Category Archives: the hubby

Who Knew

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I was sitting back and reading the LA Times with the hubby and he hands me this one article and tells me that as a blogger (Ha!! Like I’d really call myself a blogger – though I do run another blog site that gets updated regularly), anyway, as a blogger, he said I needed to read it. It was about the viral power that bloggers have today.

Turns out Berkeley Breathed (of Opus and Bloom County fame) was doing a book signing in the midwest with a teen came in and asked him what he thought of Gore Verbinski (of Pirates of the Caribbean fame). Not thinking beyond making a funny, Breathed responded that he’s “sick of pirates.” Within an hour or so, it had spread like wildfire through the blogosphere.

Man, who knew blogging had so much power. Let alone unknown teenage bloggers are wielding this power. All that is reason enough to check out the blog-o-stats more closely! Makes you wonder how you can change the World, huh?

For These Things I Am Grateful…

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I just thought that I’d take a moment and focus on some of the many, many things that I am so happy and grateful for…

* we’ll start with the obvious, yet very important…my health, wealth, happiness, joy, work, love, home, family, friends, husband and boys!

* my upcoming haircut, brow wax and pedicure!!

* my current batch of chick-lit – I’m so loving reading the breezy stuff!

* the fact that we’re off on a vacation full of good friends, good food and good wine in just over a week!

* that I’m going on that vacation 20 or so pounds lighter than when we went last year – and it shows!

* my clean car – I should show my gratitude and appreciation for it now since it might rain tomorrow!

* that while today may have been a tad chilly and overcast, the weather as a whole has been just lovely and perfect for our evening walks!

* and so, so much more!

Edited to add: the reason I even started this was to express my gratitude for our new toilet!!! No more wondering if it’s going to flush. No more non-stop running through the night. Ah…the joys of a new toilet!

Dentist-Schmentist, Weigh In-Schmay In

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Well, I tried to weigh in this morning before heading into the dreaded dentist for my cleaning, but I got my times totally messed up and they weren’t open yet. Then of course, with my cleaning scheduled, I’d miss the next WI. So basically, I just gave up and I’ll just do a cursory WI tomorrow morning. I’m still not expecting much since I went a little crazy my birth-a-versary week, but who knows. I’ve been doing a lot of walking and that’s got to count for something.

All I know is after this vacation, I really, really need to get back on track with WW. This has just been pathetic. I got back into my smaller stash of clothes and just kind of got lazy after that. All I can say is while I’m thrilled beyond belief to be able to visit with J&C in a couple weeks, I’m also dreading the visit. She’s done amazingly well, and I’ve just done okay. For the most part, I’m fine with this since I look and feel SO much better. But you know, I just don’t want to be judged and sometimes, we just can’t help but harbor little judgey thoughts, you know. Love or not, it happens. But overall, I’m just thrilled with our upcoming vacation and so happy to visit with them again. Just chalk all this up go my being a bit of a goofball.

Sidenote: The toilet broke again last night and the water has been gushing non-stop (except when I made the hubby turn it off last night so we could sleep). This time around though, I called the landlord and reminded him that he’s fixed it once, we’ve fixed it twice and dammit if it isn’t broke again. So hopefully he’ll fix it right up!

So I had my cleaning today at the dentist. And once again, Xantax to the rescue!!! Man, they should just get a license to dispense that stuff when you walk it. It makes such a difference. My cleaner lady even commented on how much more calm I was and asked if I took one. So yeah, the shit works. She also gave me an A- on my upkeep saying that if it wasn’t for my crazy ass wisdom teeth way, way, way far back in my mouth, my teeth would all be in great, clean, shape! That feels good. It took three years to get back to this point especially after having gone 7+ years between any dental or cleaning work. That is, if I was ever at this point in my life – with my fear of dentists I usually avoided what I could. But yeah, that made me feel great!

So today I just have to do some inside cleaning (if I can manage to NOT take a nap – damn that husband and his only getting 3-5 hours of sleep while working on his latest project) and whatnot and then get ready for Harry Connick at the Greek. I love the Greek, it’s one of my favorite venues to see shows. I’m not so sure what to expect of this show though. Having peeked at a recent setlist, it seems to be ONLY stuff from this Nola CD. I picked it up with a gift card the other day and have been listening while in the car. It’s not bad, just not exactly the Harry I know and love! Hopefully he’ll wow us with the show – much like Michael Bubble did a few years back. Here’s hoping.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

I love Harry Connick Jr.

