Sunday, May 31, 2009

D'Anna Update

Two things I learned when I married into the D'Anna clan. First, Mario talks in his sleep(ok I'll be honest, I knew this before I got married) Second, Mario's mother needs a leash. We loose her all the time.

Just as I was falling asleep the other night Mario yelled "YYEESSSS!!!" Made me laugh. Then just as I was falling a sleep again, I felt him put the remote for the tv on my back. Then he put his phone on my butt. Then his glasses in between them. In his sleep. This is new.

Yesterday morning Angela(sister-in-law) and Isabelle(mother-in-law) were running some errands. They stopped off at Macy's to make a return. Isabelle decided to stay in the car, while Angela ran to make the return. Angela ran inside real quick, made the return, took a quick look at some clothes, then headed back to the car. Angela was in the car, reversing out of the parking spot when she realized Isabelle was missing. So Angela reparked the car and went inside looking for Isabelle. She found Isabelle hanging out in Macy's looking around.

Makes me wonder what's next

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Craigslist is Dumb

So remember a couple of months ago when I was selling that air conditioner on craigslist? I had all the trouble with the guy not showing up when he said he would and then wanting a discount.

Well apparently I haven't learned my lesson. I put a few items up online tonight. Mostly odd camera equipment that I don't use. I've gotten a few reasonable hits on some of the crap.

And one ridiculous inquiry on a lens. I put one lens up for $100, knowing I'd barter a little. Well, I got an email from some guy asking for a little more detail and wondering if I'd take $80 for it. I answered his question and agreed to take $80 for the lens. Then he instantly emailed back asking if I'd take $40 for it. What makes him think that forty bucks would sound remotely good to me when I put it online for $100?

So I emailed him back and said I'd take $85...jerk.

Good Luck!

Guilty Noodles is currently taking a vacation in the hospital to try and quit the migraines for good. So in honor of her, I made a slideshow of inspirational photos set to moving music. I hope this brings you the strength to kick that habit for good!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Mmm Fresh Veggies

I'm pretty sure I've talked about my attempt at a little vegetable garden. However, I'm not sure if I mentioned my farm.

Ok we just call it the farm, it's actually a little 10 x 20 foot plot of garden in a big community garden. It's been fun and hard work all in one. Mostly hard work so far. There seem to be a million rocks in this little plot...a million. We decided to dig down a half foot and then put a couple of flower beds in. Which was a pain in the ass(the digging not the flower beds). Now that we have the beds in, we've been sifting the dirt. Trying to get all those pesky rocks out. We've had recruits helping, hoping for payment in the form of some fresh veggies. Well, there might actually be a chance of payment...I finally planted one of the beds!

Yes just one. But at least one. If we plant nothing else this year, at least we'll have sweet corn, zucchini, radishes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, and something else (I can't remember what I planted).

The second flower bed is built and the bottom is chicken wired. The chicken wire is to keep the gophers out of the beds...and me. While attaching the last of the wire to the bottom of the bed, I took a step back, tripped, got my feet clothes-lined in the wire and flipped myself backwards out of the flower bed. I laid on my ass outside of the flower bed laughing. Mario gave me a "10" from the sidelines. Angela tried to ask me if I was ok without laughing. It was nice of her. She was yelling at mario to help me up. Apparently he's finally gotten used to my falling because he just kinda waved at me and told her that it's normal.

At least I got one veggie bed planted!

Test Picnic

The weekend was long and nice. Saturday we a brunch picnic. It was so nice to sit out at the park, talk with friends, drink a little mimosa and eats some yummy foods. It was so lovely out. It felt good to just sit around on a blanket in the shade and talk. We're definitely doing that again!

