cookie

I picked up Cookie Magazine at my pediatrician's office this week - it's a new magazine for parents (moms) and it's like a Lucky magazine for kids/parents. I just looked up their media kit and they describe Cookie as "the new upscale lifestyle magazine for sophisticated parents." The layoutwas appealing (probably because the Editor in Chief came from Real Simple magazine) and you can sneak a peek at their first issue online. They have a special for subscriptions, give one gift subscription get one free - (I got you one Joyce!) The only thing I don't like is that they only have 6 issues in a one year subscription.

Uggly

I own a pair of Uggs. Yes I know they're terribly trendy and ugly but it's nice not having to fuss with socks or laces when I am in a rush trying to get the kids out the door to school. Plus they keep your feet warm and cozy. To my defense, I've wanted them since 2002 a little before the Uggs craze, but once everything got crazy with Uggs I held off because 1.) I didn't want to get caught up in it, 2.) I don't believe in paying more than the retail price for things (eBay), and 3.) I bought them during the Nordstrom Anniversary sale (everything is justified when it's on sale) but now I see they're on sale for $89.90 (but only the pink ones).

Xmas shopping for myself

I didn't participate in Black Friday shopping, I wanted to, but I didn't think I could muster enough energy and courage to go to Target at 6 AM with 3 kids in tow since the hubby had to work that day.

I did, however, use my 50% off coupon at Borders to buy Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. I drooled over all the pictures so they told me I had buy it.

Using the Lucky Magazine "YES!" flags, I let my 5 year old daughter flag all the things she wanted to bake together... our first project? Black and white cookies! After that, I want to make French Almond Macaroons which I LOVE. I first tried them when my sister brought some back from Laduree in Paris and have been hooked on them ever since. Expensive little cookies though... Miette sells them for $1.50 each but I always buy them anyway... one in each flavor, which amounted to $9.00 for 6 tiny cookies - the hubby was not understanding of that. He prefers Chips Ahoy which you can get 2 for $5.00.

winning and experiments

I actually won a contest! Whaddayaknow...I guessed the due date with my hubby's birthday and my newborn's time of delivery. About time those f'ers brought me some luck.

Diet update - I lost 6 lbs since starting my diet last week but damn it if my sister's fiancee didn't introduce me to eggnog and Vernor's Ginger Soda. He's from Michigan and apparently Vernor's is a "thing" over there since it's made in Detroit. Then he introduced my kids to Boston Coolers - so ask me why our fridge is stocked with Vernor's, eggnog, and ice cream?!

My husband discovered eggnog a few years ago and he used to down quarts of the stuff until I told him that eggnog was fattening. Since then if I ever ask him if he wants eggnog, he says, "No.. I don't like it anyway." HA! Liar! So every year I do something called "The Eggnog Experiment" where I buy a half gallon of eggnog and leave it in the fridge... magically the eggnog disappears. Sometimes I do the same with a dozen of Krispy Kremes, aka "The Krispy Kreme Experiment." Yes, I'm wicked.

Yes Virginia...

So my 9 year old son asked me, "Is Santa Claus real? Because Eric said that Santa Claus isn't real."

Do I allow my son to remain youthful and innocent by believing in Santa and risk him looking "uncool" in front of his friends and classmates? I can picture it now, "HA HA! X still believes in Santa!!! Don't you know he's not real?!? DUH!" And even though that is just minor teasing, I don't want to subject him to any of that if I can help it.

Plus, I should mention that the above Eric also taught the word "hump" to my son who then used it in an email exchange with a female classmate who first teased him by writing, "You kissed Stacy." His retort? "You humped Antonio." And yes, the girl's mother told me about the email. We both log on to our kids' email accounts to check on what they do, and the "hump email" happened after I took a few weeks off of snooping. (I got bored with the incessant exchanges of Yahoo smiley faces.) We both laughed about it after we talked to our kids who told us they didn't even know what "hump" meant, but not after I explained to the mother that we don't use the word "hump" at home and figured they learned it from classmates. I didn't want her going around thinking that I run around the house yelling at my husband to hump me.

The above Eric is also into brand name clothing such as Phat Farm, Sean John, Ecko, NBA/NFL jerseys, etc. My son doesn't care about the Target/Costco/Old Navy clothes I buy for him so I'm dreading the day he asks me for a Kobe Bryant jersey - to which I'll have to tell him, "I'll get you a Baron Davis or Jason Richardson jersey instead." I ain't raising no Lakers fans in this house!

