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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

UPrinting Giveaway Winner!


So, the winner of 250 UPrinting business cards is Rita!!! Congratulations!!!

Thank you to everyone else who participated!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wordless Wednesday: Sleep

A typical evening with H&M

We're going to a Giants game after work, so it's going to be a late night tonight.  I can't wait to sleep already.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Fif-TEA-eth Surprise Party

Sorry for the grainy picture. I don't know how to use my camera yet.

One of the reasons my blog posts have been few and far between lately, is that a lot of my time and energy was focused on a surprise 50th birthday celebration I was helping throw for my wonderful MIL.


The planning crew, which included SIL M and AIL, decided the theme would be "Tea Party". There's this wonderful restaurant near our place called "The Tea Room" which MIL frequents and loves, so we ran with that idea.

The hardest part of the planning process was not accidentally slipping about the party! I sooo wanted to post pictures of the invitations and some ideas we had, but I know she reads this blog!

The party was a complete success and we all had a wonderful time wearing pearls and eating little desserts.

Any words I write won't do the party justice, so I've compiled a few of my favorite pictures:


Picture of the invitation.  I made a little pocket to insert a real tea bag with each invite.

 
We made a few poms to hang around the room. 

In hindsight, I wish I spent a little more time on the banner.  This was one of the last projects we worked on the night before the party.


 We bought teapots and pearl necklaces to use for centerpieces.


 
 We had four tables, and since there are 4 kids in the family, we named each table after each of them.  There were escort cards to direct people to whichever table they were assigned to.

Sorry for the sad picture of the escort cards.  By the time I got around to taking the picture, most of them were gone!


A dear friend, L, let us borrow her beautiful teacup collection, so each guest had their own teacup!

And of course, there had to be a photobooth! All the guests took turns taking pictures with the guest of honor at the photobooth. 

My mom and I had decided to take a few pictures together while waiting for the guest of honor to arrive.

Here's another silly one with me and SIL M!


 All the pictures from the photobooth, will be printed and pasted into the beautiful scrapbook SIL M created.  All the guests were also requested to write a message to be included in the scrapbook.


Dessert buffet -- yum!!!

 One of the games SIL M came up with we called "What's my Flavor?" in which we passed around unmarked teabags and had each guest guess what tea flavor it was just by smelling it.  The person with the most correct won a prize.  The game was a lot harder than it sounds.

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We all had a great time and my wonderful MIL was truly surprised!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Our Secret Language

Baby Marv sharing a secret with Baby Harry -- oh, how I love them!

Matthew and I were hanging out in our room, rehashing the day's events, when I imagined what it would be like if some random stranger listened in on our conversation, and couldn't help but chuckle to myself.  About 1/3 of the words we use in our daily conversations with each other are slang words that either we made up, or a close family/friend made up and somehow got mixed into our lingo.

Who knows, maybe one day, we'll both grow up and start using only normal Webster dictionary vocabulary.  For now, here's a little taste of the terms we use when we're with each other:


Awkbod:  adjective. Another word for "awkward". Derived from a friendly joke about someone's pants not fitting correctly due to someone's "awkward body" (I did not come up with this -- blame Mathew and his friends). Commonly used to describe an awkward appearance or situation.  "Those jeans are awkbod" or "Today I cursed in front of a kid and his parents.  Awkbod." 

Hack: adjective. The quality of being huge in amount or size.  Basically another word for the Norcal slang, "hella".  "I'm am hack tired from blogging all day" or "That 4x4 burger from In & Out is hack."

Shmeagle: nick name. A term of endearment that is generally used when no one else is around.  Derived from Smeagol from Lord of the Rings and Captain Hook's boatswain, Smee.

SBIB [prounounced "es-bib"]:  expression. SBIB stands for "Sorry 'bout it, bud" and is used as a sarcastic jab towards someone who complains about or encounters a situation that totally sucks for them.