It was a great afternoon and definitely brought back memories of great picnics with my dad. We spent every other weekend with dad. At first I think he felt he had to find ways to entertain me and my sister. However, he soon figured out that he loved finding little places for us to picnic. The man loved him a little history and photography. So any adobe, tepee, historical homes were fair game for picnicking and photographing. He became a very talented photographer, and he also became quite talented at packing up a great picnic. All the sandwich fixings, drinks, snacks, games, anything else we might need, he would have packed up and ready to go when we showed up for the weekend.

We lived on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. The San Joaquin and the Sacramento River feed into the Bay. What attaches the bay and the rivers is "The Delta". The Delta is a huge maze of islands and sloughs. One of our favorite spots to picnic was Hogback Island. It's the tiniest of islands...you have to take a couple of bridges from one island to another to get to it. There's a big grassy area for picnicking. We'd have such a great time. Playing games, eating, fishing, hanging out and just joking around. The only problem was the wind. Go out at the wrong time and you'd see people chasing their sun tents down the island. One day we went out to the island and it was windy as hell. We weren't giving in though. We sat there making our sandwiches. Hanging onto our paper plates, baggies, napkins. We were feeling a slightly miserable but happy to be outside. As we took turns making the sandwiches, the two pieces of cheese dad had just placed on his sandwich were blown away by a big gust of wind. We sat shocked. And then laughed our butts off. None of us really knew that our cheese was in danger of being blown away.

Picnics were such a big part of my life and I miss them. So Saturday's picnic brought back a lot of little memories of Saturdays with my dad and sister. So, sorry suckers, I'm in picnic mode now and will be planning the rest of our weekends for the summer with picnics at adobes and missions.

Here are a few shots from one of our many picnics.

Of course this is how we really acted

And no that is not one of the windy days, that was a can of hairspray...yes the bangs are a thing of beauty!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Kreg...where have you been all my life!

Im pretty excited. Because I bragged about my fritatta, we decided I
needed to make it again. So Colleen and I planned a little brunch in
the park. I set everything up tonight, packed what I could, chilled
some champagne. What's a brunch without mimosas! Its sure as shit's
not a brunch!

So anyway, I'm all set and am now laying in bed. I'm all relaxed, but
can't go to sleep yet... I've been sucked into an infomercial. It's
called the Kreg corner or joiner or something dumb like that. Needless
to say I have to have it! It's for building wood shit. It makes
building tables, bookshelves, chairs, and picture frames easy. It's a
corner joining system. I know I don't do wood working, but think of
all the money I could save if I had this Kreg corner thing. Hey, I did
rock woodshop in junior high!

I know, I just mastered the fritatta. I'll stick to that for now. Who
knows though, there couldbe woodworking in my future...for only $99.99!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

mmm...pomegranate

For Christmas I got a cute little bag of pomegranate flavored Philosophy goodies from Angela. The lip gloss is in my purse. The face scrub has all been used (why is it ok for those little beads to be in a face scrub but not in the body soap?). The body lotion has been sitting in a little basket in the bathroom. I'm more of a traditional lotion girl. I tend not to have a lot of smelly lotions about, because they make me sneeze and/or obsess about the scent(not sure why).

Anyway, yesterday I was sitting on the crapper and noticed that bottle of lotion in the basket. So I reached over thinking that the pomegranate smell would be nice. I was surprised to see yellow lotion...bright yellow with sparkles. I checked out the bottle again and saw that it was shimmer body lotion. I started applying the lotion to my arms. Ok it's not so bad, it added a nice warm glow. As soon as I was finished in the bathroom, we'd be heading out to Target. So I figured my legs could use a little lotion also. The sparkle would warm up the look of my winter legs. Then applied a little to my face.

Finishing business on the crapper, I headed over to the sink and closer to the light. I guess I was a little heavy on the lotion, my hands were yellow. I did a quick hand wash and they were back to normal.

Just before I headed out I took a quick look in the mirror. I looked completely jaundiced! That shit should obviously be used in moderation!

