Coming Soon...

I have some great Sammy videos on my camera that I had every intention of uploading for today's blog. Alas, I forgot. So, until next week - here are some cute pics of my kids....


This is Franklin's favorite spot. He can see what is going on in the kitchen and living room while maintaining access to a quick escape down the basement incase Sammy gets excited and starts wildly running around.


This is sammy in her bed. I love how curled up she gets. Makes me think for a second she is cuddly.

Restaurant hop

So Monkers is on Spring Break right now so she decided to grace Biscuit and myself with her presence last night.

We made a night of it. We couldn’t decide where to eat, so instead we decided to restaurant hop.

We started out at Details, the cocktails and tapas place owned by Rosendale’s. The best thing about details had to be the cocktails. They were all true to the classics and befitting all our tastes—none of that sweet, milky, frozen or diluted crap. We were there for a while as we rotated through the plates of homemade pork rinds, assorted cheeses, chorizo chili and tuna tar tar tacos.

Once Husband showed up and had a cocktail, we were off to Kooma for a sushi dinner. We enjoyed a ton of sushi, nabayaki udon, tempura vegetables and edamame. It was a feast. I love sushi, so the majority of my attention was on the nigiri and the salmon skin rolls. Monkers was a little disappointed in the udon only because she can make phenomenal nabayaki udon at home.

As we were ushered out of Kooma because they were closing, we headed to Jeni’s.
Luckily the famous ice cream shop doesn’t close until 11:00 even on a random Tuesday night. We all tasted the new flavors, and some of the old ones, and hemmed and hawed over our decisions like the kids we are at heart. We all got small scoops and savored them over the French press coffee. I had the cognac, which was like my after-dinner drink and dessert all in one. Biscuit had the crème fresh with berries, always a favorite. Nick Nick had his staple, pistachio and honey. I was so into my own cup, I can’t remember what Monkers had. Husband's was a combination of flavors in a waffle cone.

After that we headed home to play some Wii. It was a very good Tuesday night.

Paper or Plastic

So I’m checking out at the grocery store yesterday, and I asked for paper instead of plastic. The clerk said sure, and commented that everyone wanted to paper today. Making small talk, I told him I’m trying to use less plastic.

First of all some disclaimers – I do not recycle. This fact probably makes my very green friend MO angry. I just know it would be another fight in my household of trying to get the Husband to participate and help maintain.

Now just because I don’t recycle doesn’t mean I don’t understand the dire straights we’re in. So I make small conscience efforts, like asking for paper instead of plastic. Then I use the paper bags for other things around the house.

Ok, back to the story – I mentioned that I was trying to use less plastic

This is where the debate began

Grocery Store Clerk: “These are tree’s though” indicating the paper bag he was filling with my goceries.

Me: “Yes, but the plastic doesn’t ever biodegrade.”
Disclaimer (millions of years is the same as never to me)

Grocery Store Clerk: “But they have to cut down trees for this and trees are what allow us to breath.”

Me: “I guess I’m picking the lesser of two evils, besides, I can always go home and plant a tree.”
(seriously dude, I’m not saying I hate trees)

Grocery Store Clerk (did I mention he was probably 17): “Soon there won’t be enough places to plant trees.”

OK, this guy loves trees. He is ignoring the evils of plastic to tell me how much he loves trees. OK, I give up but I still want my paper bags.

HELLO.....

So my new year’s resolution was to write more. And here I am posting blog updates that no one cares about.

I’ve been looking at successful blogs and they all seem to have a theme, a purpose. Mine, by name is a littlebit of everything.

Some theme’s I’ve considered:
Funny? Well not laugh-out-loud funny but interesting and ironic stories, maybe pithy? That’s aiming high….
Pets: I love to talk about my kids but am not sure my life really revolves around them enough to keep the content going.
Family: They are definitely interesting. But because they are some of my few loyal readers, I can’t offend them or tell the stories they would find embarrassing.
Work In my industry there are already so many advertising blogs to compete with. I don’t have anything that would make mine different and therefore valuable. Besides, I spend all day here, don't want to write about it too.
Food I do love to eat it. I like to cook it. I am interested in it. I read about it, but again, not sure that alone is enough content.

Conclusion – I want to write a “littlebit” about everything so there is no good hook. It will just have to be my random outlet where I’m talking to myself.

Spring is coming...

There is a little song that plays in my head at the thought of spring. It’s a happy little song that makes me skip a little.

Already, I’ve started to thing about what I’m going to plant in my yard this year. We have a hideous chain link fence that is functional only for keeping the dog contained. This fence is no ordinary chain link—it is an addition to an 8ft wood privacy fence. The previous owners decided to enclose the remaining area of the yard with not only the ugliest fence available, but also the hardest type to remove. So instead of hating it, I’ll cover it up and make it part of the landscaping. I’m going to get some vines to grow over it.

The only part of yard work I hate is dealing with my enemy of yard clutter, the spiky balls! According to husband, they are from our sweet gum tree. I think they are from the devil.

The spiky balls fall year round all over our driveway, walkways and into the gutter. Don’t try to go outside in barefeet (which I think is one of the true joys of summer). Step on them and you risk breaking an ankle. No matter how often I rake and sweep, there are three times as many the next day.

They are green on the tree but then turn brown. They don’t all come down at once either. Right now I look up to see the bare tree holding on to the last spiky balls. That tree is waiting, waiting for me to clean up and then it’s going to drop them.

I looked up pictures on the internet to show you – oh the anger I feel just looking at them.

Restaurant Club

More than a year ago, some girlfriends and I decided to start a restaurant club. We decided to make a monthly commitment to go out to dinner together. The choice of where we’ll dine rotates among us alphabetically.

