Guise Will Be Guise - 12/25/2006

Feliz Navidad Todos! We hope you are having a great Christmas Day. We've had a swell weekend.

Saturday night, Niki came by to visit and spend the night. She's down from Maryland visiting her parents, and came by to see the house and spend a day. We went to the Olive Garden for dinner, where we were placed waaaaaaay in the back of the restaurant. So we were loud. :) It was fun. I think the waitress liked us, even WITH the whole "Niki asked for no green peppers because she's allergic to them, and they gave them to her anyway" thing. She didn't get sick, so it was all good. The waitress was totally scared Niki would have some kind of reaction. She kept coming by the table to check on us.

We stopped at Target to pick up some bread and ...something else I can't remember. I just remember Jake swinging the bread around and then plopping it under the PlayStation 3 demo so he could play it. Niki looks at the bread, looks at me and says "Man, your bread is toast." (pause) To which she & I burst out laughing hysterically, leaving David dazed and confused. It was funny! Bread...toast. *snicker*

Niki spent the night and then Sunday morning, after I remove a substantial chunk out of my ankle shaving (it is still bleeding - I removed the band-aid to change it, and it's still running), my sister Brenda, nephew Jonathan and his dad Fede came up. Brenda got to meet Niki (one of David's oldest friends) and said of Niki: "I like her. She has such a bubbly personality. And she's brave. She drives all over the place by herself!" (Brenda won't drive anywhere more than 1/2 hour by herself. That 1/2 hour is her going to work.)

While Brenda and Niki were getting on, I was driving Jake over to his dad's side of the family's Christmas Dinner. My nephew came to keep me company. Jake went with his family and I went back home. Niki was almost in her car to leave when Jonathan & I pulled back into the driveway. David left for work half an hour later.

Fede made "Viandas & Bacalao." A Puerto Rican dish. I have never made this dish, so he showed me step-by-step as he did it. White Sweet Potatoes (the only way I can describe it), Onions and "Malanga" (another veggy) served in olive oil & garlic with cod fish served with olive oil, garlic & onions. I'm burping just thinking about it. I LOVE this dish, but it keeps loving me back for HOURS later.

Several hours later, I drove back, this time with Isabel and Brenda, to go get Jake at his aunt's house. Jake's aunt gave Isabel a present (very sweet). We got back to watch Jonathan & Jake dance, while Isabel fawned over my sister Brenda's baby chihuahua, Rica. 9 weeks old and teeny! Excuse my saying this but....My daughter's poops are bigger than this dog. She's SO CUTE! The dog, not my daughter's poop.

David arrived home a little after....9:30 p.m.? I can't remember. We let Jake open some birthday presents from my sister. He got a really cool chess set. It's called a Mystical Creations Dragon Chess Set. Wizards, dragons, etc. Really nice.

Here's where the guise comes in to play.

My sister, her husband and son kept bugging us all day to be able to open Christmas presents. I kept saying no. We do it on Christmas day. After Jake opens his wizard chess set, Brenda asks us to come downstairs to the room with the Christmas tree in it. They want to open ONE present, just One, they beg. I concede to only one person getting a present; the one who finds the hidden Christmas pickle in the tree. They search and Jake ends up finding it.

Brenda then hands Jake another birthday present they forgot to give him. Jake opens it, and it's a Playstation game. Cool! Until David mentions "Hey, that's for PS3!" We don't own a PS3. We will never own a PS3 as long as those suckers are as expensive as they are. We do not work our patooties off to throw away that much $$ on a game system. And if you know me, you know my feeling on video games anyway. I tolerate them because I love my two men. Jonathan looks at Brenda and says "Mom! You got the wrong game! PS2! Not PS3!!" Brenda says something like "Oh, I'm sorry! I still have the receipt," while I am saying "It's ok, she can exchange it or mail us the receipt and we can change it out." By this time, Jonathan (or Brenda?) has pulled out the one gift that Jake can open because he found the Christmas pickle. A rather large gift with a handle. I am clueless.

