Category Archives: the hubby

Settling In in Petaluma

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It’s official, our long day is finally coming to a close.  I feel like I had a gazillion errands to run today before even leaving to pick up the hubs for the airport.  But here we are.  Mind you, we called the hotel on the way to the airport to confirm the reservation (as we’re “with the band”) and there was no rez to be found.  Our friend fixed that up by the time we got here.

So thanks to our “band” status and our Starwood membership we’re in the “preferred guest” floor.  That of course means a fridge in the room – for our wine, no doubt – and our free bottle of water.  I believe there’s also the breakfast and happy hour sort of stuff, but I doubt we’ll be up or around for any of that.  Oooh and Bliss bath products…mandarin mint.  Yummy!

Since we have the world’s smallest bathtub at home, I rarely get to indulge in baths.  So you better believe that I packed some fun treats – salts, bubbles and bombs – and ran the bath as soon as we walked in the door!  My husband of course just rolls his eyes and gets online.  Go figure.

So while I was soaking in my hot, hot, nice and deep tub, the hubs thought it would be the perfect time to run to 7-11 to stock up on sodas and whatnot.  I’m telling myself that there’s no need to be offended that he decided to walk out on me  – LOL.

So tomorrow we have some wine tasting (of course!), band rehearsal, maybe a little shopping if I can swing it  (there’s both a Coach and a Lane Bryant outlet here), and visit to one of our favorite restaurants.  Should be a fun day (assuming rehearsal doesn’t go too long).  If so, then I guess I won’t be sitting in the audience for the show, I’ll be backstage drinking the wine instead 😉  The hubs will be shooting, of course.

Okay, time to get off the computer.  I told myself that I wouldn’t check emails or answer calls from unknown numbers (even managed to put vacation notices on both the email & the cell).  More than likely, I won’t be posting again until Sunday.

Have a great weekend!!

PS – old photo from our last visit out this way since 1) it was already dark when we got here and 2) no computer to upload my photos (only the hub’s ‘puter)

It Doesn’t Mean I Don’t Appreciate Him

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But I just had to throw the flowers away.  I waited until last night to tell him so he wouldn’t be surprised.  He knows that they’ve been messing with my allergies this whole time.  I just couldn’t take it any more.  So when the early blooms started dying I told him that I was going to toss them.

So sad too since they still looked so pretty.  I was tempted to just pull out the dying ones and keep the rest. But then I remembered that the mere touching of the beautiful (and the dying) flowers would likely make the allergies worse still.

But I still love him and I still appreciate my flowers.  I even have photos to remind me of just how beautiful they were.

Here’s to non-sneezy, non-teary eyed days…

Anniversary Flowers

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These are the beautiful (if not overwhelmingly aromatic) lilies that the hubby bought me yesterday for our anniversary. Today, twice as many blooms are opened (making things even more aromatic still) than yesterday, and at least a good dozen flowers are still closed and not yet blooming. I’m sure by Sunday the bouquet will be amazing.

Happy Anniversary Flowers

Hmmm…I wonder if the lovely (if not overwhelming aroma) has anything to do with my allergies going insanely crazy today?

It’s Been Four Years

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I have mere minutes left in this day to tell you that four years ago today my adorable, photographer, workaholic husband agreed to stand before our friends and family and make it official.  And man, what a party!  If I knew you all a little better (ha!) 😉 I’d even share the pictures from our shindig so you’d feel like you were there too (it’s a shame what what a little stalking can do to a gal *sigh*)

The funny thing, all of us, the hubs, me, our friends, all swear it’s really our fifth anniversary.  But I double checked the marriage certificate, just to be sure and nope…four years.

We stayed in for the night, nothing too crazy fancy.  I tired my hand at braised short ribs.  They were kick ass flavorful, but not nearly as tender as I was expecting considering they cooked for nearly 3 hours.  But oh well, the salad and the fixin’s were good.  And the wine…the wine was wonderful.

We didn’t really do the gifts thing.  He brought me some beautiful lilies and I picked him up the Godfather set, but nothing fancy.  And certainly nothing 4th anniversary-ish – we’ve yet to do those official anniversary gifts.  I guess we’re just goofy like that.

