Category Archives: the hubby

Not a Fan of the Civic

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I’ve been driving my hubby’s car since last Friday.  He had his brakes done recently and then proceeded to commute to work over the hill (either using Outpost, Laurel or Coldwater — all very, very curvy and hilly roads).  Needless to say, his brakes started smoking because it was all too soon.  Since he really has no other non-hilly or curve-free route to take, that left a car swap.

So yes, that means I’ve been driving the Civic.  I know many folks just lurve their Hondas and their Civics.  But I sure as hell am not one of them.  I feel like I’m driving a cardboard box on roller skates.  I hate being that close to the ground when my car isn’t sporty.  I also hate how empty and noisy it sounds.  So not a fan.

Normally, since I work from home on the my site and various other website, business stuff, I don’t go out much.   Thing is, we can’t swap cars until his brakes have been driven for 200 or so miles (not counting the smoky driving he’s already done).  So I’ve been going out of my way to drive places; Bristol Farms, a CVS miles away, Ralph’s one town over, the cupcake shop in Studio City (more on that later).  Well, the car is officially over 250 miles (his work commute is less than 30 round trip) so I think we can finally switch cars.  Thank God!

This also means that I can finally get the disaster kit stuff for our cars out of my car and package them up for both of our cars.  It took me nearly 4 years to get our disaster kits ready (why I didn’t just buy one of the kits already made, I’ve no idea).  But now we have everything but a bowl for water for the boys (Ikea here I come!).

Now I just need to decide (totally unrelated to my Civic rant) if I want to head on over to the local Stitch n Bitch tonight.  The hubby will be out at the Kelly Willis show tonight, so I’m on my own.  I’m still kind of bummed he never got me a ticket, but he said he’d be “doing business” with her manager and didn’t necessarily want me around for that.  Understanding wife that I am, I guess I can understand that.  So I ask, Stitch n Bitch tonight or just veg out in front of the TV?  So many choices.

That Husband o’ Mine…

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This morning, as the hubby was getting ready to leave for work:

him: oh no boys, mama found the picture of my cute real estate lady [as he walks into the office to hand me her business card].

me: this, is going in the trash.  We don’t need it [toss].

him: but what if I need to ask her real estate questions?

me: you won’t.

him: but what if I need to talk to her about real estate?

me: you won’t.

him: what if she says “oh no, this wine is going right to my head?”

me: ???

him: [goofy grin] I love you baby! [smooch]

Yes, my husband is a whacky nut job, but lordy I love him and his crazy antics so!

Hanging Out in Santa Monica

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Last night the hubby and I headed out to the Santa Monica Civic Center to see Rilo Kiley. I’ve seen them a handful of times now and each time I come away awed by their performance. Last night was no exception. The had a great mix of old stuff and new stuff and the crowd was involved straight through. I’ve wanted to include the youtube of their “I Love LA” encore below so you can get a feel for the show, but it kept messing up my formating – sorry. I wish I could say that The Bird & The Bee and San Diego’s Grand Ole Party were as impressive.

To be fair, I wasn’t a The Bird & The Bee fan prior to the show – regardless of how often they may pop up in the hubby’s iPod mix. Many of you may know of The Bird & The Bee from their contribution, “Again & Again” to the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack or their ’06 dance hit (and crowd favorite) “Fucking Boyfriend.” Again, can’t say that I’m a fan, though I do appreciate their stage presence and costumes – who knew that singer, Inara George was such a style maven (then again, I totally didn’t get last night’s ensemble).

I was actually kind of digging Grand Ole Party a bit (they sound great on their MySpace) they were playing with everything they had in them. Usually, this is a good thing, but at this venue (only half-filled during their opening performance) such a loud volume just bounced around the venue and sounded quite hollow and empty and loud – very, very loud. I’m sure at a smaller venue they’d sound much better. The drummer/ singer reminds me a lot of Exene Cervenka and I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.

The coolest thing about attending a Rilo Kiley show, outside of their performance, is the people watching. Typically, when you go to a concert, you see many young girls and women tramped out to the best of their abilities – the tighter, lower and shorter the better, you’d think. At a RiloKiley show, it’s not about getting trampy and showing as much skin as you can (though the girls do manage to show skin often enough), instead it’s about showing your unique and individual Style. You know, like everyone else. So yes, that means lots and lots of knitted wear, combat boots, black clothes, and that oh.so.fab. Olsen Twin’s look. Definitely interesting fashion choices to say the least.

