Sweet sister earth...

"Only when the last tree has died

and the last river been poisoned

and the last fish been caught will we realise

we cannot eat money."

~Cree Indian Proverb

I is back!

Time either flew by or crept along, I can't really say right now. Back in the city and already the headache strikes, after leaving me in peace for two weeks.

Coincidence?!

Anyways, we had super delightful weather for most of the time and the icky bits were still pretty interesting (sea fog, driving through torrential downpours, awesome clouds, more sea fog rolling in).

The cottage we rented was very simple - no radio, no internet, one TV channel and no DVD player - but it just made vacation that much more real.

I already miss the damp salty smell of the sea, the sound of the tide on the wet rocks and the cries of the gulls... Took lots of pics so will update my photo blog soon, just don't feel like staring at my shitty laptop screen right now... Ugh. My new Dell XPS better arrive this week, the waiting is getting downright ridiculous!

So, my experience at being a stepmom kinda failed. Um. Yeah. I just have a missing maternal gene somewhere. I don't think anyone has less patience than I do with kids - I did try, am still trying but to be honest I am soooo relieved that the little one flies back home tomorrow evening. Needless to say this is causing some grief between Vegas and I, but we're dealing with it. I think.

*picks lint off shirt*

On tonight's menu: vegetables of sort.
Out of the cupboards and into the trash: 4 half-eaten bags of chips. The big bags. Vacation is definitely ovah!

And yes, I did change the subject just there. Well. Yeah. Good to be back... will catch up with y'all in the next day or so!

/end of Back But With A_ffront post/

Yep!

"Let the world know you as you are,

not as you think you should be,

because sooner or later, if you are posing,

you will forget the pose, and then where are you?"

~Fanny Brice

Even your shadow knows

"Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts.

This is the secret of success."

~Swami Sivananda

Oï! The heat!

It's like all of summer finally crushed itself into a few days to make up for being absent the past two months... it's bleddy hot outside, the blue sky is beating down on us beautifully and even if we bitch and moan, gad we love it!

Vegas, his daughter Farley and I went strolling through the street fair the past five hours, enjoying the sales, bright colours, music and loads of people. Good thing we stopped to get spf 50 spray or we'd be as red as radishes!

Or tomatoes, McIntosh apples, cherries, whore lipstick. Pick one :-)

We had the good fortune of meeting a very nice gentleman and his adorable, gentle perroquet, little Farley was quite smitten with the bird and I think it was mutual!

And then what is a street fair without the requisite ridiculously giant lollipop? It turned her tongue green and black after five minutes, I think her biggest fun was showing it to us. Ick! Kids :-D At this point she was sporting her new dress and shoes, just for the heck of it.

All in all, a most wonderful afternoon...

Just feel like napping now, but I need to go take the Melonhead out for his afternoon stroll in the park. It's so hot it's almost animal cruelty, though. Sigh. Day after tomorrow we are one family again, bliss!

Cold water. Stretch. Remember it's vacation now.

Wheeee!

/end of My Gravylord It's Freaking Hot Out/

Thursday's funny

And the award goes to...

Thanks to my dear SIAN for this lovely blog award! You should check out her witty and charming blog, staight from the UK hills and gardens, I promise you she is wonderful.

I shall pass this on to a few fellow bloggers who brighten my day and to whom I have not yet handed out any awards to - mind you, everyone on my blogroll should get it cuz I have discriminating taste (he he) but I do want to highlight a few:

Piper, whose photos and stories never fail to cheer me up. And isn't she just gorgeous?

Mike, in contrast, is crass and hilarious and I don't know if I should read his blog in public but I do anyways. So nerr.

Elisabeth for her crazy soap-operaesque adventures in no-man's land. My god, I could make a movie out of her life! LOL

Voice In My Head, a lady to discover and enjoy as life's rollercoaster takes her for a screaming ride - I just love her style and her humour!

Lola, because every beautiful bitch deserves an award now and again. I loves ya, girl.

Have an awesome day, everyone... this girl needs to get through a few hours of work before signing off for (almost) two weeks. WOOT!!

/end of I Love Everybody post/

Ink me

"Your body is a temple,

but how long can you live in the same house

before you redecorate? "

~Author Unknown

T minus 30 hours

Tomorrow, 2pm Thursday afternoon, Vegas and I are officially on VACATION!

Vay. Cay. Shon.

Our very first real one together. You can bet your bunnies we're excited! Well first we need to pick up his daughter from the airport but that'll be fun. Just hanging out and chilling for a couple of days, showing the little one around. We leave Sunday morning for our cottage by the sea - no internet for a week. Dunno if I'll survive...

:-D just messin' :-D

The Corona is chilling in the fridge and dinner is just about ready... making wine sautéed chicken & veggie stuffed omelette. Mmmm.