Hey not only do I look jaundiced, I look like I smeared Vaseline all over my face...that is some shiny lotion! I just lightened the photo up in photoshop but I didn't make any other adjustments to it to make it look more yellow. That's natural yellow baby...ask Mario! I think I look like one of those distorted big doe eye dog photos that you see around.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

What was that!?

I hate when I'm lying in bed and hear a noise.

Last night I kept hearing a squeaking noise. I immediately thought there was a bat around. Not that I've never seen one around here...ever. But that noise...maybe? No not a bat.

Then I thought maybe a mouse? No not with my cats around...unless Dexter had caught one and brought it in for us(how nice). No, I had just seen both cats were under a blanket in the living room.

The window is open with a fan in it. Could it be outside? I muted the tv to hear a little better. The noise stopped. Turned the tv back on. I could hear it again. Muted the tv again real quick. Silence. This thing was playing games with me!

Don't worry I only had to mute the television 3 or 4 times before I realized it was a weird background noise on the tv. Who puts a sqeaking noise in the background of a song? I'm sure I wasn't the only crazy person trying to figure out how a bat got into the house!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Green Apple?

I don't know who came up with Green Apple dish soap. The idea of it is nice. A clean fresh scent while washing those dirty dishes.



However, green apple scented dish soap and the scent of greasy ground beef from last nights meatballs and spaghetti, left me dry heaving first thing this morning. Maybe I'm a little more sensitive in the mornings, but I was totally unprepared for the overly sweet apple scent and that nasty grease swirling around. Think I just stick with the normal soapy smell from now on.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

His Head Hurtses

Poor mister has a headache. So I fed him some water and meds and put a cool wash cloth on his head. But then, the wash cloth warmed up and he need coolness. So I set him up with this...


So sad and pathetic...but now you can better picture the salad in the chest hair!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Domestic Goddess Strikes again!

Do you mind if I brag for a minute...ok I'm sure I brag a lot but this is for a good reason.

I made my first fritatta and it worked!

Here it is...

Ok I know it doesn't look exciting and it probably isn't. I make a lot of things that are only ok, but holy hell the fritatta's good! I used a left over grilled chicken breast from dinner last night, white asparagus, onion, potaters, a little cheese, and tarragon. Of course I topped it with my famous herb lemon sour cream...it's the yummiest.

Ok I'm a little over impressed with myself right now...I'll go sit and calm down...thank you

Friday, May 15, 2009

Continued....kinda

I was telling you in my last blog about how I've been weeding through a lot of extra stuff. I'm just trying to live with less stuff around. So my closet has taken a hit. Why store things that I don't' wear? Also, why keep clothes around that are showing wear or have run their course? Those are the ones to go. Only the necessary things. Everything in my closet fits. Nothing in there that I'll one day fit into. My closet is all legit.

We got to this point a few months ago. I had cleared out a few bags of clothes. Mario had gotten rid of some clothes that had shrunk or just didn't fit. Our closet looked great. We dropped everything off at the donation place. Except one little bag of clothes...it somehow got left in the back of my truck. It's just never gotten dropped off.

Now is where I make a confession...because of this purging my closet is at a minimum. Come spring, I want to do some shopping for new summer clothes. I'm also in need of some good clothes to wear on shoots. Well, we don't got no money for shopping right now. So I broke into that little donation bag that never got dropped off an has been sitting in my car for months. Yes I did. And I found one blouse that love. That I can not for the life of me figure out why I got rid of it. Ok, it's a little worn, but now looking at it in desperation...it's like brand new! I also found a short sleeve sweatshirt that I have had a love/hate relationship with for a long time. Right now that sweatshirt is comfortable and feels new again.

I know, it's a little pathetic...ok a lot pathetic! I donated to my own pathetic cause. I accepted a donation from an over purging snob who got rid of things that shouldn't have been gotten rid of.