Friend 1:   You drank the last beer!
Friend 2: SBIB! You should've been here first.

Yagga: interjection. Used the same way as "whoa".  "That car almost hit us.  Yagga."

Bug: adjective.  Originally "bugalug" but was eventually shortened to just "bug". Another word for fat or overweight.    "We've gotten so bug over the last year, but we still love each other!"

L.I.G.: expression. L.I.G. stands for "Let it Go". 

Me: I'm so full but there's one more bite of this delicious burger left.
Matthew: L.I.G, shmeagle.  L.I.G.

24: verb.  Code word for the act of eavesdropping.  Derived from Christmas EVE, which falls on the 24th of December. 

Me:  Matt, I've asked you this question 5 times already? You're obviously not listening to me. Are you 24-ing on the couple sitting at the table next to us?
Matthew:  Yes.

General shortening of words: I have no idea how it started, but we tend to shorten many commonly used words.  Sometimes I forget that other people may not understand what I'm trying to say and have been the recipient to many confused stares by my friends, coworkers and family members.

Irra: Short for either "irritating" or "irresponsible".  "You're being so irra today!"
Ridic: ridiculous
Conch: contribution
Croosh: crucial
Stoop: stupid
... and the list goes on and on and on...

Abbreviating all food joints: SB (Starbucks), C (Chevys), MD (McDonalds), OG (Olive Garden), BR (Baskin Robbins),  etc. It can get a little tricky when abbreviating food places because some have the same abbreviation.  However, it's a lot easier when used in context - i.e. "I'm feeling so tired, I need an SB fix."

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One day I'll record one of our conversations just so you can get an idea of how crazy we can sometimes sounds to the untrained ear.

Do you and your SO have a secret language?

Friday, September 24, 2010

Friday Foto: I love Britney.

... and I'm not ashamed to admit it.  I have been a Britney Spears fan since the MMC days.  MMC (and Kids Incorporated) were two of my favorite shows growing up!  I wanted so badly to be on either of those shows.  In fact, I'm convinced that if my parents gave me dancing lessons as a kid and we lived in Florida, Christina Aguilera's story to fame would have been MY story.  (Don't worry, I know I'm delusional)

Anyway, everyone in high school knew how much I loved Britney.  I know she's not the best singer or dancer, but she was gorgeous and sang the most entertaining songs.... and I wanted to be her.

Check out my desktop background of 2001:

(Yeesh -- talk about a bad photoshop job!)


Every year, during our annual school Talent Show, I performed whichever song was the latest Britney hit.  Don't believe me?  Here's a terrifying fierce picture of me performing "Stronger" my senior year. 

Oh yeah... I had back-up dancers, too :)


In college, I was in an a cappella group (this post is just making me sound cooler and cooler, huh?).  We had to audition for the solos of songs and I was basically on cloud 9 when I won the solo for "Toxic".  We even recorded it for our CD, too.  Wanna hear?!?!?!



Anyway, the point of this post is basically for me to say how utterly EXCITED I am that Glee is having an ALL-BRITNEY episode next week!


I liked their Madonna and Lady Gaga episodes... but their songs didn't impact me the way Brit-brit's songs did:  

Freshman year in college I gained the "Freshman 15 25" during my first semester!  It was her album "Britney" that helped me stay on that Stair Master for 60 minutes on level 10 everyday, and gave me the motivation to be healthy again.  (Obviously I've stopped listening to that CD because have you seen me now?! Blegh.)

Britney will forever be one of my favorites (discounting the years 2004-07, though I always knew she would make a comeback).

Next Tuesday could not arrive faster...

A Simple Giveaway: UPrinting Business Cards!!!


I'm back from a brief blogging hiatus and have an awesome giveaway for all of you!!! 

Business cards are fun, and whether you have a business to promote, need mommy cards for play dates, or just want to have a card to put in those fish bowls at restaurants to win a free meal, UPrinting is a great solution for you!

