Hooters Rules

So, I was right 750 ml was overpriced. Not only was it overpriced, the food just wasn't that good. It sounded fantastic on the menu -- but it just wasn't that great. We spent nearly $200 -- and that included just two glasses of wine -- and did not include the babysitter. Not good.

After that disappointment we agreed that this week we would do something fun and cheap: I suggested Hooters and Jed jumped at the invitation. A pitcher of beer and enough spicy wings to get things sizzling for hours was less than $40 and it was so much tastier than the week before!

Jed bought some electronic drums. I got to hear them for the first time tonight -- very cool. He also got us a new game for our Playstation; it's called Rock Band and it is kind of like Guitar Hero only you have a guitarist, a drummer and a vocalist. I think you can even have a basist. Very fun!

And look here is a blog about my neighborhood, Montecito Heights: http://montyheights.blogspot.com/ Too cool!

We're off to Disneyland tomorrow. With a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old -- that's an adventure. Wish me luck.

Cool Spider, Hot Coffee and A Babysitter

The time has changed so now it stays lighter much later and the weather has warmed up. We've been jogging and hiking a lot more these past few weeks and it has been a treat. (That's Griffith Park at right)

We live close to Ernest E. Debs Park which is a huge reserve with a lake, lots of trees and paths and great views of downtown LA, South Pasadena, Glendale, Highland Park, Alhambra and beyond. The other day while hiking there we saw a spider that I happened to notice looked bumpy -- a little like a pine cone. Upon closer observation we found that the body of the spider was covered in babies who would periodically jump off and scurry away. Isn't that odd? I've never seen anything like it!

I have also trekked to Cycleway Coffee, which is kind of like a Starbucks -- expect that it is in our neighborhood! It's a first for us to have somewhere to get coffee that we can actually walk to. It takes about an hour round trip (not counting any time actually spent in the coffee shop,) and it's a pretty good workout too because there are a lot of hills.

The image at the right is from a hike I took to the South Pasadena water tower. I live din that city most of my life and had never been up there before. It was nice.

We have a babysitter tonight and so we are going to a wine bar and bistro called 750 ml. I am quite sure that it will be overpriced, but I'm looking forward to going somewhere that I would NEVER take my kids too and where I am pretty sure no one else would have the audacity to bring their kids to. Hey, I need a break.

Snuggle Time

My son woke up this morning and insisted that I get back in bed for snuggle time. Well, you got it buddy! Why can't he be like that all the time?

Yesterday Mia pointed at something and said "dah!" I turned around and sure enough, there was a dog... This was impressive because I had spent 20 minutes last Friday trying to teach her the word. Then she said it again just a few minutes later and pointed at another dog! Meanwhile, "Mama mama mama" has come to mean, not only me of course, but also, Daddy, and I want (fill in the blank).

Mia doesn't walk with her hand up in the air anymore. Now she just looks like a little drunk femal leprechaun tottering around. Very cute!

Jared likes to make "fire come out of his knees."

Jed is working out and running again.

And someone is crying during nap time. Damn!

I'm the Last of A Dying Breed

Natural born redheads may be extinct by 2010. So, quite literally, as a natural born redhead with no carrot-topped kidlets, I am the last of a dying breed. According to researchers from the United Kingdom's Oxford Hair Foundation the recessive gene for red hair is being dominated by darker shades through intemingling.

Currently, less that 4% of the world's population are natural redheads. I read that something like only 1% of the world's population have completed a marathon... since I've done both, I must be really rare!

In light of this news about natural redheads' diminishing prowess on the planet, I got my hair dyed... albeit a brighter shade of crimson. As my little rocker tells me, "Mommy, you're on Fi-re!"

It's interesting being a natural redhead. My whole life people always remeber me as the girl with the red hair. My friends will back me up when I say it is unquestionably how I nabbed as many guys as I did given my awkwardness in our teen years. There is just something about red hair...

Here's a weird tidbit. My husband only had one other long-term, live-in type girlfriend.. she had red hair. Wanna get even weirder? His mother has red hair too.... Isn't it kind of Oedipal that he married a girl with red hair? One more odd tidbit, our surname "Unrot," his father's last name, means "without red" and yet, both his father and he married women with red hair. Bizarr-o.

Recycling Fabrics

Does anyone know of a place where I can take fabric (i.e. clothes not suitable for donating and a set of flannel sheets with a big rip in it) to be recycled? I really don’t want to send them off to a landfill, but I don’t sew and never will – therefore, they have no place here.

I poked around online, but just couldn't find any place that took small amounts of consumer waste.

Priceless?

I've been reading the Spiderwick Chronicles to my nearly 4 year old son so I decided to take him to see the movie. In order to get my mom to babysit my one-year-old, I had to have my cousin drive my mom to Universal City Walk. So, here's what I spent for the three of us:

• Parking (*after* theater rebate) $6
• IMAX Tickets ordered from Fandago $47
• Popcorn and drinks (no candy) $22
• Dinner afterwards (2 kids, 2 adults) $49
• Taking your kid to see a movie after reading the book: $124, not quite priceless.

It was a lot of fun though and the great seating meant that even Jared didn't have to worry about seeing over the head in front of him.

Out of Touch

So I've been out of touch for a while... It's been a little crazy.

We went on a trip to Mammoth and it snowed too much. Search and rescue had to rescue my brother after he spent 3.5 hours in, basically, a blizzard. Scary! He also got really sick, as did my husband.

My husband is still sick. It has been three weeks, and depsite a course of antibiotics, he still has a fever that comes and goes at free will. Now he thinks he has an ear infection too. And he has pink eye. And we just switched to Kaiser so you can't just pop in to see your doctor... he has to wait until 4pm when urgent Care opens because there are no appointments available. Still, I'm not knocking Kaiser yet because it has been pretty good so far and it is so much cheaper than our old plan.

Mia turned 1 on January 31st. I made the Barbie cake I practiced before and it came out great! (picture at right) My kids are sharing a room now and it is working out really great (knock on wood). Having our bedroom and our bed back is a big deal! As of my last entry, we were still co-sleeping with Mia... now I feel like we are on the endless honeymoon -- EVEN WITH MY HUBBY BEING SICK! Can you imagine when he's better again!

Jared, who is nearly 4 but going on 14, has started this really charming habit of talking back to us.

Me: Jared, go put on your shoes please.

Jared: No, you put on your shoes!

Me: Jared! Don;t talk to me like that or you are going to have a time out!

Jared: You're a bad guy mommy and I'm gonna shoot you! (makes shooting noise and guns me with his cocked finger then tears through the house at break neck speed until he finds somewhere good to hide for a minute.)

Oh, yes. It's lovely.

In the midst of all this chaos we have also been having minor repairs done around the house and are in the beggining stages of having our front yard landscaped. More on that as it gets accomplished.

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini -- it was excellent. I also read the 7th Harry Potter book, and that was fun.