Crazy kid

Rugrat's teacher just called me. He just started back "on track" today, and she called me up, very concerned. She said that he'd told her this whole detailed story about his baby brother who'd died in a fire at home when Rugrat and I went to the grocery store. He had a name for the kid and everything! She said at first she thought he was just telling a story, and then he started to convince her that it was true because he had so many details...and then as she continued asking him questions about it, he started pausing more...and she realized that it was, after all, just a story. Then he said that it wasn't a baby brother, that it was a baby sister. Finally, he said that he'd heard the story from a friend.

WTF???

I assured her that all is well, that he doesn't have - and never has had - any siblings; that he lives with cousins half the time but none of them have DIED, fer chrissakes.

What a strange kid. On the plus side, that's an amazing imagination he's got.

It's the mooooost wonderful tiiiiime of the year

And why is it so wonderful, you ask? Because:

• Christmas trees & the "halls" are all decked with holiday cheer
  
• My Christmas shopping has been done for more than a week
• All presents are wrapped and ready to go
• All my cards have been sent out (about 50 - including color copies of the annual update & photos), with the exception of the one card that I need an air-mail stamp for, since it's going to Belgium
• All my holiday baking is done

This year I went all-out with the baking. I made a fruitcake (another one; I'm not counting the underbaked one I did a few weeks ago), two lemon pound cakes, peppermint candy-cane sugar cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, almond-orange and almond-raspberry jam thumbprints, break-n-bake chocolate chip cookies (OK, so not EVERYTHING was from scratch, so sue me), and the annual marshmallow fluff fudge. I thought about making shortbread cookies too, but that just kinda seemed like overkill. Heh.

Now all I have to do is pack up the goodies in tins for Rugrat's teachers and the neighbors, and I can officially sit down with a big ol' glass of wine and call it good. Whew!

Oh, excellent!

I came across the coolest video today: Lotion by Greenskeepers. Seriously, you MUST watch it. (Warning: not for the faint of heart, or those who've not yet seen The Silence of the Lambs -- too many spoilers.)

Been a while

I know, it's been a while since my last post. So here's the update, in a nutshell:

Thanksgiving was wonderful, except for the fact that I had horrendous allergies all day and even after taking a dose of Benadryl they wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to nap (because that usually helps immensely) but I must have been too excited about seeing family & stuffing my face, because even with the Benadryl fog I couldn't sleep. The food was, of course, delish. And it was lovely to see my cousin Kelly and his girlfriend and baby. :)

A week later (last Thursday) was my company's annual Christmas party. We're a tiny little company so we all went to see Cirque du Soleil and then out to dinner afterwards in SF. Cirque du Soleil was REALLY cool - lots of amazing acrobatics and gorgeous costumes and just...theatrical spectacle, I guess. I was very impressed with the tightrope walker, who balanced way up high on a skinny little wire while hula-hooping about 20 hoops! Afterwards we went to a tiny Basque restaurant for dinner, and had an outstanding meal. Yay for French food!

Speaking of French food, I made a delicious French onion soup last night for dinner. I invited Babydaddy over for dinner, since I knew there would be plenty (and plus it's really, really good and I spent two hours making it, so I thought it would be nice to let someone else enjoy it, too). Yum. My newest addiction is Gruyere. I've been making toast for lunch, with melted Gruyere on top and some freshly ground pepper - for about the last week. Pretty soon I'll get sick of it (I hope! That stuff is expensive) but for now I'm content to scarf the yummy fattening melted cheese every day. Mmmm....cheese...

Also over the weekend, I made cookies and fruitcake. The fruitcake didn't turn out too well - apparently it wasn't cooked all the way on the bottom because half of it stuck in the pan (the NON-STICK pan) when I tried to pull it out. I guess my toothpicks just aren't long enough, because when I stuck it in after baking for 50 minutes, it came out clean. Next time I'll make fruitcake muffins instead. *sigh*

The anti-fang

When Rugrat was about five months old, he got a tooth. One little bitty tooth, on the bottom. And that was it...he didn't get any more teeth for five months. We called him "Fang."