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and I love my husband!!! He’s been teasing me about how we’ll be missing the HC show – in fact, we thought we’d already missed it. Well early this morning, he decided to pick up a pair of tickets for this Friday’s show at the Greek! I’m SO excited!! And not that it really matters much in the scheme of things, but he also picked up some VIP parking passes so we don’t have to deal with the stacked parking crap.

*sigh* my husband rocks!!! He may not be big into buying cards or falling for those Hallmark holidays, but he’s still a keeper!

The Happiest Three Years…

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I’ve been neglectful, please forgive me. I’ve got a lot of posts stored up in my head, I just haven’t gotten around to typing them up yet. Until then (which will be shortly), I’ll leave you with some anniversary details…

Since the hubby has to work tonight (he’s shooting the Rufus Wainwright show) we decided to celebrate last night instead. We started out the evening by heading over to the Hotel Cafe to see Keri Noble (her myspace with music clips). She put on a great show and didn’t disappoint. Since she was the opening act, we had great seats right up front (and of course, the hubby was shooting the show and got some great photos).

It was a very stripped down set with just her on keys and her husband on guitar. She did a great version of Patty Griffin’s Fly (the Chicks also cover it). We hung back and talked with her manager after her set and found out that she’s sadly still unsigned. Man, she’s got a kickass, raspy voice and it’s really a shame she’s unsigned. Here’s a clip of one of my favorite songs of her’s, here’s an X-File video that she sang on and here’s her single from her last album). Yeah, I’m a fan, what can I say.

So after the show we headed on over to Off Vine for dinner. I’ve heard some good things about them and have wanted to try them for quite some time. Sadly, it was just okay. Nothing fancy and let’s be honest, we were shooting for fancy. The restaurant was dead – not a surprise since it was a Monday at 8:30. The restaurant is very cool as it’s in an old arts & crafts-style bungalow.

I do have to say that our smoked chicken and mozzarella ravioli with an apple mango chutney appetizer was kick ass! The souffle for dessert was okay as well. I liked the one we had in Vancouver on our honeymoon much better. The meals itself, again, just okay. The hubby had a pretty good trout in a cream sauce that was tasty, though we couldn’t for the life of us figure out what was going on with his side dish (way too weird to figure out – something with broccoli). My pecan crusted chicken was missing something – my theory is when you have to salt your food to give it some flavor, it’s not usually a good thing (outside of eggs, mexican food and chicken noodle soup, that is). But hey, their wine menu was very well written. I can’t say we’d go back again or recommend it to friends though.

Tonight we’ll be off to see the RW show. Turns out the hubby was able to get a +1 after all, so I’ll be going along. So I picked up the fixin’s for a Chinese chicken salad, a carrot cake (bad, I know) and a bottle of bubbly, prossecco so we can celebrate again – since he doesn’t go on until 10. Not such a bad deal considering we really don’t exchange gifts (though this year we are getting a new home entertainment stereo system as our “anniversary gift” since the hubby’s old, hand-me-down stereo is on it’s last legs). PS – RW was on KCRW’s Morning Sounds Eclectic earlier today and it’s a great set – check it out.

Oh yeah, remember that SATC episode where Samantha got a peel the day before Carrie’s book launch? Yeah, well, I’m a walking example of why one should NEVER EVER get a facial before a big event!  Yes, the woman gave me two glycolic peels (light or not) and then waxed my upper lip and I’m ON FIRE!! My nose and cheeks are bright red, and my upper lip (and the actual lip!) is in so much pain it hurts to even open my mouth! Crazy I tell ya!! I’m sure I’ll look great this weekend *sigh*

Memories of an Ex

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I’m not one to give much thought to What Might Have Beens. I’ve never Googled any exes. Heck, I don’t even Google myself or my husband. Though he loves to Google his family and our two boys – have you any idea just how many Griffin dogs or Charlie cats there are out there?

Today, for some reason, out of the blue, my ex popped into my head and I can’t seem to shake him. Once I got home, I thought I’d give that ol’ friend, Google a whirl. Thing is, my ex has a fairly common name, so I wasn’t able to find anything. Not even a crumb. But I still can’t seem to shake him.

I know full well that we’d never have lasted. Not even counting the fact that he was a few years younger (not a big deal, I know), we were just two different kinds of people and in two different places in our lives. He was a hard worker, but he wasn’t college educated and didn’t really see the point. While I don’t think that college is for everyone (my hubby has no college education and is doing quite well surrounded by MBAs), it was still a huge part of who I was at the time. So much so that I went on to get my Masters.