Of course, this is all just a reminder of how tragically unhip I am. In the past, we’ve always been part of the older crowd at a Rilo Kiley show. Then again, they’re typically all ages shows out in Pomona (yes, I said out in Pomona!) I’m guessing that since last night was their last show here in the US, as well as a hometown, Santa Monica show, there were quite a few older adults around – and that wasn’t counting the “official” Warner Brother’s label crowd.

And just to cement how unhip and uncool I can be…we decided that since we were on West Pico that we should stop in at Don Antonio’s for dinner. Not that this alone made us uncool. No, it was the fact that we chose to check it out (instead of stopping one of our other west-side Mexican favorites) purely based on the fact that Spencer the dork, took Heidi the idiot there for not only their first date, but their “anniversary” dinner. Spencer referred to it as “life altering” so we thought we’d give it a go. It was good, but not exactly “life altering” and no, Speidi were not in attendance.

It’s 2:30 and I’m Still in My PJs

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Ack!!  In my defense, I’ve been busy, busy, busy.  My site had some malaware issues so I’ve been dealing with that over the past couple of days.  Let it be known, I am the beauty, not the brains behind our website and tech-crap is not my strength by any means.  But I can fake it with the best of them!

But really, I’m all sorts of proud because I managed to find the offending image and handle it myself.  Granted, it didn’t involve anything more complex than contacting the ad agency we use regarding the four new ads that all launched on the day our challenges began.  They were then able to isolate which ad it was and wam-o, blam-o it’s fixed and malaware begone!!

So now I’m sitting here after finally managing to inhale some hot dogs (gotta love those Hebrew FF hotdogs and Wonder light buns – yum!) and taking a moment for myself before I jump back into work related stuff.  But first, I must get out of these PJs (they’re really not all that comfortable, even as they get bigger as I get smaller, so I’m thinking it might be time to ditch them), put on some real clothes (you know, yoga pants and a tee) and head on over to ‘bucky’s to pick me up a non-fat, pumpkin spice latte!

Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Mi Casa is Bueno, but that Casa is Mucho Bueno*

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I love our apartment. I love our street and neighborhood. I love the wall I painted and think it really helps to make the place look not so much like an apartment and more like a home.

I love and appreciate our landlords (though there are some other challenges like their crazy, psycho, 95ish mother that lives next door, but that’s a completely different story for another day). And I’m just thrilled that after listening to our bathroom faucet leak for nearly a month, it’s finally fixed – though how the hot water and cold water switched sides I have no idea (and it does take a little getting used to).

You might remember a while back I was coveting both my neighbor’s and my landlord’s current remodels. Well, remodeling is still going on and while I’m glad it’s not me having to go through upheaval for this whole time, we are affected daily. Everything in our house is covered in dust. Sadly, that includes electronics like amplifiers, printer/copiers and computers. Needless to say, it’s freaking the hubby out a bit.

So instead of complaining about the dust, the noise and the constant dog barking, I’ve decided to work on manifesting us a new home! I’ve even found the house and it’s in our same neighborhood even. No mind you, it doesn’t have to be this house (there’s another one in the Arroyo that I’m keeping my eye on as well), but I do love this one and always have since it first went on the market shortly after moving to this area.

So let’s do it, let’s bring this baby home!

new house

* PS – I don’t speak Spanish so please forgive my bastardized Spanish in the title

Bruuuuuce!

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My hubby is a die hard Bruce fan.  I mean the kind that will travel (within reason) to see more than one show on a tour.  In fact, we’ve got tix for both LA and San Francisco this tour already.  While I may be a Jersey Girl born and bred, I was unfortunately born a couple of years too late to worship at the pulpit of Brother Bruce.

In my defense, I was a freshman in high school during the Born in the USA heyday.  And well, let’s face it, that was such a commercial pop album that it’s not like it did much to turn me into a fan, especially considering I was already experimenting with Brit pop and the new wave scene (like any good, big-haired girl from Jersey in the 80’s!).  From there we had Nebraska and Atlantic City and all those depressing albums.  Me, I’m more of a River fan.  If you want me to enjoy Bruce, then give me the classic Bruce.

I’ve seen him three times since hooking up with the hubby and let me tell ya,  he puts on one helluva show.  I’m just not a die hard fan – much to the dismay of his online Bruce Fan friends.  No really, when the “Bruce folks” (as they’re referred to) talk about the hubby’s wife (being me) the first question asked is if I’m a fan.  Then comes the let down that I’m not only not a fan, but I’m a Jersey Girl.  Yeah, I’m a total disappointment to that group.  Luckily, they still love me, hubby included.  Of course, I’m sure he’d much rather I didn’t sing along to Brother Bruce at a full out scream, but hey, that’s half the fun for me (don’t ask).