*stretches out kinked muscles*

Ah, to win the lottery and become millionaires... nevermind the expensive fancy cars, jewellery and vacations in the south of France: gimme my daily masseuse for a head to toe rub, ooo a foot rub, manicures and pedicures, a hairdresser to come once weekly to my little home salon to give a scalp massage and hair treatment, an osteopath who also makes home visits... Now isn't that the life of dreams, to be ridiculously pampered?

/end of What Would You Do With Millions Of Dollars post/

OK one more before bed!!

Being the nerd that I am, just found a Vanilla Ice video from our party in LA last week at Club 740 that someone filmed and posted on youtube - had to share it! Oh and that is because we just launched a new software called ICE... check out www.softimage.com for giggles.

So. My goodness. You can't see me but I am in front of the camera, pushed against the stage - you can see Vegas' head at some point when Vanilla Ice grabs his hand in the crowd. Man. What a SHOW that was! And I don't care how nerdy that sounds.



ICE ICE BABY!

Shhhhhh

"Silences make the real conversations between friends.

Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts."

~Margaret Lee Runbeck

May I just say one thing?

Why, if a person is obviously crap at her job, does she not get fired?! Why do people tiptoe around her to not make her feel as incompetent as she really is, even if this creates a crapload of more work for everyone else and frustration for our clients?

I am soooo close to losing it.

THIS close.

It's a good thing I'm on vacation as of Thursday, 2pm. I can't take it anymore. And when I'm back in the office on September 2nd, if things have not changed - then jeebus the company is gonna sink into the quicksand.

Anyways. I know I shouldn't bring work and frustrations into my home this late at night... just can't help it these days. Hours crash into each other and before you know it, all that's left is a few moments for sleep and a half-hearted attempt at "down time". Seriously, I can't be the only one living like this now, can I? Please!

Such a lame post. I'm sorry.

*picks at lint on shirt*

Vegas' daughter arrives the day after tomorrow (Thursday afternoon) for a 10-day vacation with us, am really not ready for anything but will take life in stride. She's adorable and as nervous as I am about the whole thing - I've never attempted being a "mommy" before, cuz I just don't like kids - but she's a good buttercup. However I'm still the one who took her dad away, in a sense, so I'm bracing for a few hiccups on the way.

Wish me luck! And a good night's sleep, for now...

/end of What, Am I Really A Stepmom?? post/

Fuzzy logic

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

~Henry David Thoreau

Finances! Bleh!

Anybody else here strapped by the "F" word and wishing day and night for a windfall of sorts, an inheritance, a lottery winning, a tipped-over bank truck to pillage?

Sigh. What's the use of a budget when so many things happen that need paying up but were never budgeted for?

Like today.

Ginormous thunderstorm and pissing rain as we walked home after work, huddled under Vegas' umbrella. Cuz of course I lost my awesome new pink one, I'm so mad! Why do I bother getting nice things if I lose or break them all the time? I'm too young for alzheimer's, this is ridiculous. First my wallet, then my mind. Good gawd!

I'll be paying that 5K vet bill for ages :-(

*scrubs mind of nasty things*

I had a really good day at work, positive and productive. Just a few more of those under my belt before we leave for vacation and I'll feel as if I've earned it. Yeah.

*infuses mind with flowery things*

Random reasons why I love Vegas:

His generous, giving soul who is always ready to lend a hand, pitch in, do what it takes to get things done.

The way he never lets me carry any heavy things.

The way he will randomly pop into my office to kiss my neck when no-one is watching.

The twinkle in his eyes when we both think of the same thing, at the same time, without ever saying a word.

The way he loves the doggies and cares for them as if they had always been his own.

The way we can discuss things and even if we don't agree, we listen and try to see each other's points of view in a new light.

The way he smells... of clean summer breeze, of man, of sweet honeyed dew. I want to drink him in.

Was that too mooshy? Yeah? Too bad. He he.

My goodness did it ever rain tonight, for a good 3 hours straight - I hope that was the last storm for a bit, we need nice weather now. Joo-joo, please... vacation weather joo-joo. Send it here! Over here! Yes! Yes! Yes!

OK. I need to go shave my legs now and have some Captain Morgan Spiced Rhum. All in a good day's work!

/end of I Know I Talk Too Much post/

Slumber

"The bed is a bundle of paradoxes: we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late."

~Charles Caleb Colton

Sunday's nutshell

Sleep, glorious sleep!
11am guilt, bye-bye bed (for now)
Sunny field, running dog, taiji man
Snap! Snap! Photographs
Rare and precious sunrays, captured

Quick shopping trip
Yey! New toaster oven
Chickens in the crockpot
Laundry suds itself
Why so damn sleepy? Urg.

Stretch
Read
Blabber
Blog

Walk in the park
Green, pretty, scattered with humans
Soothing breeze
Lovely cuddles with the melonhead
Eyeing fat ranty squirrels

Now
Time for dinner
A movie
A shower
Then sleep, glorious sleep!

Let's see...

