Most Boring Blog Post Of All Time

House update forthcoming- so if you don't mindlessly vegetate in front of HGTV from time to time wishing Candice Olson would come to your house and have a party with Nate Berkus- avert your eyes.

The house is consuming me, and moving along at a snail's pace. I've ordered 2 rugs- one for the living room, and one for the dining room. This is a major accomplishment, because while most of our floors are quirky and fun (quartz flagstone)- the previous owners decided to play a nasty joke on me and inset ugly, ugly, ugly tile in the middle of my formal rooms.

Of course, the tile is not of a standard area rug size, so any band aid has to be custom. Of COURSE! 

So I've got me some rugs coming. And..... that's about it. I've picked out a sofa, a coffee table, a chandelier, two chairs, two lamps and some random accessories. But I'm not buying any of it. We had to pay our property taxes this month, and while this is no Harris County (people think Houston is affordable, but it has THE highest property tax rate in the country) it still did some major damage to our savings account. So I'm going to wait a while. And hope I can find some better deals. When the rugs come in, I promise a picture--- for all you Nate Berkus fans.

I'm Going Riding On The Freeway....

This was a funky weekend. On Saturday, we schlepped down to San Diego. During one of my bouts of insomnia, I googled this artist that I love (and yet, can never ever afford to own one of his paintings). Turns out, someone was selling a banner of this guy's art that advertised the reopening of a park in San Francisco eight years ago. 

Long story short- we bought it. The owner lived in San Diego so we went down there to pick it up. The guy's house was in a rough neighborhood, and even though he invited us in, we declined and opted to wait on the front stoop. I did get a peek into his living room- and it was floor to ceiling with crap--- boxes upon boxes of sorted action figures, dolls- and tons of priority mail boxes. This guy supports himself off of Tijuana flea markets and ebay. Scary stuff.

So now I own a six foot tall piece of vinyl with some "art" on it that I have to figure out how to frame. 

On Sunday, my oldest friend from high school invited us to Los Angeles. She runs a theater in Glendale, and comped us great seats to see the Peking Acrobats in action. It was, simply- jaw dropping. My kids kept asking if the people were real, and really? I think one of them was born without joints. The topper was when one guy put four wine bottles on a platform, and then propped up SEVEN chairs on top of the wine bottles and then did a hand stand. We all went out for a steak dinner afterwards. And then sat in traffic at 9pm on a SUNDAY evening, for pete's sakes. I remember now why I loathe Los Angeles.

Mum's The Word

I highly recommend renting the film "Keeping Mum" starring Kristin Scott Thomas. Holy frijoles, this black comedy was highly entertaining. Don't want to give anything away, but stay tuned until the very end.

George Update

I love having a dog. A few months ago, I wasn't so sure, but even though he still snacks on some lame-o things (like couch cushions) the good are definitely starting to outweigh the bad. I think.

The Good: he wiggles whenever I walk in the door. I mean W-I-G-G-L-E-S.

The Bad: he eats his poop.

The Good: he won't let my kids out of his line of sight

The Bad: except for when he drinks out of the toilet

The Good: he looks so cute when he trots around with his stuffed duck in his mouth.

The Bad: sometimes he mistakes my Cole Haan ballet flats for a stuffed duck.

The Good: he loves to sit in a corner and chew on his squeaky ball

The Bad: the squeak in the ball makes him howl like a werewolf looking at a full moon

Shuffle Ball Change

I started blogging over two years ago. No one really knew I was doing it at first, and I reveled in the anonymity. I could vent, tell tales and get snippy and not really have to deal with it in my "real life." Then, word got out. Friends first, and eventually family members. I like that, don't get me wrong. I love that folks give two whits about my comings and goings, and feel honored that anyone, anyone! would waste two seconds to read this drivel.

But it does make for some interesting get togethers when I connect with old friends. Folks I haven't seen in a while, but read this here shiola on a regular basis. Basically, they know everything about me- my dog's bad habits, my husband's penchant for french dips and that I watch crap television. And what do I know about them? Zip. Natta. Zilch. So watch me do an awkward tap dance while I deflect anymore questions and desperately try to even the scales by finding out what their deal-io is. And I'm not that good of a tap dancer.

Christmas in January

I'm getting excited for Tuesday. 

The Other Half

Yesterday, we went to a playdate with a kid from Annie's class. This family is really down to earth, and Annie and this little girl have become inseparable. Since the weather has been great- I asked the mom if she would like to join us at a public park one day after school. She says, "why don't you guys come over and use our beach?"

Yes, folks. They have a private beach. In a gated community, not far from where we stayed this summer. I had heard about this place, but never really thought I'd be hanging out there. And yet, yesterday afternoon, at 1pm, I drove my dirty Honda Odyssey through the gates, past the hundreds of golf carts (that's what the residents drive, and yes, most of them have baby seats in them!), under a tunnel, and met up with our friends.

The mom had been playing beach volleyball all morning (she does this every Thursday, with 8 or so friends). She's also a regular surfer, and runs triathalons. I'm good at eating cake. And yet, we really hit it off, and loved watching our kids dig in the sand and fill their buckets.

Then, just like out of a Disney movie, the mom says "Oh hey! Look over there!" A little seal swam close to the shore, and popped his head up as if to say hello. Ten minutes later, two pods of dolphins swam by, and we saw 12 of them jumping in and out of the water. 

They left right after that, because the little girl had her tennis lesson. I dragged some blankets out of the back of my van and tried to create a make-shift camp to live in until the security guards found me eating Chex mix out of a frisbee and made me go home.