So my point to this Bruuuuce post…why is it that my hubby, the guy that’s actually in the music industry and gets 2-25 CDs delivered a day (yes, a day!), had to have me run out to Best Buy to pick up the latest Bruce album today – the actual day of release?  Should I even mention the fact that he’s had a bootleg pre-release for a couple of weeks already? Eh well, it’s not like I had something better to do between loads hanging out at the laundromat today.

The Hubby’s Antics

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Shortly after coming back from dinner and dropping off our friend I change into my oh, so sexy PJs. I sit down at the laptop to do a quick email check and which point the hubby looks to me and says all vague-like, “um, I need to go up the street for a minute.”

Me: Huh?
Him: Well, I’m doing work on the servers and I accidentally blocked our home IP.
Me: ?
Him: I did this earlier today. I just went up the street to the condos and used someone’s network.
Me: um…
Him: I’ll be right back.
Me: This isn’t just some excuse for you to meet up with some hoochie who will suck your c0ck, is it?
Him: *laughing* No. You can come with me.
Me: Okay, but I’m driving since you’ve been drinking.

We’re back now and the server is reset. For the record, it’s easier to borrow a WiFi connection while sitting curbside in a neighborhood full of houses than curbside outside of an apartment/condo complex. You know, in case you ever need to borrow someone’s unprotected WiFi connection.

Cha…Cha…Cha…Changes

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Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself — Hubert de Givenchy, Vogue, July 1985

I did it. Well, to be honest, I do it quite frequently, about every year or so. But this time, this time it was different. This time I went s.h.o.r.t. Even my hairdresser said it was the shortest she’s cut it in the four+ years that she’s been doing my hair. It’s different, that’s for sure.

I love it though. And I feel like I needed the change. I’m that type of person that goes and gets her haircut when she wants to bring on some new life experiences. I typically get one right before I get a job, or as soon as I get a new job. I like the energy and the process of letting go.

The hubby, well, he hasn’t yet voiced an opinion (as he was a fan of my long hair and tended to like it better straight rather than curly – and that nearly never happened!). He said he’ll wait and see if it grows on him. Then again, he’ll also need to “see” it again when I let it go curly instead of straight. He just needs to remember that it’s only hair and well, mine grows like a well watered, weed and can be full on long again by spring if I so desired.

Either way…bring on the changes, baby!

This is the Life

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Ah. Hanging out on the beach. Taking pictures. Sitting poolside. Catching up with old friends. Reading good ‘ol girlie magazines. Truly, this is the life. I think that the only thing that could make this better was if my good friend would partake in some poolside adult beverages with me. A cold glass of wine, or a fruity cosmo would really hit the spot.

Really though, if I couldn’t get her to drink after nearly two years in Junior League (the wine with everything group), then I doubt I can convince her to try it now while we’re catching up. But hey, we’re still having fun and that’s what matters. And since I don’t think I’ll be heading out to SXSW in March, it might be a while until we meet up again.

So here’s to friendship and a night away without our men!

Singing Waiters? Could be Fun.

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It sounded like a good idea at the time. In fact, I even enjoyed the first couple rounds of happy birthday (especially how they changed up the song for different tables). I even considered bringing my friend to Miceli’s for her birthday in a couple weeks. It could be fun, right?

Once they sat down and the piano and drums and starting singing show tunes, well, that was just a bit much for my tastes. And when our waiter wasn’t around to bring out our food while it was still hot because he was singing. Or when he brought out our salads after our entrees. Or how the music was so loud that we couldn’t even talk to each other. Well, let’s just say that it quickly stopped being fun.

Maybe I just don’t get it, but if you’ve got two locations and you brag that you’ve been in business since 1949, why does the food suck? It’s kind of hard to mess up Italian food. But when you charge the prices that you charge, and you brag about your history, is it just too much to ask for food that tastes good. Or service that doesn’t kinda suck? Maybe add on some extra busers or runners so the food actually arrives hot and the entire table isn’t left with empty glasses. Maybe apologize and offer up a free round of coffee or something when you deliver three late salads.

Next time, I say we head out to one of Mario Batali’s places instead. It might be loud, but I hear it’s good. And they don’t have singing waiters.