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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Poopie Pants


Hell yes! Oh, if that were only the case. Yesterday had to be one of the most disgusting days of my life. It's times like that when I think I'd be just fine without a dog. Tuesday night, Fernando and I were laying on the couch and Chewy was between us when I noticed his little tummy was making some huge rumbles. Like a good mommy, I rubbed his belly and coddled him. I thought it would be a good idea NOT to let him sleep in bed with us as usual, so I left him in his doggie bed in the living room with Lola Ebola. That's when the poop hit the fan.

I woke up the next morning to that "smell" ........ you know what I'm talking about- that stank nasty stench that sends chills down your back. Dog poop. Well, more like soup. It was everywhere. Really?! Chewy's face was pathetic and I knew he felt horrible, but not horrible enough after leaving Lola Ebola's water bowl drenched. I high fived him and got down to business. I decided to leave him in his crate (which he hasn't used in 2 years) just in case he wasn't quite through. Good thinking, Mari!

On my way home from work, I called Fernando who informed me that "the little one" was waiting outside on the porch because he stank so bad. Fantastic! I couldn't wait to get home and see my chocolate covered pooch. I don't think I've had to deal with a stench like that since the time I babysat a 2 year old with severe diarrhea. I digress. I carried Chewy's crate into the bathroom and sprayed as much room spray as I could and dumped him into the tub. Um, words can't describe. He looked like a turd-covered tramp. My life felt complete at that moment and I constantly had to remind myself of all the sweet times I've had with him- which almost wasn't enough, but it got me through it. Ta-da! The end. That sucked.


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Fernando in the kitchen

Mmmmm....

Whew doggie! Fernando surprised me this morning when he announced that he would make our breakfast. 9 times out of 10 when he plans on cooking, I tell him to get out of the kitchen since he's a master mess maker but when it comes to his breakfast omelets, I'm game. He slices up one medium red potato, 1 stick of chorizo, green onions, bell pepper and fresh parmesan. He flips the entire thing out onto a plate which we've dubbed "the communal omelet." We grab a couple of forks, our coffee and voila! Breakfast is served.


Ahhhhh....

Battle of the Infomercials!





VS






HOLY MOSES I didn't think it was possible for me to detest anyone as much as the "Oxy Clean" guy, but he's got someone nipping at his heels. Have you seen the "Sham Wow" commercials? I feel so awkward every time they come on- I can't explain it. Seriously, when either of these screaming idiots appear on my television screen, it's all I can do to change the channel no matter what room I've wandered off to. I will NEVER purchase any item they endorse based on the sheer fact that I hate their faces. Here's a great example why:






I think I hate Billy Mays a fraction less after finding these video clips:









Nice Shootin, Tex!

( Fernando and Rob)

We brought the near year in with a bang- literally. Fernando was given a gun (Taurus PT145) for his birthday in September and has been begging me to accompany him to the shooting range ever since. I finally caved in with the help of some friends and tagged along with NO intentions of shooting any guns. The only gun I've ever been comfortable with is a 22- very light, no kick and no BANG! After much coercion, I approached the shooting bench. Cathi shoved a 9mm in my hand and simply said "shoot it." OK! I did. I liked it. I shot it again. And again. And again.....


(Cathi Badass!)

Fernando wanted me to shoot his 45 and I was plenty hesitant. The bullets looked like miniature cannons (from Super Mario Bros) and it was so freakin' loud. It took me a minute to muster up the courage to squeeze the trigger and BOOM!!!!!! No thanks. Once was enough for me. I could feel an explosion inside my chest when that thing went off- almost like being too close to those gigantic speakers at a rock concert. Not my cup o' tea. I must say, Fernando looked quite "hot" while shooting his 45.


(My honey)

(That's a big ol' gun ya got there, mister!)

(Awww, he's blushing)

( Ammo? Check! 45? Check! Ear plugs? Check! Protective eyewear? Check! Turquoise patent Nine West bag? Check!)

Our time at the range came to a close after a couple of hours and just in time for the ghetto fabulous boys to show up. Wow. That's a whole other blog in itself.

Friday, December 26, 2008

29 for the third time!

32 came much too quickly and there's so many ways you can compare the number of years. You could say that I've turned 4 eight times or 16 twice or that I'm midway to 64. No matter how you slice it, the number stays the same (until next year) and I'm forced to deal with reality. I thought I'd freak out this year, but I actually liked turning 32. I remember waking up on my 23rd birthday and crying for an hour because it meant I was closer to 25, which is basically 30 and after that it was all down hill. What an idiot! :)

Fernando is always so great about my birthday. Since it's only two days before Christmas, he makes sure to separate the two (which many people never did) and make it extra special for me. This year he bought me a new camera which we just had to test out before he took me to dinner.

