Author Archives: LA Blogger Gal

Wishing You An Amazing 2009!

As 2008 quickly turns to 2009, I wanted to take a moment to personally thank you (those I’ve had the pleasure to get to know and those who’ve yet to say ‘hello’) for following along on my personal journey…the highs, the lows and the what the hells.

I wish for you an amazing 2009. May it bring you much love, much joy, much prosperity and many, many successes!

In love, friendship and blogging,
Kat, your LA Blogger Gal

It’s Christmas Eve and I Just Got Back From the Grocery Store

And yes, it was pure insanity.  Luckily, I prepared myself for the grumpy crowds and just soared above in my bliss.  Well okay, it might not have been bliss per se, but it was definitely not bah humbuggedness.  I often wonder who is crazy enough to do their holiday food shopping the day before.  Now I know, frantic people who buy up all the bread, lots of soda and alcohol and like to bump into people.

Yeah, yeah, I know I was there too.  The difference being, I knew I’d be there since I just kept putting off figuring out what I wanted to make for our Christmas contribution.  Of course, it doesn’t help that as of Monday the in-laws still hadn’t decided who was hosting Christmas or what time it would be, let alone what everyone should bring.  It also doesn’t help that I can’t have fun cooking and baking for the in-laws – if they don’t recognize it, they won’t eat it.

So once agian I’ll be making the cornbread casserole, along with a salad with “recognizable” lettuce and salad dressing (who knew greens with gorganzola, sugared pecans and cranberries with a cranberry vinagrette would be too strange *sigh*) and a tres leches cake.  I also picked up a spinach dip and some spreadable cheese for some appies (or for the hubs and I at home if it turns out to be too weird like the baked brie…again, *sigh*).  I also picked up some shrimp for he hubs and I to nibble on once the family gig is over and we’re home.

Tomorrow will be quite mellow for Case de LA Blogger Gal.  Since we had our Ireland trip last month, we won’t be exchanging any gifts here at home.  My dearest friend, who I typically “celebrate” Christmas with (across the miles as she’s still in NM) didn’t manage to get her gifts out this year yet, so nothing from her.  And we excanged gifts with our other good friend last night.  So we’ll just be chilling out tomorrow before heading over to the in-laws where we’ll get a gift or two to open.  Then back home to just hang out…oooh, we can have our shrimp with some proseco I’ve got chilled (or with some Jameson and Gingerale) while watching season 3 of Weeds.  Sounds like a plan!

And now, I guess it’s about time to wrap the gifts.  I think I’m going to follow Katelin’s brilliant suggestion and pop Love Actually into the DVD player.  What better movie to wrap to!

Wishing you all a happy & safe holiday!!

Pre-Christmas Thoughts

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about anything worth blogging about, so I have a bunch of random, dis-connected things running through my mind.  Lucky you, you get to read about them now…

  • It’s cold.  Like in the low 50’s in Southern California kind of cold. Yeah, yeah, I know, many of you are stuck in snow storms.  But well, we’re dealing with cold rain here in LA.  Even wearing a sweater I’m sitting her freezing my butt off.
  • Which brings me to the fact that I really, really need to clean this office so I can bring in the space heater.  We have only one heating unit here in the apartment and well, much like our AC, if you’re not standing next to it, you’re basically without heat.  So we need a space heater to preheat the bedroom before going to bed and to heat the office…once I get rid of the piles of crapola lying about.
  • My head is clogged.  Still.  And yes, it’s still driving me crazy.  Must go find some sudafed.
  • I made a big mistake today and headed out by our mall to pick up a book at Borders.  I went surface streets, but man, even the freeway ramps were bumper to bumper on the way to the mall.  Word of advice people…head to the mall the hour before it closes and you’ll not only find parking spaces, but you’ll also find a lack of crowds!
  • I was packing my friend’s box of gifts last week and came across a “Baby’s 1st Christmas” ornament.  Um…can’t think of who I might have bought it for.  Luckily it doesn’t have a year attached (it’s a photo ornament) so I can probably find someone to give it to at some point.
  • I’m so happy that I no longer have to set up any of the daily contests (though they are still going on and you can enter until 1/23).  Now I just need to focus on finding products for bi-weekly giveaways.  Which of course means I once again have to send out a bunch of emails and organize all the product and correspondence.
  • I’m thinking my goal his year is to either find an intern or an assistant to help me out with the CC contests and blog.  I find it too challenging to be pulled in so many different directions…staying focused on three or more things happening all at once and trying to grow my business to the next level…nuts, I tell ya.
  • The husband is driving me nuts setting up his “gold watch” Bose surround system (gold watch = his “thank you for your 15+ years with the company, enjoy this gold watch as a token of our appreciation” gift).  We now have boxes and wires everywhere!  On top of all the other boxes we have for the contest prizes and the Christmas gifts.  The only piece of furniture without a box or wire strewn across is the couch.  A huge mess I assure you.  But, I will concede….the sounds is awesome!

And in closeing, it’s mere days before Christmas and the in-laws have yet to decide where and when we’ll be celebrating Christmas and who should bring what.  Go figure.  It’s so much less stressful since I’ve stopped worrying about it and trying to plan everything.  So much easier to just show up and bring foods that I know we like and will eat (like salad and veggies).

PS – things are looking up for Emily and the Taylor Swift contest. If you haven’t voted yet, please do.

I Fought the Dyson…

And I won!!! Oh happy day!

Look how good this baby looks now!

IMG_5420

And look at all the crap I pulled out from it. No wonder it wasn’t picking up half the crap I spent the good money for it to pick up!
I Fought the Dyson and I WON!!

Life lesson: Just because your vacuum can pick anything up, doesn’t mean it should pick up anything!

Let’s Help a Young Gal Out

You may or not remember, but a goodly amount of our time in Ireland, my husband was working on some pretty important stuff.  Well, it’s now come to the point where I can share the details.  My husband’s site, in conjunction with Taylor Swift’s team have come up with an awesome contest.

Last month, young fans were invited to post their own videos singing along to Taylor’s songs from her new album on YouTube.  Over 500 kids submitted their songs – and there’s some good stuff out there.  Taylor’s people have narrowed it down to four semi-finalists and all are quite good.

Here’s where you can help a gal out…my favorite video, Emily (HelloLovely26) is one of the finalists.  Her video is adorable (as is her dog) and she sounds great.  Thing is, she’s up against some serious competition with some series fans  and she’s lagging behind.  So I thought I’d ask you guys to help spread the word, show a little love and send some votes her way.  And don’t worry, if she doesn’t float your boat, the other acts are also quite talented.

Procrastination: Blah, Blah, Blah

Instead of working on my business stuff (first time in a while that I’ve had the chance to work on my own stuff) or wrapping packages for shipping, I’m looking at new blog themes. And of course, I can’t find something quickly and easily that I like. To say nothing of all the plugins I just uploaded that need to be activated.

Turns out I really don’t like this theme afterall. I want a full-size, fluid width format with a header I can personalize easily with my own photos. One that won’t go format-crazy when I upload photos. No luck just yet. My client got me hooked on Blix, but I’d have to do some coding to get the header to work right and well, I just don’t feel like doing that right now.

So do I keep looking or do I work? Decisions, decisions.

ETA: I give up. I’m wasting far too much time on this. Maybe later.

ETA Take II: I’ve decided to give Fluid Blix a try for a bit until I find something I like better

Scratch that…ETA Take III – had to go back to my cheesy sunset as Fluid Blix didn’t like me at.all!