So on Saturday, he finally lost his first tooth. That one little bitty fang he sprouted when he was a baby. Most of the kids in his class are already growing in half a dozen adult teeth, but my little Rugrat held on to those itty bitty pearly whites for the loooongest time. And then Saturday, it was so loose - he'd been wiggling it all morning. I gave him an apple with his lunch, and halfway through his lunch it was obvious it was coming out really soon (because it was practically horizontal, barely hanging in there) so we went into the bathroom to wiggle it and monitor the progress. The quesadillas got cold, but we stayed in the bathroom, moving it back and forth until it was only held in place by a couple little bits of gum-flesh on the sides. Ewww, that's a gross visual. Anyway, I went upstairs to get the camera and WHILE I WAS GONE Rugrat pulled it out. Dammit. But anyway, it was done, and he was thrilled ("It didn't even hurt at all!"), and we put the tooth in a little box to stick under his pillow for the tooth fairy (who brought him a nice gold dollar coin for it). I took pictures of his gappy little-boy smile but every one I took had him squinting his eyes shut, so I don't think I'll post them here.

I gotta say, though, I don't think he's going to lose another tooth for five months. The one next to it is a little bit loose, but not so much that it's coming out anytime soon. And all the others are very firmly rooted in. Probably in six months or so he'll have a smile that's more "little old man without dentures" than "little boy with buckteeth." They'll all fall out at once, just like they all came in at once, five months after that first fang.

Mosquito Lounge

I tried a new restaurant last night: Mosquito Lounge, in Brentwood. First impression was good - yes, it's located in a tacky stripmall (not even a good stripmall, like the one with Barnes & Noble), but the decor was AWESOME. I absolutely love the atmosphere in that place. Unfortunately, the food sucked. First of all, they don't have any hard liquor, so my cosmo was made with sake, which...okay, it wasn't disgusting, but it wasn't great. Second, the actual food: I ordered crab cakes to start with, and then dragon prawns. Big servings, but ewww. The crab cakes were just warm, not hot. And they were all mushy like they'd used 90% bread crumbs and 10% Krab and seasonings, and then fried those lumps. The sauce was yummy, and the salad served with it was fine. But the "crab" cakes themselves were horrendous. Then, the shrimp. Dear God, is everything in this place fried? Because they were thinly covered with some kind of fried tempura batter or something. And they were overcooked (but at least they were hot!). Again, the sauce was yummy, but the main focus of the dish? Not so much.

So...I won't be going back.

It's like there's some kind of mental block here - the restaurants in the area are all either 1) boring and kinda gross chain restaurants or 2) great atmosphere, lousy food or 3) great food, lousy atmosphere. I went to Strings with Babydaddy and Rugrat last week (again, strip mall location), and the food was fantastic, but it felt like I was dining in a cafeteria. Babydaddy said he'd gone another day and sat on the other side of the restaurant, which was much more atmospheric. Whatever. It's not something I'd take someone to for a fancy dinner, but it's a damn sight better than Chili's.

Disney photos

Here they are!

This first photo was taken during breakfast on Monday morning, at the Storyteller's Cafe in the Grand Californian hotel (where we stayed during this trip). Really nice hotel. Really bad food at this restaurant though.



This next photo was taken in New Orleans Square.


Look at all the gorgeous decorations up for the holidays!


Here's Rugrat with his favorite character (albeit just a statue) - Jack Skellington.


Look how beautiful Sleeping Beauty's castle is! They repainted it and added lots of gold accents, including the five lovely crowns, representing the five decades of Disneyland. (This photo was taken during our Early Entry morning - the park wasn't always this deserted! LOL)


And here's the Haunted Mansion, all decked out in its Nightmare Before Christmas finery. I tried taking some flash-free photos inside but they didn't turn out well at all. :-( You really can't get a feel for how amazing it is without seeing all the fantastic changes they made inside. It was just incredible. My favorite part was the singing jack-o-lanterns.

Jack Skellington

My little monster-child, prior to trick-or-treatiing downtown on the Saturday before Halloween. (Click for a bigger photo.)

Dizz Knee Land

We're getting really excited here about our Disneyland trip next week...yesterday I spent way too much money on eBay - but I got four tickets to Mickey's Halloween Treat! It's a special trick-or-treat party they're having at California Adventure. It's three hours, from 7:30-10:30 on Sunday night (after regular park hours; it closes at 6 PM that day). There are several "trick or treat" stations where you get candy, and a bunch of photo opportunities with the characters. Some of the rides will be open, and I heard that you can play the carnival games for free (they give out candy as prizes, rather than toys). Whee!

Grout!

OK, tile is finally grouted. Yay!