Happy Anniversary to Me!!  Well, to Us – but he doesn’t read this, so I guess just Me, really 😀

Cleaning the Office…Finally

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This was a long time in the works here. Besides the piles of boxes of wine, there was also the piles of papers that needed to be shredded. On top of all of that, there’s still the fact that I need to empty out last year’s files and actually file this year’s files.

Did I mention the bags full of swag? There’s still stuff from the husband’s trip to SXSW both last year and this year. And NAMM. And the leftover Grammy week stuff that was passed on to me. Yes, we have bags of free shit just lying around. Don’t be too impressed, since most of it (like SXSW & NAMM is mostly crappy CDs and press-related stuff). But um, there’s, well, bags full of upcoming Christmas gifts lying around as well since I shop all year for the friends that I know well (and again, the swag that I tell myself I’m saving for Christmas gifts).

Which of course leads us to the mass amounts of CDs that we have in this house. My husband can get anywhere from 5-15 CDs a week between here and his office. Complete with their PR packet. The majority of them sit around unopened. Sometimes we luck out and find a band that the nieces or nephews are into (about 6 or so months after the CD has been lying about collecting dust) and we can pass it along. Most of the time, not so lucky. It sits. And sits some more collecting dust. Eventually, it gets moved into the office to join the other piles of dusty CDs. Yeah, that’s the plan – not the most effective plan, mind you.

Let’s not forget the guitars. I believe he has six lying around. Granted, due to the crazy old lady that lives next door he can barely plug in the electric ones, but that doesn’t stop him too much. At least there’s only one broken one in the office. That one I could squeeze in the out of the way space between the bookshelf and the wine rack. How do you ladies with kids manage?? Seriously.

Oh yeah, and then there are the books. Books that I need to ship out to contest winners. Books that I still need to read so that I can interview the author for my site. Books that I still need to give away. Books that I’ve read. Books that I’ve yet to read. The books the husband is using. The books he no longer needs and just wants me to get rid of. Well, just books, piles of books (in all the rooms, but more so here in the office).

But back to the issue at hand. Both yesterday and today, the focus has been on cleaning up this back room already. I’m totally clearing away the clutter to open the channels and energy to bring us something more fun, exciting and fulfilling than, well, clutter and junk. I figure if I can get this room into shape, it will be a lot easier to keep things clean down the road (especially when I get the cleaning lady). I have high hopes for us.

Between cleaning out my closet & drawers, cleaning up the rest of the living spaces and now the office…hoorah!  I’m opening the door wide open for something amazing to come along, I tell ya.  So watch this space because I’m sure it’s going to be BIG (and good…very, very good!) 😉

Dork!

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My husband is a big ol’ dork.  He just got out of the shower and while getting dressed decided to bump me at my desk.  I asked him what he wanted, thinking that, oh, I don’t know, he might have wanted something and he said “nothing.  I just wanted to push you.  What, you gonna go blog that now?”

Um…yeah, I think I will.  And then I’ll go do laundry.

At Least I Was Expecting It

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To put it simply, my husband’s side of the family seems to be lacking some social graces.  They are absolutely wonderful people and I love spending time with them.  But…you knew a but was coming….but…they just don’t  get the concept of event planning.

It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to come home to a message on the answering machine on a Friday night (after 9:30pm) inviting us to something like a confirmation on Saturday morning at 9:00am.  Mind you, they would have known this date for a month at least, but still, the actual invitation doesn’t happen until the last minute.  This is across the entire batch of siblings (though it’s more likely to happen more last minute with one sibling – previous example – than with the other two). Same thing happens with recitals, school plays sporting games and birthdays.

For the most part, I’d been expecting this latest last minute invitation.  I knew my nephew’s first birthday was any day now.  I’d even already purchased his gift to make sure I had it on hand when said last minute invitation arrived.  So yes, I wasn’t completely surprised when we received an emailed “invitation” to his first birthday for this Sunday – as in four days away.  But I can still be grumpy about the whole thing.

I mean how does someone not know when they’ll be having the first birthday (or other milestone event)?  They know when his birthday is.  They know it will be a Sunday (dad is a mail carrier, so he only gets Sundays off).  So surely they knew it would be this weekend and surely they knew it would be this weekend at least a week ago.  So why wait until four days before the big event to even see if family can make it?