This year we went to the Macaroni Grill. This was the first restaurant we chose when we celebrated our first un-anniversary together in Miami. This year we asked Rob and Melissa to join us.

While I'm a great fan of any great dish, I have to admit that the bread is always my favorite part of the meal and their bread is amazing- an was very necessary while I was sipping a glassful of Riesling on an empty stomach. I'm not a wino by any means and rarely drink, but when I do it hits me ten-fold. Whew!

We had a great server! He was a "little person" and cool as hell. Towards the end of our meal, he asked if I would like someone to sing to me in Italian- well hell yeah, how can I pass that up? As they brought out our dessert, another server came to our table and sang Happy Birthday- she had such a BEAUTIFUL voice and anything said/sung in Italian gets 10 stars from me any day.

After the singing, I let everybody dig in to the complimentary birthday dessert, while I dug in to the dessert that came with my meal. Holy hell, can I just tell you how amazing it was? I love anything lemon but this was unreal...


After our fun and very yummy dinner, we headed to the movie theater to catch "4 Christmases." It had it's moments, but I probably wouldn't advise spending $8.50 to go see it. That's just me. I always enjoy spending time with friends, so that made it totally worth it. After the movie, we said our good-byes and went our separate ways. We enjoyed a nice, evening alone and I even got a birthday kiss!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A simple coupon...


I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that the holidays have a way of wearing you down. The crowds at the mall seem even more aggressive than usual and the "20 items or less" lanes supply ample opportunity for choice words to be exchanged. It's a horrible example of celebrating the birth of our savior. I have to admit that I'm one of those people that turns into a robot once I pull into a parking lot. Sure, I'll let pedestrians cross and am mindful of who saw what parking space first, but after that, survival of the fittest kicks in. It wasn't until last night while Fernando and I were grocery shopping for our Christmas dinner, that I truly was touched by a complete stranger. As we were checking out, she simply asked if we could use a $10.00 coupon. It wasn't a huge amount of money and honestly, it wasn't even about the money. She went out of her way to do something kind for others. Needless to say, I graciously accepted her offer and thanked her. As we were walking to the car, it hit me and I realized that she was a great example of what Christmas means. I feel rejuvenated and inspired by her actions. If we could all do the same, there would truly be peace on earth. I know the Spirit of Christmas is still alive. Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Weekends with Hannah

Just before leaving work on Friday, I got a phone call and on the other end of the line was this little, sweet, angelic voice "Um... Aunt Mariko, do you think I can spend the night with you?" How can I say no? After checking with Uncle Fernando, I picked up Hannah on my way home. Hannah is tender hearted, loves affection, an animal whiz and LOVES- yes, loves sugar. Needless to say our big project this weekend was to make sugar cookies and decorate them.

http://recipes.pauladeen.com/index.php/recipesviewmonogrammed_sugar_cookies/

Friday night, we spent a couple hours making 2 batches of "Paula Deen's" sugar cookies- 1 red and 1 green. Hannah learned to measure ingredients, sift, and mix. I'm still cleaning my counter. :) Well, God bless Paula, but I'm not down with this recipe. I just figured with all that work, we'd get the 5 dozen cookies per batch like it said we would. We might have gotten 4 even after doubling the recipe. Que sera! Hannah was in hog heaven needless to say and I must have heard, "Oooh, can I lick that?" eleventy billion times, but it was totally worth it. We put the dough in the fridge to chill over night and watched several episodes of "The Barefoot Contessa" on the dvr.


Chewy adores Hannah 99% of the time unless he's being a brat. He even ditches ME to instead sleep next to her. I don't mind a bit really, I love the idea of him "protecting" her while she sleeps. So cute. This was the first thing I saw this morning when I got up....


We got dressed and headed to the office where she was patient for the most part. I only work half shifts on Saturdays so I don't mind bringing the girls with me when they stay the weekends. After getting home, we began rolling out our cookies and cutting our shapes. Yikes. After seeing the first batch come out, I decided we'd be better off just rolling dough balls.

Ok, so I'm a bit of a control freak though I really do try and let it go at times. I gave Hannah a nice chunk of dough to play with, cut out shapes, stick up her nose or whatever while I made ball after ball after ball. That didn't last very long and soon it was a nice crumbly mess.


She did let me know however, that it still "tasted real good!" even with the additional 2 pounds of flour. She got bored and took a break while I finished baking the rest of our perfectly round cookies. After they cooled a bit, it was time to decorate!


I gave Hannah one frosting bag and I took the other. She managed to decorate her's pretty quickly if I do say so myself. I went for the whimsical look, but not sure I got there. Oh well, they're pretty darn tasty all the same.


Shortly after the cookie project was completed, I decided I'd had enough "entertaining" for the weekend. Ahhhh... the joys of being an aunt- I just give them back! Gotta love the kiddies!