Back when we were dating, I was just finishing up my teaching degree, hoping and praying to get a teaching job. My focus was entirely on getting that job. His focus was entirely on finding someone to settle down with and take care of. Me, I was in that I-don’t-need-anyone, I’m-an-independent-woman phase. I was ready to finally get started being an adult and living the life. Interestingly enough though, we were head over heels, blissfully enamored.

Or so I thought.

One of his co-workers broke up with her husband or boyfriend or baby daddy, or whatever and starting focusing all her attention on my guy. I knew this because he told me. She was an older woman (older than him, older than me) with a young child. He, as I stated earlier, just wanted to settle down and take care of someone. She, it turned out, was just that someone. He dumped me.

He went head on into a relationship with her and never bothered with me again. Well, until she broke up with him about 3 months or so later, that is. Then he came back to me. We went out to dinner and I said that we could try to be friends, but I just didn’t trust him. A week or two later, she wanted him back and back her went. This time, I walked away. For good. Until today.

T that time, I really wasn’t able to look to someone else as my hero or my savior. I just didn’t need that in my life. I didn’t need someone to “complete me.” I can see now how that might be annoying when you’re in a relationship. There’s needs to be some emotional give and take. I can honestly thank him for allowing our relationship to teach me that.

But I do wonder what made me think of him. Was it a song on the radio? Reflecting back over the last couple of weeks, I have heard a LOT of songs that could remind me of him – if I was in that frame of mind. Is it our long ago psychic connection? Is he thinking about me? Is he wondering what might have been?

I’ve got to tell you, I may have had a rough patch of life here or there, but I really, really like my life. I really like the person I’ve turned into. And I really like the friends that I consider my “family.” I really don’t have any thoughts of him, good, bad or ugly, but I do wish him well wherever he may be.

Glorious Gratitude

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It is officially my husband’s 45th birthday. We went out earlier this evening for a celebratory dinner (Ciudad in down town Los Angeles – very yummy) and then we settled down for a movie and a snuggle with the boys. Our cat, by the way turned 7 yesterday, so this has been a celebratory weekend all around, as I’m sure you can imagine.

While taking in all the love that my husband and my boys have to offer after enjoying our delicious meal (and more importantly, after balancing our business books – yeehaa!!) I started to realize that I’m grateful for so many things in my life. What a perfect thing to blog about since it’s been a while since I’ve publicly counted my blessings. Here goes…

* I am grateful for my husband. He can always make me laugh. He knows how to calm me down when I’m freaking out. And he loves me for the person that I am (tears and all when doing the bookkeeping) and doesn’t freak out and try to change me.

* I am grateful for my boys. They’ve both been incredibly snuggly this whole weekend. Charlie even offered to help me open the tuna for his birthday breakfast, he’s so sweet.

* I am grateful that our books balanced. Last year I went through a lot of tears and heartache, to say nothing of my time and energy to come even close to getting things to balance. This year, thanks to my hubby, we’re A-OK!

* I am grateful that we’ll be getting a bookkeeper so from this day forward I’ll never have to cry or get pissed over or angry over QuickBooks – never again.

* I am grateful for our home. While we’d love a bigger place of our own that doesn’t share walls with (what seems to be) a miserable, old woman that hates us, our home is still just perfect for where we are right now.

* I am grateful that we have the resources to eat out when we feel the need (maybe, possibly, a tad too much – LOL). Especially when we can go for the occasional splurge and not feel guilty and just enjoy our time and our food.

* I am grateful for Firefox and their (fairly) new spell check. Without it, folks would think I was the world’s worst speller and would doubt that I was ever really a 4th grade teacher.

* I am grateful that we’ve been having some beautiful weather. It may bring on allergy season, but it’s so nice out I just can’t help but love it.

* I am grateful for Weight Watchers and their program. I may not be doing as well as a couple of my friends (talk about impressive), but I’m losing weight and feeling great. And man, how much fun is it to be able to buy new clothes and fit into a smaller size!!! Oh yeah, I’m also grateful my arms finally stopped aching from that damn upper body workout I did the other day. Man that was tough.

* I am grateful for my friends. I know that I’d do anything for my friends and it’s great knowing that they’re there to support me through my good times and the not-quite-so-good times. Heck, they’d even help me bury a dead hooker in the desert – I know, I asked – LOL

* I am grateful for the ability to manifest an income. Once again, I turned around and was presented with an opportunity to earn $200 for doing 2 hours of my time doing market research. While it might not seem like much, it’s still money, and it’s still coming into my life freely and for that I’m grateful. Then again, I’m really, really grateful that I’ll be able to spend it on a little spa time *grin*

And lastly, I’m grateful, and so happy, for the wonderful, exciting opportunities and experiences that the Universe is bringing into my life.

