Dancing with the Stars!

I like the show. I think it drags a little throughout the season, and I certainly do not watch every episode in its entirety, mostly because I can't commit 4 hours a week to watching Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris (who annoy me to no end). However, I like to follow it, watch a few of the dances, tune-in in time for the elimination, and pick my favorites until the end.

And as we watched the last hour or so of last night's season finale, I was so excited that Helio and Juliann won! Juliann is such a talented dancer, and Helio was such a great competitor all season. Even though Bruno questioned their chemistry, I think they had a ton of chemistry, especially when he laid that big kiss on her at the end of their dance... in fact, maybe too much chemistry, sadly I read today that his engagement to his girlfriend of 6 years is over. Maybe he and Juliann will live happily ever after...

Thanksgiving Recap...

We are back from our trip to Portland to visit my husbands family for Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time, some good laughs and great food. My mother in law, Lori, cooked everything and hosted about 14 people at their home. She is a great chef, and she definitely taught me a few new cooking tricks.

While we were finishing up all of the last minute food preparations in the kitchen, I looked over at Lori who opened up the oven door to flames! The sweet potatoes were on fire! We had put the marshmallows on at the last minute, you all know the drill, but we forgot about them. I was seriously looking for a fire extinguisher.

Oooops......

After we put out the flames, we scrapped off the char, added a fresh layer of marshmallows, and kept a closer eye on it (although we did almost forget about it again!).

My brave and handsome husband carved the turkey, and shocked everyone with his mad carving skills (which were a lot better than his pumpkin carving skills).

We also saw 3 movies over the long weekend. BeoWulf, Enchanted & American Gangster. I really enjoyed all three. BeoWulf was great because we saw it in 3-D I-Max, I think it would have been less cool on a normal screen. Enchanted, well, we ended up at this movie because No Country for Old Men was sold out, but I actually thought it was pretty cute, for a children's movie. And American Gangster, I think Russell Crow is one of the best actors, and Denzel is almost always great (see Deja Vu). But it was nice to go to the movies, we get so busy that most of them come and go before we can get to the theaters to see them. We never saw Ocean's 13 (wha?!).

The Mysterious White Gummi Bear...

A few months back I saw a news story about the "secret menus" of nationwide food chains, and besides the obvious In-n-Out "animal style" burgers, they mentioned a Jamba Juice flavor that supposedly tasted like White Gummi Bears, although it is not on their regular menu. So this weekend when my husband mentioned on Saturday morning he wanted a Jamba Juice, I found it a perfect opportunity to see if I could track down the elusive White Gummi Bear at our local Jamba Juice. When it came our turn to order, I looked at the guy, and said "Ill have a White Gummi Bear please" and low and behold he didn't look at me like I had horns, instead, he rung up our order simple as that. My husband had been convincing me the whole walk over that they would laugh in my face, and I would look like a fool, but no! I googled it and evidently the flavor was created by a Jamba Juice employee in San Jose a few years back. It is basically a mixture of all flavors of their sherbet, mangos and soy milk (although I subbed non-fat fro-yo because soy milk creeps me out). It is SO YUMMI GUMMI! I bet it is not on the menu because it is probably entirely sugar, and sooo bad for you. But the way I ration it, it can't be worse for you than a milkshake, so I can have it as a treat. (shhhhh - i actually had another one on Sunday morning, I couldn't help myself, it was that good!)

Fancy, Shmancy...

My husband has a rather strange nickname for me. I will not divulge this nickname, because I shared it with my sisters and best friends (all bridesmaids) as we were waiting for the ceremony of my wedding to start, and they were all painfully mortified for me. Seriously, I told them, and there were crickets. It is just a weird made up word that somehow over the years has morphed into something really strange, and not that I think you would judge, I just don't want to put you in the position to have to. So when my husband re-entered the entertainment industry last summer, and he would come home to talk about all these high-fluting things, I came up with a little nickname for him, I call him Shmance. And he hates it! Ahhh, revenge :) So now when we go to one of these industry type dinners, I refer to us as the Shmancersons. (The irony is that we are so not fancy-shmancy at all!) I know, we are like 2-year-olds, but it's fun!