They have a lot of different cuts you can choose from so that your card can stand out from the rest. 

Here's what one lucky reader will receive:

250 Die-Cut Business Cards for One (1) Winner

2 x 3.5”, 2 x 2” (square card) or 1.75 x 3.5” (slim card)

Die cutting options available: Rounded Corners, Leaf, Rounded One-Corner, Half-Circle Side, Circle

Paper Type: 14pt Cardstock Gloss, Matte, or High Gloss; 13pt Cardstock Uncoated

Color: 4Color Front, Blank Back; 4Color Front, Black Back; 4Color Both Sides

Limited to US residents only 18 years old and above
 
To enter,
 
- Please visit UPrinting's website and comment below
 
Extra Entries:

- Follow me on Google Friend Connect

- Follow me on Twitter - @aubreymse

- Tweet about this giveaway and mention @aubreymse

Please be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!


All entries must be received by 11:59pm (Pacific) Friday, 10/01/10. Winner will be chosen by random.org on/or around 10/04/10 and emailed so be sure you leave me a way to contact you. Winner has 24 hours to respond to winning email or another winner will be chosen.
 
Disclosure: I will be receiving 250 Die Cut Business Cards from UPrinting.com for hosting this giveaway


Friday, September 17, 2010

Friday Foto: The Dead Fish



Gah... It's been a while since I've updated!  I've been assigned a new project at work and have been busy at the home front planning a weekend getaway for my MIL who turned 50 a few days ago... Anyway, there's lots to post about, but I can't find the time to do it!  I truly admire those who are able to update frequently and consistently.  I need to work on that.

Anyway, since I haven't uploaded any of the fun pictures from the last couple of weeks to my computer yet, here's one taken on my phone Tuesday night at one of my favorite restaurants in the Bay Area - The Dead Fish.

It was our first day back to work from our weekend getaway, so I didn't feel like cooking that night.  Ha! Who am I kidding? I never feel like cooking and we hardly ever eat in...

We were both in the mood for crab and boy did we have lots of it:  crab chowder, crab crostini and a crab caesar salad! Yum!!!

The best part of the restaurant (besides their yummy bread) is the view from the outside.  The restaurant overlooks the Carquinez Bridge and my hubs alma mater, California Maritme Academy.

I could just sit out there all night long... Well, not really.  It was freaking cold!  If you know me, then you know that I never bring a jacket with me (I tend not to wear layers because it adds inches on me and I don't need any more inches on my body! Don't get me wrong - I totally covet outfits with multiple layers - I just can't pull them off!), so I was freezing my butt off outside.  I didn't care though.  The view was beautiful...

Another busy weekend ahead (including a fashion show I'll be performing at), beginning with an overdue dinner with some of my besties tonight!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Age My Face

I'm not afraid of aging or getting older... I'm actually really looking forward to it.  If I'm lucky enough to look like my mom at her 56, I'd be a happy camper!

At 27, I am STILL sometimes mistaken as a teenager and got carded the other day for buying a lottery scratcher!! What the heck?!  (I didn't win, by the way, if you were wondering)

Well, while browsing iPhone apps I came across one called "Age My Face".  It was free so I decided to give it a go.

Thank you, stupid app.  I am now officially scared of  getting old... because apparently, I am going to look like this:


[cue horror music]

When I am 80 years old I am going to look like a waaaay uglier version of the Six Flags Guy:

Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday Foto: All You've Got To Do Is Dream

Last night, I saw Dreamgirls at the Curran Theater last night with two of my besties:


A few weeks ago, we only talked about maybe going to catch a show, and knowing us, I thought we'd never find the time.  However, during chat on Tuesday, one of my gals suggested we go that Thursday!

We don't do spontaneous.  Actually, we did once... when on a whim we flew to Vegas for a quick weekend trip that ended with me waking up in the middle of the night vomiting over the toilet without ANY clothes on (different story for a different day)...But long gone are those days because these two besties are now PREGGERS!!  Their due dates are just a couple days apart -- how crazy is that!?!