I got out of the Santa Claus dilemma by explaining to my son that while Santa Claus isn't real, he's based on a real person: St. Nicolas - this was met with some understanding since we send him to Catholic school. I told him that he could still write a letter to Santa for fun and we'd mail it off with his sister's letter.

His response: "Can I just email him? It's faster."

My response: "As long as you don't use the word 'hump.'"

P.S.
While my older son may be losing his innocence, my 2 1/2 month old son laughed and giggled for the very first time today with nothing but innocence in his eyes and the sweet smell of baby breath in his mouth.

Gobble Gobble!

Happy T Day everyone! I leave you with the two from scratch (yes, even the crust) pumpkin pies I made today.

baby R

Being the mother of 3: 2 boys and a girl - I know the difference between the sexes:

1. Boys are easier to deal with. The girl in our family has mood swings, tempermental outbursts.. she cries a whole lot more, and she can turn the crying off and on as if on cue. The boys are just... chill.

2. Girls are easier to potty train. My daughter practically potty trained herself, we didn't really push it with her. Plus I grew up with two sisters (no brothers), so imagine my shock and disgust when I realized that boys miss the toilet sometimes. I spent hours scrubbing all over and behind the toilet trying to clean that up.

3. Baby boys have projectile pee. My 2 month old pees on me at least twice a week. Around here we say, "AAAAH!!! He pulled an R Kelly on me!"

4. Girls are much more affectionate. I get "huggies" and "kissies" from my 5 year old daughter on a daily basis. My 9 year old son however, doesn't hug and kiss as readily as my daughter but he does sometimes ask for a hug... but in a very nonchalant, cool way.

5. Girls are "smarter." Or they say, "more mature" -- I guess boys never really catch up to us. ha!

... but it was a moral victory for the Green Bay Mermen...

They lost. But it was a good game nonetheless. At least it wasn't a spanking.

Highlights? Seeing the very gorgeous Johnnie Morton warm up before the game. My favorite QB getting his Hall of Fame ring during halftime. The Niners scoring their first TD in 13 quarters. NOT falling off the diet wagon by eating the "fabulous frybread" - (ok fine, I couldn't find the damn frybread stall!) And seeing my head coach crush Mike Nolan in the flesh - he's a handsome guy!

I posted some pics at Flickr.

weekend plans

Today we went to my favorite foodie spot, the Ferry Building where we had lunch at Taylor's Refresher, treated the kids to a gelato, bought some almond macarons from Miette (yes, bucking the diet for a day for a cookie), bought cocoa powder from Scharffen Berger, then just walked around the many stalls showing off local produce and food.

Tomorrow, I'm taking the hubby to the 49er game (it was MY idea to go so that means I'M taking HIM.) They kind of suck this year so tickets were readily available. We're both Niner fans but we've never been to a game so this will be our first. Is it pathetic that the first thing I did was look up the concession stands? I'm feeling some clam chowder in a breadbowl and "fabulous frybread" which I know both are not South Beach Diet friendly. BAH! We lucked out though - tomorrow during halftime Steve Young is receiving his Hall of Fame ring so I get to see my favorite quarterback. Next sports outing is to see the Warriors who are actually doing pretty good this year - the game I'm holding out for is the Timberwolves because I'm inexplicably drawn to Kevin Garnett.

ohhhhhhhhh yeah

Damn I love Dr. McDreamy.

RIP sugar

I started the South Beach Diet yesterday. That coupled with working out. I'm only doing this because my sister is getting married in Hawaii in March and I want to get back down to my prepregnancy "fighting" weight. That and my New Year's resolution for 2006 - "look good in a bikini." After that, I'm going to let it all hang loose.

I'm not going to be one of those psycho no carb eaters. Everything in moderation. I love food too much to give anything up completely. Though yesterday I went without my usual sugar dose and I had the worst headache... my body was screaming for some refined sugar in the form of cake, cookies, candy or TWINKIES, but I resisted and tried to trick my body into thinking it was getting sugar by drinking a caffeine free diet coke and a sugar free fudgesicle. (It didn't work.)

i heart carbs

With 10 more lbs. to go to my pre-pregnancy weight I did the unthinkable. I ordered a bunch of carbs from my favorite shortbread shop Big Island Candies. They used to make Peanut Butter shortbread but discontinued it a couple of years ago - now my usual order consists of:

Original Shortbread
Peanut Butter bite size cookies
Macadamia Nut Crunchies - chocolate with macadamia nuts and potato chips, sounds weird but it's good. I like the mixture of sweet and salty
and the Macadamia Corn Crunch - caramel popcorn with pineapple, coconut and mac nuts.