Happy birthday to the most wonderful man in the World! I love you baby (and now even more people know!)

I Miss My Boys!

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Wow, nearly two weeks away from my hubby is just too much. It’s just insane. I realized that while I was out of state and away from him, I missed him SO much. But once I got home, and was able to snuggle into bed with the boys, I really didn’t miss him so much. So I’m thinking, it’s really more about being away from home AND away from him.

The cool thing about this trip apart (I left for 5 days, then we met up in Austin for one night, then he came home 4 days later) was how often we were able to talk this time around. Usually, when he goes to Austin, he’s so busy going from show to show that we barely even talk. I’m fine with that, but really, this time around, it was nice to be able to talk from time to time.

But let’s just say…it’s so sweet when he comes home and we can all snuggle together. All the more reason to affirm that I am SO happy and grateful now that I’m in a loving, caring, affectionate, sex-filled, relationship!!

100 Day Challenge – Day 18

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A Couple of Observations…

One – Everyone is going absolutely C.R.A.Z.Y. for The Secret!!! I tried to order a copy of the book off of Amazon last week and it had about a 2 week or so delay. I didn’t feel like waiting, so I canceled my order. Then today, I stopped by B&N to pick up a copy (and my next book club book – Lolly Winston’s Happiness Sold Separately, which they were sold out of!) and they were sold out! The woman said the publishers just can’t seem to publish enough for the demand. Man, that Oprah is amazing…what she can do for book and product sales!

Two – One of the biggest changes I’m noticing since participating in the 100 Day Challenge (aside from the money just showing up!!) is that I’ve become a lot more mellow. I’m noticing others getting upset and frustrated in lines, or in traffic, or whatnot. But me, I’m cool as a cucumber with no worries. And let me just say, I’m SO loving that. Talk about things to be grateful for!

Three – I also seem to be purging a lot of crap. In a good way. I wrote earlier about what appeared to be a little breakdown of sorts with plenty of tears and pent up frustrations getting cleared. This was great because it really seemed to give me some much needed clarity and it brought the hubby and I closer. But now I seem to be dealing with a sinus-turned-bronchitis sort of thing. I’d let it work it’s way out, but I’ll be flying in a few days and after having flown with some sinus congestion a month or so ago, there’s just NO WAY in hell, I’m going through that again. But I do recognize that it’s just my body’s way of purging some crap. So I can be more than grateful for this cleansing experience – and I’m more than open to medication & healing 😉

100 Day Challenge – Day 11

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I haven’t been around much the past couple of days, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t humming along just as expected. In fact, I had a bit of an epiphany this past weekend (at least that’s what I’m choosing to call it since it sounds SO much better than breakdown – LOL).

I think, for the most part, it was a time for purging and cleansing, both in the relationship department and the work department. For the first time, in a long time, the hubby and I had a real, heart to heart about stuff that was going on in our lives. This not only brought us closer as a couple (hello, smoochie smoochies!) but also helped us to clarify some of the bigger picture items

One of the bigger issues that we talked about was my job. As I’ve mentioned briefly in passing, I’m an administrator of a women’s online community. The interesting part, is that I kind of just fell into this. There was an opportunity, the hubby jumped on it, and wham-o, I’m an administrator. It turned out to be a wonderful thing, in so many ways, since just a month or so before (or after, I’m really not so sure) I had lost my job and shortly after that it turned out that I was the primary caregiver for my father-in-law. So everything really does happen for a reason.

Only catch…it’s not something I ever had any desire to do. Lucky for me, I enjoy it, I just sometimes have some challenges in finding focus or motivation regarding the site. So in my epiphany moment (thanks to my loving husband), we’ve talked about maybe turning the site into a non-profit sort of thing and spreading out further to helping other women create a web-based presence – roughly speaking. It’s still in the beginning stages.

So while I’m away at SXSWi I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open to the opportunities that I’m certain will be presenting themselves. I haven’t given it a whole lot of thought just yet, but I really feel that this will be right for me (for us) and that it came into my life at this appropriate and perfect time. I love when it all works out this way.

And as a neat “look, here’s another example of how the Universe works!” event…after putting a new home on my affirmation list, we kind of just bumped into a perfectly suited home this weekend while out walking the boy. I believe it has everything we were looking for on the list and believe or not. Even the price was pretty right. I don’t believe that this one is The One, but I just love seeing how the Universe brings forth what you ask for.

So go baby, go! And just think, we’re only on Day 11!!