ago, LG was not in fact napping, so I assume she’s still awake and open her door so we can hang out.


Sleeping. On not her bed.

I quietly start getting her stuff together for her overnight at my parents’ house the next night. She wakes up and catches me, “What are you doing with my stuff, Momma?”

3:30pm-4:45pm – LG helps me finish hair and makeups, we pack, get ready for dinner, etc. I read a couple books to LG. Chris arrives home and LG and I are both very excited.

4:45pm-5:08pm – Pour a glass of wine and drink a bit, but when LG starts being loud, decide to save it so I can have an enormous glass when I get home.

5:08pm-5:47pm – Practically run from the house streaking through the quad and drive to meet Holly for dinner.

5:47pm-7:40pm – Have a lovely and wonderful birthday cocktails and dinner with my friend. Talk about work, jobs, crock pots, Vanderpump Rules, and get slightly accosted by a drunkard on the patio.

7:40pm-8:15pm – Drive home from dinner.

8:15pm-8:30pm – Unload all my stuff, make coffee for the next day (re-setting the timer for 6am), and put some elastic pants on.

8:30pm-10pm – Drink the rest of my cougjuice, channel surf, then finally head upstairs.

10pm-10:38pm – Read a couple chapters of The Rosie Project; pass the fuuuuuck out until 6:49am the next morning.

And that’s it. Today was a good day.

Posted in All About Moi, LG | 4 Comments

Newish stuff to report

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Sarah

Well hey, happy February! I really meant to post more (as in, more than once) in January — I have all this free time now, you know — but I guess I was busier than I thought. I did run/walk 70 miles, which is almost more than double my highest mileage month in 2014, so that must’ve been what I was up to. Most of those were walking miles (to motherfucking hell on earth: The Park), but I did randomly run six miles the other day. I got to four miles and was passing my house and I had that great runner moment where I felt SO! AWESOME! and so I kept running and then I felt not awesome at, like, mile 4.5, but I kept going because my alternative was going home and doing yard work. So. No.

\"Take a picture of yours shoes.\"
I took a picture of her new shoes and so she wanted me to take a picture of my shoes and yes, I am everything wrong with the world, for I am raising a shoe selfie-taker.

I have been in such a weird TV place these days. I usually get so excited for the return of winter shows, but other than my Housewives and other sundry Bravo crap, I have not been into it. I have a ton of American Horror Story, Nashville, Shameless, House Of Lies, ET CETERA episodes on the DVR and no real interest in watching them. Part of this is the Breaking Bad phenomena. Chris and I watched the shit out of that series, even waking up at 6am on Saturday and Sunday to finish up, that I’m just now meh about anything else. ENOUGH TV ALREADY. But, there are new shows I’d like to watch (True Detective, Looking), but I just have so many other shows to watch (and I really do want to watch them), that I can’t pull the trigger. Anyway, this is a very first world problem.

Chris and I watched the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan/KneeGate ’94 30 For 30 the other day and man, what a blast from the past. I was 11 when that happened and I totally remember all of it and being very Team Nancy, but watching the 30 For 30 (which Nancy didn’t participate in) was kind of eye-opening with regard to Tonya Harding. Twenty years later I may well be on Team Tonya. (Chris used to go watch her skate at the mall in Oregon and I thought that was weird, but I guess that’s where she had to practice because there was nowhere else to do so. So, her practices (like, for the OLYMPICS) were in front of pretty large audiences/GAP shoppers.)

When LG doesn’t like something (tomatoes, onions), she says, “I can’t like that.” It makes it sound like an extra compelling argument, doesn’t it? Oh, well, if you can’t, you can’t. (More onions and tomatoes for meeeeeee.)

The Seahawks won the Super Bowl! Oh man, what a great feeling.

I was in yoga on Sunday before the game and the teacher mentioned that it might be a light class because of the Super Bowl and one of the guys in the class was all whiny, like, “I am so sick of hearing about the Super Bowl.” I mean, I get it. If you’re not into the game or the sport, then hearing coverage can probably be annoying? I guess? I don’t know, it happens every year, once a year, along with a ton of sports/events/what have you and instead of being grumpy about it, Tom, maybe you should just ignore it. I just think it’s funny (/ANNOYING) when people try to act like they’re so unique because they hate whatever it is they hate. Oh, you don’t even watch the Oscars? Well good for you, now leave me alone to sit here and cry during the acceptance speeches and text my mom and dad about every nominated Best Song musical number, thankssssss, goodbye.

I am currently reading like five books, which is just slightly out of hand, I know. It’s just that I have two on my Kindle app so I can read late at night with no light on, plus another one from the library, plus another two on my nightstand that I have started, but not gotten into yet. So really, it’s just three books, but that is still too many.