Is it wrong to be so happy to be home and just want to do absolutely nothing for a few days? Sigh. If only we had time to recuperate from last week... but no. Back to work on Monday morning, like all the other poor working stiffs out there.

You, yes you :-)

At least Vegas and I can look back on the week and smile when looking at two of our colleagues posing with Vanilla Ice at our corporate party at LA's Club 740 last Tuesday:

Isn't it just fabulous? I wish I hadn't been too damn star-struck when I went to shake his hand, would have loved a pic too... ah well. My photographic memory will have to do.

The dogs are fine, had to give the little one a bath this afternoon as she smelled like fish with athlete's foot - now she's super fluffy and curled up in her clean bed, snoring away. Guess she had a hard week... all that playing and stuff. Hah.

As for Melonhead, he suffered a setback with his leg (too much exercise while we were away) so I had to get him yet another round of anti-inflammatories. He's gonna hate the next week of super short potty breaks... poor beanie. He freaked out this morning when we went to get Maika and he was left behind. It's so not fair and I absolutely hate doing this to him. I just hope he will forgive me some day. Eight more days...

*sigh*

In other news, I have a terrible boil on my hip that surged up two days after landing in LA, so had to endure that pain during the whole trip. Ow. Ow. Ow. Motherfrick.

Went to the clinic this morning and got told there was nothing they could do unless it got super bad, then "go to the emergency room". WTF? Got a prescription for antibiotics and had a meltdown when I saw the monster horsepills from hell, to be taken every 6 hours for 10 days... Um, no fucking way. Maybe if they weren't toxic orange and black like an advert for nuclear weapons? Um, still no fucking way. I chucked them in the cupboard and there they will stay, the bastids.

I was soooo angry... On top of everything else, why this shit? Why now? We leave for vacation in a week and I have a lava-filled golf ball on my hip that throbs like a bitch and if the infection goes inwards instead of outwards, I could end up on IV fluids in the ER.

Awesome.

Anyways, am putting hot diluted-bleach and salt water compresses on it often and we'll see what happens in a couple of days. If not better by Wednesday, it's back to the clinic I go to waste more taxpayer money and my precious daytime hours.

Crock o'bollocks, eh?

Tomorrow's intention is to take is easy, put a couple of chickens in the crock pot and let that be dinner. Do basic laundry, get food for the kids. Walk in the field, get some much-needed exercise and "fresh" air, thunderstorms permitting. We also need a new toaster oven, the old one sputtered and died just before our trip and I really need my daily toast. With peanut butter. Amen.

I haven't touched my camera in weeks... sad state of affairs, which I plan to reverse the minute we're in our cottage by the sea.

Just gotta hang in till then. Just gotta.

/end of Wow That Was Alot Of Rambling post/

Home Sweet Home

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror."

~Orson Welles

Flying home

The show is over, thank the frigg.

Good-bye smoggy LA, sorry I had no time to see your ocean this time around. I hope United Airlines doesn't suck ass like it did last Saturday, but I'm not holding my breath.

Aahhhh, our own cozy bed tonight. Can't wait.

See ya!!

ICE ICE BABY!!

Woooo! LA is fucking rough, man... I think I've gotten about 36 minutes of fresh air since landing Saturday night. And that is being generous.

The nightmares of being stuck in a windowless, airless hotel basement room with beige walls is, unfortunately, all too real. My eyes look like dried cranberries. The sight of a colorful pair of shoes hurts my eyes. All this after a 13-hour journey to get here, sans luggage of course, courtesy of United Airlines. Yeah. Fuck you very much and have a nice day.

OK the bags turned up Sunday afternoon (18 hours later) but still! I had to sleep nekkid! ARGH! Then tradeshow hell, 33,000 people sure can get on people's nerves, eh? Yeah. Creepy geeks, every one of them.

Ah, but then there was last night's party!! click here to see a short video - wooo was it ever awesome!


Vegas and I were right there, front row... can you see us there on the right? (click on the pic to enlarge) I'm wearing a black sleeveless top... 3000 people packed into Club 740 in downtown LA, there were sexy gogo dancers, aerial acrobats, sprays of ice, free flowing booze, rave music and, of course... Vanilla Ice in the house!

You know what? He gave an awesome performance. He gave it his all, he was FIERCE, the crowd loved him to bits, he came to do this just for us and it was a show to remember!

And in person, he is a very sweet guy.

Yep, shook his hand, thanked him for the show, he was so humble and reeer! Yes, he's a charismatic hottie (Vegas agrees, in a non-homo way, hee hee) and if you watched the video to the end, um yeah... his buddie Ron Jeremy was there too!

*fits of giggles*

*more giggles*

An 80's porn star endorsing our product, yeah that's just great fun, innit? Ah well, it takes all kinds to make up this kooky planet. All kinds.

Hope you're all doing well (let me know!), this is all my insane schedule and crappy hotel internet connection is allowing me for the moment.

Peace, out.

/end of Starstruck post/