I once ordered the Da Kine chocolate covered cuttlefish, and after trying one I remembered that I don't even like cuttlefish. I'm a sucker for unusual and complex tastes and will try almost anything once.

After my cookie/candy binge, I'm going to go on the South Beach diet.

damn them

Damn them all!

"...for British eyes only..."

I enjoyed Arrested Development last night - favorite quote?

"God knows they're squinters."

Kitchen Confidential is back next week with Michael Vartan in a guest role. I can't wait to see it! Whenever Michael Vartan busted out his French language skills on Alias I got all giddy so I can't wait to see him play a womanizing French chef on KC because the accent is going to be on. There is a full never before aired episode of Kitchen Confidential on myspace.com and it's hilarious.

must see tv

Yes, I watch too much TV. TV shows have been good lately so I can't help it! My weekly schedule for must see TV is:

Sunday: My all time favorite show Grey's Anatomy (For the record, I KNEW McDreamy would pick Addison over Meredith, just for the simple reason that the unrequited love and tension between McDreamy and Meredith would be a good storyline that can last throughout the season.)

Monday: FOX night with Arrested Development and Prison Break (Wentworth Miller is a beautiful man.) Ooh and Kitchen Confidential returns next week!

Tuesday: I watch House but TiVo The Office. Nip/Tuck is my absolute Tuesday must see. (I think Dr. Quentin Costas is the carver)

Wednesday: ABC night with Freddie (Yes, it's a little corny, but Brian Austin Green dressed as a Rocky Horror Picture Show transvestite sold me) and Lost

Thursday: Alias (I hope to God Michael Vartan comes back in a regular role, or I'm going to be pissed), CSI and ER

Friday: Nothing on, usually it's TiVo catch up time for me

Saturday: Nothing. Hopefully I am out and about doing something productive rather than watching TV!

Thank God I don't have HBO otherwise I'd never leave the couch.

human nature

I once heard someone say:

"We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like."

To me, this is the truest statement I've ever come across. It got me thinking. Why do we want nice things? Why do (most) girls want big diamond rings? I think the fact that girls automatically show their rings once they announce their engagement is interesting. Why do men want nice cars? Do you think they'd be happy driving around in a Ferrari or BMW without ever showing it to their friends? And don't we get more satisfaction in showing these things to people who aren't really friends?

I'm not saying all of us do this. I actually don't consider myself part of the group above... well, at least not a hard core practitioner. I have proof.

I don't have a diamond engagement ring. I had a very small one before, and the diamond fell off! My husband and I got married at a very young age. We were both still in school, working part time and we bought rings that fell in our budget at the time, and they cost about $700 for the set, so you can imagine how big the diamond was (if it was a real diamond) and we still wear the same rings to this day. My husband always asks if I want to "upgrade" my rings, but I always decline. I love my "poor man" wedding ring. It reminds me of the days when we were young and naive and in love and all we wanted was to get married... damn what the rings looked like.

I'm not saying I'm an angel. I did secretly enjoy seeing my fellow soccer mommy friends squirm with jealousy when I showed them my new car. (A Ferrari it ain't, but you gotta love that DVD player that keeps the kids entertained for a few hours!)

I'm not a talker... not a talker!

I, and others in my household, have the habit of quoting lines from movies. Lately, we seem to be quoting from Old School. I had Old School on DVD then made the mistake of lending it to my cousin who lost it about a year ago. We've been quoting Old School so much lately that we went and bought another copy yesterday.

Favorite quotes?
"True love is hard to find. Sometimes you think you have true love, then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show ready to double team your girlfriend....."

"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."

"Once it hits your lips... It's so good!"

and of course... "We're going streaking!!!!!!!"

Welcome to America!

I finally saw "Crash" - and Oprah talked on her show about "Crash moment" with Hermes and it got me thinking to one time when I applied for a job. Mind you, I have dark hair and slanted eyes, and the woman interviewing me asked if I was legal to work in the United States.
I replied, "Yes."
And she said, "Are you a US citizen?"
"Yes."
"Do you have proof?"
"Yes, my birth certificate. I was born in Guam."
"Guam is not part of the US."
"Actually, I believe it is. I was born on a US Naval Base in Guam. My father is in the Navy."
"Just because you were born on a Naval Base doesn't mean you are a US citizen."
"Actually I believe it does."

Needless to say, I didn't want the job anymore.

Sometimes these "Crash" moments are funny. Take my sister's experience for example, when she was working at a retail store, a customer asked her, "When did you get here?"
"About 10 o'clock this morning."
"No, when did you get HERE to the US? You speak English very well."
"Uh..... I was born and raised in California."

hahahaha.