Either way, at least this will keep me from charging up my credit card. It's a quick clothes fix. Maybe before I donate I should just put some clothes in a bin in the garage. Then just take a quick look before I donate. Then maybe it will make me excited about some of my own clothes when I can't afford to buy something new.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Omens

Have you ever had a dream that you were going through a closet full of all the clothes you've ever owned? And it was exciting because you forgot you had that shirt or those shoes? And you wake up all excited about wearing that shirt in your dream. But then you realized that you got rid of that shirt a long time ago. And you're all bummed out? I have those dreams and they really bum me out sometimes.

A lot of times these dreams are about clothes that I've donated to good will. They were probably getting a little old or just generally on their way out. Or in the current circumstances, we just don't have the space for extra clothes taking up space. I've also been trying to get rid of all the extra things we have around. The things that take up space but don't really mean something to us. That includes clothes that we just don't wear.

Lately I've felt like I don't have the clothes that I want. I know I need more work clothes, but we just don't have the money to go out shopping right now. That's why those dreams pop up here and there.

Well last night was the first time that I've had one of those dreams, and woke up and knew I actually had the item in the dream. My red purse. I woke up in the best mood...because that cute purse in my dream was actually in MY HOUSE!!!

...and then I found another purse I had forgotten I had and switched to that purse instead.

....and I think it was a mistake because I'm not really impressed by this other purse. I'm already loosing things in it.

......I should have listened to the dream and switched to the cute red purse.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

You know when you've had a long day and are loosing energy and get a little punchy? That was Mario, Angela, and I last night.

I had gotten a lot of work finished in the morning and afternoon. So when I got the call to go to Disneyland in the afternoon for Angela's birthday, I was all in. We ran around that park until it was closed. Then drove an hour home and had dinner out. By that time it was 10pm and we were getting punchy. We were slowly rotating from sleepy, to grumpy in need of food, to silly, to quiet, back to silly.

We were well behaved for the most part. Until one thing set us off. By us I mean Angela and me. Poor Mario was unfortunately the butt of our joke. During dinner, somehow, Mario's shirt had come unbuttoned. The top two buttons had released and his manly chest hair was on full display. Of course we went right in for the kill. We were teasing him about how sexy the manly chest hair was, when we noticed...he had some salad tangled in with his chest hair. That sent us over the edge. Angela and I had the worst case of the giggles. There was crying. There was pointing. There was snorting. We were the loudest people in the restaurant, but we couldn't help it. Mario took it like a man though.

Me: Oh good honey, we can have that later
Angela: We should give that to mom, maybe she hasn't eaten yet
Me: Aw you're going green and finding alternative ways to bring leftovers home
Angela: Wait maybe we should get a box for that
Me: Why he's got it taken care of
Angela: I don't want him arrested for shoplifting a salad
Me: ~falling on the ground laughing~
Angela: Excuse me sir do you have a receipt for that salad you are hiding in your chest hair?

Of course the whole conversation was held at that high pitched voice you get when you're trying to keep it together and not laugh.

It only got worse when Mario realized that it wasn't anywhere near the type of lettuce that he had just eaten.

Me: What have you eaten today...you didn't have any other salad today!
Mario: Maybe it's foliage from the park
Me: Don't think so mister...that's salad
Mario: Parsley! It's Parsley!
Me: There wasn't any parsley on anything you just ate
Mario: ~silence~

Then we turned around and noticed that after all the teasing of Mario, Angela had a huge piece of pot roast plastered to her shirt.

Normally that would have just been normal. However, after working all day and then running around Disneyland for 5 hours, salad in chest hair was the funniest thing we'd ever seen.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A Proud Moment

Tonight we went to The Corner Bakery for dinner with Mario's sister and Tadao. Angela and I ordered our usual. While Mario and Tadao had a drink, and Tadao a desert. Tadao got the wonderful 3 citrus mini bundt cake that we had all been eyeing.

We all tried a bite of the bundt cake. However, when it got to Mario he started having trouble trying to get his piece of cake free. As he was tearing at the poor little cake with his fork, Tadao asked "what is he doing to that cake?"