This is Jake's face as he opens up....his Playstation 3. My insane family bought my son a PS3. What? WHAT?? All three of our jaws drop. We are stunned. The 3 of them are laughing hysterically at how they "got us." We're shocked, and saying that this is just too much. They wave us off. They wanted to do this, etc. etc. We're just sitting there, in shock. And I am feeling like a schmo. I got them each gifts that were like, $25 for one, $30 for the other and $25 for the other, and they get him a PS3? Gahhh! My brother-in-law is SO generous, and I felt like I totally let him down because all I got him was a Target gift card because I could not think of what else to get him.

Jake was in HEAVEN, as you can imagine. We were a little shocked, have I mentioned we were shocked yet? Jake in his tween and now teen years has been testing the limits of sarcasm and rudeness as of late, and it's almost like....here...have a $600 present. Yay! We've already had to kick him off of it because he proclaimed that this was "HIS" PS3 and David could not play it once Jake went to bed. *shakes head*

We went to bed and got up around 8:30 a.m. to my brother-in-law already cooking a pork (pernil) in the oven. He was so hungry for it at 8:30 a.m. because he'd been up at 3 in the morning checking on it and basting it. We opened our presents (insert feeling like a schmo again here). We had tons of presents from friends and family members under the tree. We don't open them until Christmas day, even if we get them early in the mail. So we're opening a million gifts and my sister & family are sort-of just sitting there with the lame gifts we got them. *sigh*

Brenda cooked some Puerto Rican rice (arroz con gandules) and I made a green bean casserole. I also put a pre- made apple pie in the oven. (I baked a cheesecake yesterday from scratch, and a chocolate cake the day before). Christmas dinner was served....at 10:30 a.m. Funny.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Beneath You - 12/23/2006

I hate to mop. Because I have mop issues. Can someone PLEASE tell me that they have a mop they love? I HATE MOPS! Hate, hate, hate. I have yet to find a mop that does the job. At my old house, I would end up on my hands and knees, with a bucket and a scrubby brush, hand scrubbing and hand wiping the floor, because no mop could get it clean enough for my liking. Now that I have more floor to mop, this is no longer an option for me.

I had a regular sponge mop. Those are horrible. They do nothing to actually clean stains off the floor.

I bought a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Mop. Don't bother. Biggest waste of $15 or so ever. This thing does nothing for stains, nothing. And it tends to just move dirty water around. I will rinse the mop under hot, clean water in the empty side of the sink, before dipping it into the side of the sink with the water & cleaner. Still, it pushes the dirt around rather that absorbing it.

I bought a Swiffer Wet jet. It's kind of cool. You spray this liquid thing out of it, and then just dry-wipe it with the papery thing underneath. My problem with this is...you're just spraying this chemical and wiping it up and...is it building up? Where is the follow-up wet wiping of this chemical off the floor? I'm finding it weird that there is not water wiping it up. It smells weird too. Too sweet. I have been using the Swiffer to spot clean in between moppings, which is great.
I still need a regular mop. David thinks I am weird. I have had mop issues for YEARS. Years. Anyone have any ideas? If so, PLEASE let me know.

Dear Boy 12/21/2006

Jake....is a teen. Thirteen to be exact. Today. He is 13 today. I am officially old. Older. I've been old for a while. We took him to Disney Quest last weekend. We got him some smaller things too. From us, besides Disney Quest, he got the Lego Star Wars game for PS2, a t-shirt that reads "Books is Good" and a t-shirt that reads "What part of Moooohoooohaaahaaaa don't you understand." He also got $$ from one of my sisters, $$ and new headphones from my in-laws, $$ from David's grandma, another T-shirt from my friend Wendy and a long sleeved t-shirt from her too. He still has more stuff from his dad's side. He'll get those from them this Sunday.

Happy Birthday to one of the sweetest kids ever!

The Harvest 12/21/2006

Last night, Wednesday, we had our company Christmas Dinner.

