bubbles' roundup

before i forget and get lost in this entirely-too-long entry, thanks to everyone who voted on the wallpaper! i think ultimately i'll go back to laura ingalls, because she's just adorable, but for the moment i actually have this tiled because i found it when i was trying to restore laura. and that amused me even MORE.

tonight i hear only the sounds of the keyboard and the laundry machine. what's so different about that? haven't i been alone for weeks? no, because from last thursday to today, i had visitors. ok fine it was family but still, i was glad to have some company.

and who visited was my sister, brother-in-law...and their new male companion. that's right -- a triad are they. and in related family news, while my sister was here she told me that when my parents were younger (when i was less than 3 or so) THEY WERE POLY.

good grief. no wonder this shit has come up for me, even though i've never heard my parents talk about it. for obvious reasons i've talked with my sister about it quite a bit. despite her impudence, she's actually very thoughtful and smart. just like me! sometimes.

anyway, the four of us had a great time! friday i introduced them to pepper lunch and toffee crack. friday night we played one of my most favorite games, beyond balderdash. or as liz called it when i described it to her: NUTS, the board game.

i really like that. anyway some of our fake answers are too good not to share:

mehari: a japanese device used to insert frosting into shellfish
poppism: philosophy centered in the belief that mary poppins is the most righteous bitch around
yeevil: something so evil, you just have to say yes

we kept working in these words the rest of the weekend. especially yeevil and the shellfish frosting. damn. and no i can't tell you what the real definitions are! besides, i like ours better.

saturday we mostly chilled -- watched some movies, etc. sunday we went to santa cruz. had some decent seafood, spent too much money at logos, accessorized our phones, and i tried YET AGAIN (more on that later) to find some new pants. i did not succeed, however i did get a cheap winter shirt at urban outfitters.

after killing half a day downtown we needed some food. they wanted to go somewhere cheap but filling. hmm. santa cruz diner sucks. i forgot about denny's but did remember lyon's in capitola. yes, the one of Stuffed Toy Armadillo fame!

off we went, and damn if the food wasn't slower than clearcase. however, once we got it, it was surprisingly tasty and one entree included unlimited french fries. all you can eat! and because we got busy playing the adult mad libs i scored at urban o, there was so, so much french fry consumption. and giggling. we must've been there almost three hours between the slow service and mad libs.

monday they were due to leave, but got wrapped up in laundry and other stuff so decided to move their departure to today. which was great because, since i had a shitty day monday, they took me to sonoma chicken coop for dinner. that place is so yummy, both the food and the atmosphere, that it really did help.

monday was stressful for a lot of reasons but since this post is getting long enough, i'll only mention one stressor: min's car rental. let's just say, the date of her return is wrong and they're being assholes about it. hello, she tried to correct the date with you before she left, and she's in minnesota now so you're not getting your car back tomorrow. but enough on that. i should be winding down. :-p

so, the pants thing -- recently i hit the 85-lb loss mark. go me! the downside is that all but one pair of my pants are too big. naturally i've had some warning on this, so for the last, hmm, 2 weeks i've been looking for replacements. went to target, kohls, old navy, urban outfitters and somewhere else i think. NOBODY had the right size -- either too small, too big, or my favorite -- too long. yeah i am not tall, i get that. but do all the pants have to be for giants??

over the weekend i had the idea to go to macy's. a real department store. i mentioned this to min, lover of thrift stores, today and so of course she said, go to the thrift store!

well it's a good thing i did, because otherwise i'd have gotten no pants tonight! but i did find one pair that worked, thank goodness. since i was determined to have more than two pairs total, i then went to both macy's at valley fair, zooming around because it was almost 9pm already and they closed at 930.

the guy's AND women's sections were a total bust. however - get this - the juniors section was not. anyway, wow, they have a shitload of jeans in their jrs section. so i took ten billion pairs to try on...and a few of them did fit. but they also looked so friggin stupid because apparently (i don't spend time looking at kids enough) The Look is to have jeans fit great at the waist, be almost skintight from your thigh to part of your calf and then bell out like bananas at the ankle.

yeah that is not my look.

the good news (i HOPE) is that, i'm a size smaller than i realized. so i think i'm going to try target again and troll more thrift stores this weekend. if anyone out there knows of good stores (SF to east bay, or even santa cruz) please gimme holler. i reeeeeally would like to get another 2 pairs and be done. :-)

and with that, i'm done for now. go grab a cookie or something, a reward for reading this whole entry!