Anyway, I was shocked when we actually bought the tickets and no one flaked out at the last minute.  I drove straight from work and the two of them met up with each me in the city.  With only 30 minutes to spare before curtain call, we grabbed a quick bite at Chipotle (I know...SO many places to eat in SF, but we chose Chipotle!  Sorry, we needed something quick! Plus, Chipotle is delicious.)

We made it right on time!  We bought cheapest tickets we could find, but since it was a weeknight, there were a ton of empty seats and we were upgraded to a lower section! Score!!

I loved it!!!  The set was impressive and the actors were on point -- their voices did not disappoint at all! The actress playing Deena Jones was Syesha Mercado from American Idol Season 7, which I thought really exciting even though I don't think I watched that season. 

If you are in San Francisco between now and September 26, I would totally recommend you see it!

The picture below was taken right before I got yelled at by one of the ushers, "NO pictures!!!!".  Oops.

Me (left) and the two glowing preggers, let's call them High Maintenance-B (middle) and Bad Influence-F (right)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Worldess Wednesday: College A Cappella... I Miss You.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I'm a Bad Mama

Coming home after a very long (but fun!) day at my cousin's baby shower, I just wanted to snuggle with my two favorite bullies, H&M.

Harry was occupied with a toy on the opposite side of the room, so I only had Marv to pet and hug.

After about 5 minutes of petting him and telling him about the party (Marv's a good listener), he went to play with his brother.

I looked down at my hand and was shocked for weeks at what I saw (pardon my wrinkly and pudgy fingers):

iphone pic



It's been a while since we last bathed our puppies, but I didn't realize they had gotten that bad!

Oh, did I mention I spilled maple syrup all over Harry the other day, too?  Oops.

I did my best to clean him with a wet paper towel, but he wouldn't sit still and Marv kept licking him!  I thought it was all but, but even after a week you could still see a faint brown streak across the white parts of his fur.

I felt like such a bad mama!

Well, we promptly drew up baths for them because I'm sure they didn't like being covered in all that filth!

iphone pic


Much better :)

Friday, August 20, 2010

Friday Foto: Lady Gaga & Giveaway Winner!

The Lady Gaga concert was fantastico!  That woman knows how to put on one helluva show!

My favorite part of the evening though was seeing the different costumes all the fans dressed up in!  I went to the concert straight from work, so sadly I'm wearing not so cute clothing... but check out this gal:

horrible picture of me, but whatevs.

Hot, right? Yeah, my hubs was the one who spotted her --- shocker.  I think the only thing that kept him from being super grumpy that night was seeing all the slutty scantily clad ladies prancing about.  Shoot - I couldn't keep my eyes off of them either! This monster in particular had a loooong line of people wanting to take pictures with her. She must have felt like a supastah!  Check out suspenders dude in the back.  He was rockin' a fierce ensemble, too.

Surprisingly, our seats were decent... Yay for free tickets! Sure we were in the top section, BUT we had the front row in our section and didn't have to worry about people standing up and blocking our view.

The only part that sucked was getting home at 1 in the morning on a week night!  Waking up 4 hours later for work was not fun.  I think there should be a rule that all concerts should either be on a Friday or Saturday... who's with me?  Sorry folks, I'm not 21 anymore and can't be functional after an all-nighter.  Heck, I only had a handful of those nights in my prime and didn't do it well then! (Ha - I'm lame) Point is, I think I still have some sleep catching-up to do this weekend, so I am glad it's Friday!!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Almost forgot! I need to announce the winner of my first giveaway!!  Thank you to everyone who entered!  Hopefully we'll have more giveaways in the future!



Congrats to Susan Mc!  I'll be contacting you soon with the details!

It's "A" boy... and a Lulu*s coupon for you!