MAN. Google Texas De Brazil and check it out. It was a lot of fun. Beautifully decorated but LOUD. You would think such a fancy/expensive place would have more of a refined, quiet atmosphere. Tons of employees working there. There is this amazing buffet. Not like a cheesy buffet. Very beautifully done. You walk around and get your salads & such. Things like baked salmon, white rice & beans (Brazilian style), lobster bisque, mozzarella balls dipped in oil & garlic, sushi, potato salad, Parmesan cheese wedges, fried yucca, all kinds of greens, breads, the list goes on & on.

This is the centerpiece of the buffet area.

Then, at your place setting, you have this little plastic-coated paper chip. One side it red and the other is green. There are men running around with these large skewers that they have pulled out of these huge roasting fires. You can see them cooking in a glass room.

Anyway, if your disk is green facing up, these men will stop by your plate and offer to carve you filet mignon, chicken wrapped in bacon, lamb, pork, top sirloin, sausage, etc. etc. If your disc is red, they pass you by. If the person sitting next to you has green, they will stop by and feed them. It was flippin' hysterical. For dessert, we had our choice of 6 items. I chose my favorite, carrot cake, and a cappuccino.

The downside to the night was only two things. First, it was on International Drive. It took me an hour & 15 minutes to get there. It took an hour to get home. That, and David stayed home with the kids. No babysitter. It was too inconvenient. A Wednesday night is not a night to ask someone to watch your kids from say 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. David was actually ok not going. He did not want to drive in rush hour traffic down I-4 to International Drive. This is probably a restaurant we'll never go to, just because of the location and the price. Maybe for a special anniversary or something, when we can actually get a sitter. The night ended with a pep-thank-you talk by our salesman, who also bought us gift cards to Honey Baked Ham for a 7 lb. ham. It was a fun night.

Showtime - 12/16/2006

Jake's 13th birthday is this coming Thursday. Thirteen! A Teen! AAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKK! I remember 13. At 13, people my age were old farts. *I* am an old fart!

Jake gets to pick what he wants to do on his birthday. Usually, he chooses a restaurant & we go eat. Olive Garden was his pick a couple of times, Kobe Japanese Steak house (where they cook right in front of you) was another he's chosen. This year, though, he wanted to go to Disney Quest. It's an interactive, five-story....arcade, really, located at Downtown Disney (one of my most favorite places to take out-of-town guests. Downtown Disney is almost like going to Disney, but you can walk around the shops and places for free. When Jake I were were alone and on a tight budget, we'd go down there just to walk around and have fun, without having to spend any $$). Five floors of video games, interactive computer games and rides, the perfect place for a 13 year old.

This picture is actually the back of the place. I wish I had taken pictures of the front of it. It is huge, and dark inside. Isabel had a ball too. Check out her cute shirt. We started out by going on a white water rafting trip. A virtual white water rafting trip. It was fun. We got in a raft and the "water" moved us around. The raft was on an air-mattress, if you will, that inflated and deflated to simulate the motion of the water, as it pertained to the video we were watching on the screen.

Then, Jake & I went off to create our own roller coaster while David chased Isabel. You get a scan-card and go to a console. You create your own roller coaster, with loops, twists, drops, jumps, black hole jumps, etc. Then the scan-card saves your roller coaster and you go to the ride simulator. They load your roller coaster into the simulator and you get it. This simulator recreates the roller coaster you created. The thing had us upside-down, twisting & flipping.
David found the "retro" arcade, so I chased Isabel while he played Pac Man, Galaga, Frogger, Q-Bert, etc. You remember those, dont you? You're showing your age, my friend!

David and Jake went on a virtual Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride, while Isabel and I went to a room where you could "color" on a computer screen. She loved it. It was a touch screen and after two seconds, she had the whole program figured out. She made 5 masterpieces by the time David & Jake were done. We did a lot more running about. Jake found the DDR machine....NOT WORKING!! Gasp! They did have a different game called Pump It Up, similar to DDR, but the arrows were diagonal and there was a 5th button in the middle. Took him a bit to figure out the moves. There were a few other guys there playing too. They had been playing that game for a while, because they were all over it.

