Lovely Day

Yesterday was just one of those days for me: a really lovely day. I stop short of saying perfect because a perfect day would have involved something over the top, but it was lovely.

I woke well rested. I nursed the baby and she went back to sleep. I had time to snuggle with my little boy. I got to read a magazine while soaking my foot. We got out of the house without any yelling.

I had a wonderful run and the temperature was perfect -- and Mia laughed the whole way. Back at home Mia and I puttered and played and while she took a nap I got to do some arm and ab exercises and take a shower.

Then we went to lunch with a friend of mine who is just a ray of sunshine. The food was great and I got to play with my new phone/GPS unit and it worked awesome!

Back at home again we played some more and while she napped I made turkey pesto meatballs and popped them in the slow cooker, relaxed and my brother came by for a visit.

The evening continued in the same idyllic manner. I sipped a glass of wine while the kids took turns in the swing. I raked up leaves. Dinner practically finished itself and the family ate together without any incident. No one complained and everyone gobbled up their meatballs.

After dinner we went on a brisk walk and finished before the mosquitos came out. After a quick bath for the kids, my husband and I took turns reading to them and then tucked them into bed.

By 8:40 the evening was our own. And it was good.

Blow Job Diet Huge Success

After 10 days the Blow Job Diet has been a huge success -- for my husband. It has been a complete failure for me.

It seems I just can not pass up on my evening wine and/or dessert. In fact, most evenings I still ended up having both. Which means that after 10 days, my husband had gotten about 6 blow jobs (though he did manage to take care of business with me about an equal number of times) but, I still owe him about 10 blow jobs.

The good news is that even with not being able to exercise for the past week due to a toe injury, I still never seem to gain any weight. I just can't lose any weight. I feel good, and good about my body -- but I'd like to feel GREAT!

Other News

Mia is saying a lot of new words. Aside from mama, dada and uh-oh, she now says: hi, bye, dog, hot, more, baba (bunny) and a few other sounds that mean a variety of things. I LOVE it. Love, love, love it. She is just so precious.

Jared has started saying, "Mommy, you're pretty. I love you." I don't know who put him up to this, but I love them. Daddy may even get an extra BJ if I find out it was him. It's just precious.

Jared is really into reading these chapter books right now, we just devour them. It's so great to see him developing such a love for reading -- albeit listening right now.

The Blow Job Diet

Like so many of us, I am constantly hoping to lose that *last* pesky 5 pounds. I've come up with lots of diets. I give up wine. I give up chocolate. I give up everything for 10 days. But, it never sticks.

Last week I came up with a new one: every time I have a drink OR a dessert-type treat, I have to give my husband a blow job. Now it's not that I don't like giving blow jobs, it's just fine, but I'm usually so tired at the end of day that I just don't want to bother. So I figured this was a great idea... even if I don't lose any weight, the hubby will be VERY happy.

So far it's just working out OK. The first couple of days it was really hot. I'd take a sip of wine or a bite of cake and we'd share a secret smile... but nearly a week later, he's had 3 blow jobs, and I've only had sex once.

By Friday I found myself eyeing the wine bottle and thinking: Gee, if I drink a glass of wine, he'll fall asleep happy, and I'll just be frustrated, because unfortunately, with the kind of days he pulls and the very few minutes of awake time we have with no little kids around -- round two just isn't gonna happen.

I have a feeling that the longer I keep the diet up, the better it will work.

I'll keep you posted. I have to admit, it seemed like a better idea when I first thought of it.

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.