So the Shmancersons went out to a big fancy event last night, and it was actually not the typical snooze that these things can become. It was actually a very entertaining evening! When we sat down at our table, I sat in aww as the tables immediately surrounding us filled with the entire cast of one of my favorite t.v. shows, "The Office"! I kid you not, I was starring at a table with Meredith, Creed, Kevin, Kelly, Ryan, Andy Bernard, Toby, Jan and of course, Michael Scott! No Jim or Pam (boo) I kind of wanted to switch our seats and sit at their table! I so wanted to pull out my camera, but my husband was shooting me "don't you dare" glares as we were sitting with two of the big partners of his firm, and that would probably not have gone over too well. I don't really tend to get starstruck, I worked in the entertainment industry for many years, but I still love seeing the characters I love on TV/in movies in real life. Well, I may get a little starstruck if I saw Michael Buble... but that is another post.

Ohhhh, which reminds me, I have sort of a funny story about Toby from the office. I am pretty sure he thinks I am his stalker! I saw him in my neighborhood like 3 times in one week, totally by some strange coincidence, and the third time, I think he was on to me. He gave me a really strange look, and I think I may have looked a little guilty because I was so shocked that I was actually seeing him for the 3rd time that week! Haha.

The coolest part of the evening was knowing that they raised a ton of money for the Cedars-Sinai Hospital's Cancer Research efforts. They auctioned off a Lexus, and raised over $500,000 on that item ALONE! Very cool!

So, no pictures of the Shmancersons, but here is a picture of the swag! A very classy deck of Tiffany playing cards. And now that we have Tiffany playing cards, we officially live up to our name ;)

Let There Be Light! Almost...

The other day my mom called and said to check out this website that carried these new state-of-the art lamps, something she most likely saw on HSN (more on this later), and to tell her which ones I liked so she could order them for us for Christmas. Lamps. For Christmas. I guess you know you are married when your gifts shift from make-up and clothes, to lamps. (Ha! Just teasing mama!)

But we could use a little light on the subject... Two real estate agents that have been here both said we have got to add some great lighting to entice buyers. A few years ago, my parents came to visit, and almost every one of the light bulbs in the condo was burnt out. It was rather embarrassing, and my parents still kid me about it. So when my mom saw these new lamps, she decided we should give them a try, and today they arrived. The style selection is fairly limited, they are more function than fashion, but they are pretty "classic lamp" looking. The cool part is that they use a special light bulb that can last up to 3 years and they use about 1/2 the amount of energy as other lighting sources. Very cool! The only problem was that in addition to the super-fancy bulb, they also require two 25-watt bulbs, which they say add a soft ambient glow, which I do not have right now. And you can't turn it on with empty sockets, so until I get the other to bulbs, the darkness will remain.

I am really excited to see how well they work, my family has been known to believe a little to easily in good advertising. When I was growing up we were proud owners of many infomercial devices, including, but not limited to: juicers, sandwich makers, food dehydrators and rotisserie contraptions. I am pretty sure that we kept Ron Popeil in business for a short while.

Turkey Talk

I haven't been having much luck on the employment front. Ho-hum. I had a phone interview last week with a large company, but I have not heard anything since then. And I am starting to think that maybe there is a reason that the employment fairies are not surrounding me with their dust... Maybe I am really not supposed to be returning to that industry.

So in between interviews, I have been starting my little side business, trying to get a website going, doing projects for friends, etc. And I am very happy to report that I have my first official client! Thank you to my dear friend MK for the amazing introduction! So I am very excited about that. More to come on this when everything has been finalized.

Is it me or is everyone getting kind of excited for the holidays? Thanksgiving is actually my favorite holiday of the year. I love it. I love the turkey, the mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, pumpkin pie, (drooling) I love it all. Last year we went to Colorado for Thanksgiving and to Portland (my hubby's family) for Christmas, and this year we are swapping. So we are heading to Portland, and I could not be more excited, I got really lucky in the "in-law" department :)

I just wish the weather would stay cool out here for more than a few days. It is back up into the 80's again this week!