Speaking of books, I saw this on The Bloggess the other day and thought I’d play along. I don’t even normally read her site, but I stumbled upon it and, well, see for yourself:

So, I grabbed the nearest book, the aforementioned library book (a James Patterson, SHUT UP), and on page 45, it said:

“I found my best friend, chief medical examiner Dr. Claire Washburn, inside the tent wearing a size 16 bunny suit and booties, what she called a full-body condom with a zipper.”

So. Yeah. PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT.

Moving on, we’re going to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate my birthday early and I could not be more excited. It should go without saying, but we are going ALONE, without a toddler to cramp our style, so we can do whatever we want, whenever we want. Any favorite Chinese takeout restaurants we should hit up? I have big plans to hunker down and eat Chinese in bed while watching TV. It’s going to be so awesome.

Posted in All About Moi, Book, Movies, TV, & Music, Chris, Embarrassing Myself Daily, LG, Travel, Workin on my fitness | 5 Comments

Updates and whatnot

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Sarah

Well hello! Happy new year! I didn’t expect that it would be this long in between posts, especially because I find myself with a lot of free time lately, but here we are.

So. It’s 2014. I prefer even-numbered years. There are Olympics in even-numbered years, for one thing. That is definitely something special, I think, especially because this year it’s the Winter Olympics (second to the Summer Olympics, but that’s okay) and the Winter Olympics always fall right around my birthday. Happy birthday to meeeee time to cringe while people plummet hundreds of feet off a mountain with sticks strapped to their feet.

I am home with LG full-time now and I realized last week was the longest I’ve ever spent just me and her. Four whole days and we’re still alive. Success! Compared to this time last year (jobless and depressed, crying every morning, wanting to fling myself off the roof, screaming at my child), I am doing 110% better. Still jobless, but not depressed or crying or wanting to fling myself off tall places and not screaming at my child. That is a very nice feeling. I do not feel like being a SAHM is my calling (does anyone, ever, really?) but there is certainly nothing else calling to me right now and there is no pressing need for me to work (outside the home!) and so I am planning to be very choosy with whatever job I end up taking, whenever that happens.

LG is being very delightful recently. I have heard people say that two is a very charming age, contrary to the whole “terrible twos” thing, but I didn’t really get that until pretty recently. Almost-two was definitely a shitshow, but two-almost-three has been SO funny so far. This morning LG asked me what was on my toes (I’d painted my toenails) and when I said I painted them, she asked me, “You put makeup on your toes?” Haha, indeed.

We go to the park most days and while I actively ignore everyone there (I fucking hate the park), LG prefers to stare awkwardly at people, or, like today, comment on their every move. “MOMMY, THAT BABY OVER THERE HAS A HAT ON.” So, we have very different park-going styles, but I am working on “avert eye contact and ignore.” My dad is very proud.

Here’s a picture of my child in her new race car (early birthday present from her Boppa, who she “calls” every weekend asking, “Watch race cars tomorrow, Boppa?”)


It goes surprisingly fast and makes me nervous, the first of many moments like this in my lifetime, I’m sure.

Posted in All About Moi, LG | 4 Comments

Christmas movies: An official list

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Sarah

I feel like every year I ask the twitters for their favorite Christmas movies, but then I never keep the list and the next year I have to ask all over again and every year I feel like I’ve forgotten to watch one of the good ones. So! I decided to compile a list of Christmas movies! Then we can refer back to this list year after year to ensure we’re maximizing the holiday spirit. Let me know if I’ve left any off, although I am omitting anything animated or animated-ish (see: the Grinch, Jack Frost) because ain’t nobody got time for that.

A Christmas Story
The coup de grace.

Die Hard

Elf

The Family Man
Oh, you don’t like Nicolas Cage? Go take a short walk off a tall cliff. (Christmas spirit!)

The Family Stone
I love/hate this movie.

Go
Unconventional? Maybe. But it does center around the Mary X-Mas superfest.

The Holiday
I always thought this was about two women who swap boyfriends. I finally watched it last night and it’s, uhh, not. It’s also very cute.

Home Alone
I CLASSIC. I will never tire of Kevin and his antics.

It’s a Wonderful Life

Last Holiday
I watched this approximately 10 times on my flights to and from Israel. In the summer. Merry Christmas?

The Long Kiss Goodnight
It’s…kind of a Christmas movie…?

Love, Actually

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
“I don’t KNOW, Margo!” Yeah, there are just so many quotables in this one.

The Santa Clause

When Harry Met Sally
Okay, not a Christmas movie, but there is a Christmas tree scene, so.

While You Were Sleeping
Oh, probably just one of my all-time favorites.

You’ve Got Mail
Also not technically a Christmas movie, but definitely feel-good. Also, more twinkle lights! Also, Meg Ryan!

And here is a list of movies I haven’t seen (or don’t like), but that people on twitter said were their favorites: Bad Santa, Holiday Inn, Home Alone 2, Miracle On 34th Street, Nightmare Before Christmas, The Ref, Trading Places, and White Christmas.

Posted in Book, Movies, TV, & Music, Holidays | 4 Comments