I told him "He's tearing you a new bundt hole"

Comedy gold! Situations like that don't pop up every day. Of course Mario pretended that his dainty wife had not said that. Angela rolled her eyes. Tadao and I giggled, because we are both really 15 year old boys.

My Talent...Falling

We used to go to this lake up near Yosemite called Bass Lake each year with my dad. We'd stay in this bare bones cabin for a week and spend the week swimming. It was the best. It was the same every year. Get there, unpack, swim, BBQ, swim some more, sleep, swim, etc. The end of the week would come and we'd slowly pack up and leave, already thinking of the next year.

After a great week at the lake, we were packing to head home. Dad had woken us up early to pack up and clean the cabin before we left. Dad was playing tetris with the boxes in the back of the van, while Lindsay and I lugged all the shit from the cabin. On one of my trips out, I brought a couple of duffel bags and dropped them for dad to grab. The sun was coming out and it was getting warm. So as I turned to head back for another load, I started to take my sweater off and tie it around my waist. As I started pulling my sweater off, I stepped over the duffel bags. About the time the sweater got to my elbows, I got caught on something, lost my balance, twisted and fell in slow motion(isn't it always slow motion). I lay on the ground five feet behind my dad legs tangled in the duffel bags, starting to slide down the hill. Dad was still bent over, head in the van, OCDing about getting everything in the van just so. I have one leg pinned underneath me, somehow tangled up in the the handles of the duffel bag. Both my arms pinned to my side by the stupid sweater that only partially made it off before the fall. I had basically hog tied myself with a sweater and a duffel bag. My dad was completely oblivious to the scene behind him. As I look around trying to figure out how I'm going to get out of this, I look toward the cabin to see my sister standing in the window. She is doubled over, mouth open, belly laughing at me all tied up. Being the loving sister that she is, she eventually came out to help me up. Not before pointing out the situation to dad. Of course dad wanted to know how the hell I had done that amount of tangling in complete silence. I still don't know how I didn't make a peep while falling. However, I will always remember that vulnerable feeling of being tied up in the wilderness while looking at my sister and her evil silent laugh through the window.


In honor of Elia's birthday, I have decided to start a series of blogs about my most ridiculous moments. Because there are many...many. If anything, I am great at making an ass of myself. Of course the moment I decided to write about an embarrassing moment, I had to call my sister for some good stories.

ME: Should I tell them about when I fell down behind dad and he didn't hear and I was stuck until someone noticed?

Lindz: No tell them about when you fell up the stairs in front of the photography class

Me: What about when we were on the cruise and I slipped on the deck they had just washed.

Lindz: What about the time you tripped at the top of the stairs and rode the picture frame down them

Then I had to call a friend for more stories...

Tracy: What about the time you were taking photos on the side of the road and slipped down the embankment and all the cars kept driving by and staring?

Me: What about when I flipped over in that stupid papazon chair you had and got that potato burn on my knee

Tracy: Oh the potato burn...I love that one. But what about the time you tripped on the stairs at school and slide down them on your knees. I'm still impressed that you stuck the landing at the bottom like a real gymnast.

Me: Yeah that was a good one.

etc, etc...So, We'll see where this goes. I definitely think I have a lot of stories here. Feel free to chime in on any you remember...

Saturday, May 09, 2009

"Take a Wack at Weeza"

What is it about Steel Magnolias that makes me watch that movie every time I find it on the television? I don't watch tv during the day on week days. Come the weekend though and the television is a background fixture. I usually keep it on or near the Food Network for most of the weekend.

When I take the time to sit down and actually watch the television, I'm more willing to explore those channels rarely seen. And that is how I found Steel Magnolias today. What is it about this movie that makes me stop and watch. I've seen it a million times. I would never venture to call it one of my favorites. However, if it's on, I'll watch it. Maybe it's because Sally Field, Dolly Parton, and Shirley MacLaine(Love Weeza) are in it...I think more it's because Julia Roberts character dies in it. I love Sally Fields scene after the funeral, it kills me everytime! Either way I enjoy the stupid movie and will continue to keep getting sucked into it.