I Heart i-Chat!

i-Chat is one of the coolest things I have stumbled upon in recent months. I got a mac last summer, and I have to say it has been one of the best experiences. It took some getting used to, but I definitely love my mac far more than I ever loved my PC, heck, I swear at it a lot less, and if that is a barometer... Macs don't get viruses, (that I know of) and it doesn't take two years for the thing to turn on! And it has all sorts of cool things, like i-Chat. (I know you can use i-chat on a pc - but my dad does and it never works) I just ordered the new operating system, and it should be here in a few days, and then my mac will be even cooler! I still have to convert all my photos and music onto the mac, so until then, I still do need to keep my pc around (so I shouldn't bash it too much, for fear that it will turn on me) but hopefully one day all my shiz will be on the mac.

My sister Murr-Dog introduced me to i-chat and I have been addicted ever since. I only i-chat with her, my dad (when he can get the camera to work) and my other sister Hail. Hail is way advanced, she has the new os - and so she can use cool effects, like making the background look like she is in Paris, or on a roller coaster. Anyway, aside from the silliness, it has been a very cool way to stay connected to my family in Colorado.

Here are my sisters and I in a group chat:

*On a side note, I highly recommend the soundtrack from "Into the Wild." It is all Eddie Vedder, and it is one of the best cd's I have heard in a while. Great movie too, I really hope this one goes far when it comes Oscar time.

A Random Post of Silly Things...

I hate when I get lazy and slack on posting, because I wind up with all of these things stored up that I want to share, and I get disoriented. So shame on me, I will try to be better!

This past weekend (yes, I realize it's Tuesday) was very chill and that was much needed, especially for my terribly over-worked hubby. He works in the entertainment industry and things got pretty busy for him last week trying to scramble to get certain documents signed and completed and such before the writer's strike. Although, things will not necessarily slow that far down for him since he does a lot of reality work. What will be really hard is when the strike is over, and he has to work over-time to get all of the contracts re-written and re-signed, all.at.once. This strike is bad all around, and I really hope that they can all figure it out soon.

On Saturday, we went to T.O. (thousand oaks) to "kick some tires" as my mom used to call it. The lease on my old dinosaur of a car was up and it was S's turn to get some new wheels! As anyone who has leased a car recently knows, this is an all-day-consuming event. We were at it for most of the afternoon, and finally drove off the lot in the dark...

Here is my hottie hubby in his new ride, yay!

Let's just hope he lets the misses drive it once in a while, right? So far, not so good. I asked if I could drive it to meet up with some of my new e-friends on Sunday, and it was a big no-go.

Sunday morning I had a lovely brunch with some of my new blogging friends at Tiara Cafe. Thank you to weezermonkey for putting it together! The food and the company was fab and I can't wait for the next one!

Yesterday I had the carpets in our house cleaned, and I had also washed the sheets (hang on, I am getting to a point here - or rather - a funny story). So when my husband came home I was trying to make the bed, but I couldn't put anything on the carpet because it was still a little damp, and i needed somewhere to put the blankets and pillows while I put the fitted sheet on, so I asked my husband to stand still... and 'The Creature from the Bedding Lagoon" was born!

(*if you look closely, he is giving us the native greeting of his land, the one finger salute :) I don't blame him - as soon as I loaded him up with bedding, I was laughing SO hard and I had to run and get the camera! And if you knew my husband, making the bed is one of the things he hates most in life, he was not amused!)

My family is a little batty....

For Halloween that is! I mean, they REALLY get into it. So much so that my mom actually wore her Halloween costume to lunch with her girlfriends yesterday....

I give you... Superwoman WONDER WOMAN!

Superwoman Wonder Woman and her sidekick Rainbow Bright (my little sister Murr-Dog)

Even the cat Stewart gets into it! (yeah - he looks really into it, doesn't he?!)

Clearly the pumpkin carving talent gene missed me...They carved those, free-hand.

Edit: Thank you weezermonkey for showing me how to do the cool slash through thing, oh and also pointing out my blonde moment :)