Last night was our March edition. I was so exhausted last night—completely empty. I considered skipping. I’m so glad I didn’t. It is so nice to spend a night out with good food, good friends, and good laughs. By the time I drove home, I was more energized than I had been all day.

We went to Elevator for dinner. The food was great and so was the service. They didn’t seem to mind that we held the table up for more than three hours.

Until next month…

I don’t know what happened but about two years ago I got my first migraine. Since then I have them about once a month, which is once-a-month too often.

I first went through a journaling process to figure out what my triggers are—artificial sweeteners, stress and change in weather. Second I was put on a prescription – Maxalt. When I first tried the prescription it was heaven and hell. It makes the migraine much worse for about two hours (hell) before eliminating it (heaven).

For those of you that have never had a migraine (for those of you that have, i'm sorry) I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. They are debilitating. Not only is there pain, but it is amplified by light and sound. Sometimes even blinded. People call them auras but for me it's more like tunnel vision.
All you can tolerate is sleeping. For someone that is always on the go like me – this is brutal punishment.

Oh and side note - DON'T EVER TRY TO DRINK A MIGRAINE AWAY - that was a pretty dumb move considering alcohol is a trigger.

When the pain of the migraine starts to fade, the symptoms aren’t over. I may be starting to rejoice but my mind doesn’t work as quickly, synapses just aren’t firing. Its as if someone hit slow motion on my brain. Try explaining a migraine hangover at work.

The reason I’m even thinking about this today is because I have a migraine brewing. I have been taking Ibuprofen way above and beyond the recommended dosage (the only thing that SOMETIMES slows down the onset of the headache) to try and keep it at bay.

Springs Debut

This weekend, to my surprise, was above 50 degrees! Because of the warmth, I remembered that I am not a recluse. I do enjoy being active and social. The Husband, Biscuit, Sammy and I all went to the park and played for a couple hours.

Sammy was very well behaved (on her leash). I think she was happy to see other dogs and mark her territory in new and exciting places – What a life.

Then, after playtime in the park, we went out for dinner and drinks. I think I have seasonal socialization disorder. I only leave my house when it’s warm.

(Side note I had my winter coat on all night. It may be comfortable weather but It takes a good couple months for my bones to warm up from the deep freeze)

Now, a note to mother nature, I can’t tolerate teasing. Please maintain an above freezing temperature until the end of fall, when I will again go into hiding.

The Husband

Normally I wouldn’t bash my loving husband but last night I couldn’t believe what he did.

We woke up to the very distinct sound of a dog getting sick. Sammy didn’t make it far at all – She puked right beside her bed. She also didn’t sound like she was done. So Husband hurried her downstairs to let her out. Meanwhile, I scoped out the damage – not too bad. The mess was on the hardwood floor so would be pretty easy to clean up. I sat there waiting for Husband to bring up the cleaning supplies after he let the dog back in.

I could hear him pitter-pattering around downstairs, getting some water, letting the dog back in, moving things around. Then it got quiet— too quiet. What is he doing? My ears strained to hear anything. Where did he go, why is there no noise? The house suddenly sounded as it should at 2:30 in morning, as if everyone was sleeping.

SURELY he didn’t just make himself comfortable on the couch. SURELY he didn’t think he could just walk away from DOG VOMIT and it would be magically taken care of. SURELY he knows even if I clean it up, I NEED something to clean it up with.

“HEY, What are you doing?”

“What? I’m sleeping down here”

“WHAT! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The dog VOMITS and you just go into another room and pretend it doesn’t exist?!

“I thought you cleaned it up”

Here is where I cry bullshit. No, he did not think I cleaned it up. What would I clean it up with? AND if he really thought that, he'd be back up in the comfortable bed. He was just avoiding the entire situation waiting for someone else to take care of the mess.

As you can imagine, a fight followed and I ended up cleaning up the VOMIT that he was happy to leave on the floor covered with paper towels. I also decided to sleep downstairs once I was satisfied the area was clean and disinfected.

My growing worry is what he will do when we have kids – “Here this one’s sick. I’m going to stay at my moms.”
Lucky me.

Mega Millions

Well I just went out and bought a hundred tickets to Mega Millions for a bunch of people in the office. Right now the payout is $212 million. If we were to hit it big, we’d each get about $10.5 million before taxes.

So the fun begins – what would I do with $10.5 million? Without a doubt I would pay off all my debt. GOODBYE student loans, mortgage, car loan and credit card debt!

What would I do with the money that was left – A big chunk of it would go towards retirement, a new house and a new car. There would be a college fund for my kids too.

Maybe, if there was enough money – I’d open a small business (once the economy rebounds of course). Would love to invest in Jack opening a resaurant.

The money would go fast, that’s for sure. But figuring out how and where to spend it – I’d like to have that problem.

Boston Market

So have you ever been to a Boston Market? I have and I really liked it. The only reason I don’t go very often is because I didn’t think it was very healthy AND there aren’t any locations close to me.

WELL, I am a buzz agent. Bzz agents are given product to try and talk about. My current bzz campaign is for Boston Market. They are starting 2009 with a campaign to get people to eat better, save money and spend more time with their families.

Since I joined this campaign, I found out they have catering, product available at the grocery store AND full meals under 550 Calories.

But better than all of that is the chance to win $50,000. See their website for more info www.BostonMarket.com

One of the benefits of being a bzz agent is that I have coupons. Find me and I can give you a token for a FREE CUPCAKE with purchase of a meal.

I have yet to use my coupon but I will post my review on the food as soon as I do.