Most often, I don’t worry about it.  If we can’t make it, we can’t make it.  I don’t try to rearrange our schedule and I don’t feel guilty if we’ve got other plans.  Mind you, it took at least 2-4 years before I finally stopped stressing and freaking about this sort of thing.  Then again, it probably took me 4-5 years to stop freaking out and stressing about his family’s lack of social graces and planning around the family holidays as well.

My husband likes to say that it’s just his family.  He figures that his parents (mostly his mom) never bothered with basic social etiquette so there wasn’t any modeling going on while they were growing up.  In fact, he said that his family as a whole rarely socialized with others period.  And I guess I can let that work as an excuse.

But…they’re all adults heading towards mid-life now.  They watch TV, they interact socially both at work and at home.  Surely they must be aware just how rude inconsiderate their behaviors are.  Surely they must.  Though sadly, I don’t think they do.

And of course the planner and organizer in me wants to just schedule these family get-togethers in advance so we can know when they’re coming and plan around them.  Yeah, we’ll see how that goes.

I’m Here. I’m Here at Last

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Let’s start by saying wowza, I feel better!!  I’m not totally 100% better, but I’m nearly there.  Yesterday was the first time in a looong time that I didn’t need a mid-day nap.  And woohoo upon woohoo, I also didn’t need the vaporizer.  Oh, the best part, the hubster and I “caught up” on some lost time *wink wink* So yes, it’s been a smashing weekend overall here at the LA Blogger Gal household!

While out sick I’ve managed to finally get caught up a bit on my LWL workload.  I’ve got all my confirmed RSVPs for next Tuesday’s blogging workshop and I’m just ready to go.  So now I think I’m going to focus on learning how to lead some paid workshops (and contact those realtors).  Well, that and get started writing up my social networking workshop for later in the month.

Some randomness:

  • sometimes lean cuisine just sucks ass.  ‘Nuff said.
  • I managed to get our taxes into the accountant with plenty of time to spare only to have it sit in his office waiting for me to pick it up (my fault) and yep, now the biz taxes are late…that’ll cost us *sigh*
  • looks like we might be going to Ireland in November!!!  Herbie will be out there on tour and our friend has invited us along thinking it would be cool.  And boy howdy would it be cool!  I’d even be more than willing to call it “Christmas” and skip any and all gifts – Ireland would be more than enough.
  • Doing that crazy blog party, I was lucky enough to win a book from Robin Bielman’s blog – There Goes the Bride by Lori Wilde.  Let me just say, after months of reading business books, chick lit and the more highbrow literature-y books (damn that book club) it was a very welcomed escape. A very light and fun read.
  • And speaking of winning, I won a beautiful turquoise pendant the other day from Hostess with the Mostess.  Pretty cool if you ask me!

And now, I’m going to pick my way around the chicken in my lame-o lean cuisine and finish getting ready for the LWL incubator gals and happy hour in Venice.  All while being serenaded by guitar strumming husband.  I really is a smashing weekend I tell ya!

Can Chumby Be My New Best Friend?

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Is It Wrong that I Want This? Because if it is, just let me be wrong! I mean this is every techie’s dream gadget. It’s an alarm clock. It plays music (either through MP3s or through the internet). It works as a picture frame in conjunction with my Flickr account. It can give me the weather, track my ebay auctions, give me the new, tell me jokes, let me watch the Food Network, you name it! It can even let me receive email while in bed.

I mean, what more can you ask for?  “You can use a chumby anywhere there’s a power outlet and wi-fi coverage. Whether a chumby’s on your nightstand, bathroom counter, coffee table, in the kitchen, or out on the patio, it keeps you connected to your “Internet life” all the time!” What’s wrong with wanting to stay connected 24/7???  I don’t have a problem with that.

Really though, I think I wants me a Chumby. Think I can convince the hubby to spend nearly $200 on this, well, much needed, bedside wi-fi thing for my birthday in May? Probably not. He’ll just tell me to bring my laptop to bed (yes, he does this and yes, I know it’s just sick, sick, sick – but at least I don’t allow a TV in the bedroom). Until then, I can still covet.