We went up to the 5th floor and ordered a slice of cheese pizza for Isabel and a whole pie for the rest of us, plus some sodas. Isabel ate all her pizza and was beginning to act loopy. David finished the pizza while Jake and I went to....battle some aliens? A virtual game for 4 people where you are in a spaceship and 3 of you have to shoot down the aliens while the 4th person, the pilot, picks up colonists. Jake ran into a few school friends who were also there, on the way to this game.

After killing aliens, David and I left with Isabel to go to the Jeep and change her diaper. David stayed in the car with Isabel while I went back inside to meet Jake. We stayed for a 20 minute drawing class (a Disney animator taught us how to draw Donald Duck) and then went back out to go home. Isabel had already fallen asleep in the car.

That was our fun Jake-Day celebration, a few days early.

Wild at Heart - 12/05/2006

Last Thursday was month-end at work. Last day of the month to bill stuff. My official motto for month-end is "BILL! BILL! BILL!"

It wasn't as stressful as any other day. The usual stress. Around 2 p.m., I am sitting at my desk, when I realize that I can't get my heart to stop pounding. I stop. I start breathing deeply. I cannot get it to stop. The pulse in my neck is pounding. I had no idea what was happening. I was not stressed or irritated that second or those 10 minutes before, for that matter.

The salesman walks in and sees me with my hand to my neck and my eyes closed. "What's the matter" he asks. "I don't know," I told him. "I can't stop my heart from pounding." He goes into protective mode, God love him, and starts hovering over my desk. "Want to go to the clinic? Let's go, I'll drive." I kept reassuring him I would be ok. He made me get up, walk around and kept telling me to breathe. Like a mother hen, he bugged me. He got me a Coke (not sure if that was even right - caffeine?), he hovered some more, offered to take me to the clinic 2 more times, and told me to stop freaking him out.

I kept working and around 4:30 p.m. I realized everything was back to normal. It was SO weird. I REALLY need to calm down (hence the laughing at the bird lady, rather than freaking out). I have been trying real hard & earnestly, to let things slide off my back, slick as goose poop. :)

Now, if I can shake these flu-like symptoms I'm feeling, that'll be great, thanks.

Wild at Heart, Buffy Season 4, episode 6

Innocence - 12/05/2006

Isabel and I took a "baff" together last night. I needed to bathe her and thought, what the heck. Let's get in the monster tub in my room together. I had never done that with her! Can you believe it?

She thought it was the most hysterical thing ever. First off, she starts by saying "mariposa, mariposa, mariposa." Butterfly, for you non-Spanish speakers. She was pointing at the ink on my hip. Then, when I got in with her, her eyes got all wide and she said "Mommy baff, mommy baff!" We splashed each other a lot, which had her giggling like a maniac. It was so cute. She would slip every so often (no bath safety seat) and then say "Cay-ful!!" (careful!)

Speaking of innocence, I'm driving back from Target to the office. I am heading north in the middle lane. There is a car in south-bound traffic trying to make a U-turn on to north-bound traffic. Well, right where she was, I needed to get in the left lane, because I was going to turn left in half a mile. She's trying to U-turn into the left lane and I'm switching from the middle to the left lane. She has to stop. She FLIPS ME OFF! People still do that?!? Seriously? I didn't even get mad because it was so ridiculous! Here's this lady in her 40's flipping me off. If life is that bad, really, take a breather. LOL So, she ends up behind me when we are turning left. I do the speed limit, cause I'm trying to be a good person, and also it'll make her mad since she seems to be in a rush. I make another left, so does she. A right and another right into the deli, she does the same. She keeps going though, to another business located in the same place as the deli. I'm placing an order for me & my boss and talking to David about "bird lady" when who walks in? Bird lady, asking the deli people if anyone "found" a $20 bill - she thinks she may have lost it half hour earlier when she was in the deli. Yea right. I'm SURE someone will just pick it up & turn it in, lady. I start laughing while on the phone and David has no idea why. I told him that karma just bit Bird Lady's butt.

Innocence, Buffy Season 2, Episode 14