Other movies that I must watch...The Goonies(This I can say is one of my favorite movies), Don't Tell Mom the Baby Sitter's Dead, Monsters Inc, Jaws. There are more but I don't think I really know all of the movies that suck me in until I'm stuck watching one of them. Oh...Adventures in Babysitting also!

Which movies suck you in? Somehow I feel like this will be an ongoing list...

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The Screening Process

Most of you know about Bob and Dexter. They're the ones who run our little apartment. They pester us when they want food. They lay on us. Destroy things. Knock on the door when they want in or out.

Well, a while ago we got tired of letting them in and out. I came up with a solution though. I went all white trash and decided to cut a flap in the screen door. They can let their own butts in. Now I didn't just destroy a perfectly good screen door. It was already shit. About a week after we moved in, the fancy metal work on the front fell off. Then the cats decided that if they climb the screen, we'll let them in sooner. So, I cut a flap.

That screen door flap has made Mario CRAZY! He hates it. However, He knew what the alternate was...getting off his butt int he middle of LOST to let the cats in and out. So he's lived with it for the last two years. And even though there was a flap for them to jump though, Bob still would try to climb up, then get stuck, and basically shredded the bottom half of the screen. Which of course Mario could barely handle. It was pretty trashy looking. So finally I told Mario that we should go get new screening for the door. Can I say he was excited? He was practically dancing around Home Depot.

We brought our new screening home and I replaced the screen. It looks good. However, this time Mario decided he wanted to put a new cat door in. He cut the hole, taped up all the edging, and proudly told me to take a look. He had made a fancy new cat door...in a different location. I knew this was going to be a big ordeal for the cats, mario and the new door.

The first one to try out the new door was Bob. We knew this by the huge thump we heard as he ran head first about 10 inches to the right of the new hole(where the old hole was). I'm not sure if it was the look of confusion or a concussion on his little kitty face. I laughed of course. I tried showing both of the cats how this new door worked many many times. And of course, this thunking has continued on for three days. I laugh every time. Mario doesn't understand why the cats don't get it. I tried explaining that he's changed their world around.

The good thing is, they are slowely getting it. I'm kinda glad they are slow learners, cause it still cracks me up every time!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

I've been having a hard time coming up with good bloggy ideas lately.
It's not from a lack of things going on. Maybe it's a lack of
inspiration, who knows. However, the bloggy gold isn't flowing.

Anyway, my cousin's daughters are visiting. So we hit Disneyland
today. They'll go again tomorrow without us old folks. It's pretty fun
being able to spend some time with them. Half our family lives in
Oregon and we haven't spent as much time together as we should. So I'm
glad I have Disneyland close by to lure them in!

We had a nice laid back day at the park. Now we're all happily laying
in bed...no we're not all sharing the same bed. That might be
acceptable in Oregon, but not in Casa D'Anna!

Ps...the best thing I saw today was on the tram back to the car. A man
had been running around in the sun all day without any sun screen. He
had a perfect sun glasses tan. His skin was a deep brown/red color
with a perfect sun glasses shaped white design on his face. I giggled
all the way back to the car.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Emails From Mom...

I did not finish my thoughts to Lindsay when we were discussing when I win the lottery.
I told her after setting up a corporation, she would have a $1,000,000. salary.
That did not include the car, house and credit cards.
That would go to both the adorable daughters I have.
You two would be vice presidents, me being the dictator for a while .
I did not want you to think that you would only get the salary and not work for it.

Love your mother......

(this is an email I received out of the blue today. She's so weird, but it's good to know she's going to win the lottery. I'm curious what kind of corporation she's going to open. The dictatorship is really no surprise though.)