A few cousins and I are throwing a baby shower for my dear Cousin M this Saturday.  I volunteered to be in charge of the decorations, of course.  It's been a while since I opened Photoshop, and I was itchin' for a new project.

She's having a boy and her husband is a huge Oakland A's fan... naturally we went with that theme.  The decor will be sweet and simple. I think it took me a total of just 2 hours to complete all the DIY stuff.  Here's a sneak peek for ya:




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In other news, here's a treat for you and me! (Awesome coupon below)

The other day I discovered Lulus.com and fell in love!  In a matter of 5 minutes, I ordered three dresses and a top!  I don't normally buy clothes online because only certain styles fit my body type and I like to try on stuff beforehand...  even though I know that all stores have magic mirrors in their fitting rooms.  90% of the clothes I thought looked fantastic on me in the store end up making me feel like a bloated cow at home.  Lulu*s has a pretty good return/exchange policy, so I thought I'd order online anyway and give it a shot! 

I made the order last Wednesday and the package arrived at my doorstep by Friday! Everything fit really great, though the material for the dresses I bought were a bit thin and definitely require a slip underneath.  Otherwise -- loving my new purchases. Here are a couple of the dresses I bought:



Cute, right? Now I have something to wear to the baby shower on Saturday!

On to my main point: Lulu*s contacted me and is offering us a 15% discount off our next purchase!

Just use the coupon code SIMPLEEVERYDAY during checkout for 15% off your entire LuLu*s purchase. It's available now through September 12th!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Simple Joys: Movie Night

*Reminder: Today is the last day to enter in the DaVinci Bracelet & Beads giveaway! I'll be picking the lucky winner early tomorrow morning!*

Matthew and I are lucky in that we commute together to and from work.  That means, we get 3+ hours of "us" time in a small, confined space.  During this time we talk about our day at work, plans for the evening, and just about everything else in between.  Our commuter car is very tiny and holds only two people, so it's sort of an intimate space for us.   We take turns driving so that it's fair, but we also have a fun ritual of trying to get the other person to drive for them in exchange for other favors (i.e. choice of dinner location, less driving turns for the following week, etc.)

Last week though, we either had to work late or made plans with friends after work, so we drove home separately several times.  By the time we were both home, we were too tired to do anything else besides go to sleep. 

I know it was just a few days of veering from our standard routine, but I missed him.  Thus, I made sure our schedules were clear on Friday for "movie night".

It was Matthew's turn to pick a movie, since I dragged him to see "Inception" a few weeks back.  I've seen it twice and would pay to see it again if anyone still hasn't seen it.  Seriously.  I liked the movie that much.

Well... he decided that for our "let's reconnect date" we would see,

The Expendables.



*groan*  I really didn't think a movie about men who were hot 10+ years ago gratuitously killing other guys with machine guns would be something I'd consider an ideal "date movie". 

But boy was I wrong!  There were probably a few too many close-up shots of Mickey Rourke and Sylvester Stallone, and a couple of horribly acted monologues... but I actually enjoyed the film!  I definitely don't see it winning any Academy Awards, but the storyline kept me on the edge of my seat and the action scenes were as over the top as you could hope for. 

My favorite part of it all, however, was turning to see Matthew's reaction throughout the movie.  It's so cute watching his face light up like a little kid on Christmas morning when a building would explode or when someone was stabbed with a knife spilling their guts everywhere.  He loves that sort of stuff and I love watching his happiness.

I've learned that it's very important to make time for your relationship... even if that time is spent doing something you wouldn't normally want to do.  Sometimes you just might discover a new interest or a new appreciation for something you never would have opened your mind to otherwise...

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

30 before 30 - The Rubik's Cube, Part 2

Sorry to leave you hanging for such a long time... I'm sure you were all dying to know whether I figured out how to solve the puzzle (side note: do you see that symbol at the end of the last sentence? It's a sarcmark and it's a new punctuation made to indicate sarcasm... not sure if works on computers who don't have it installed... are you able to see it? )

For a refresher, click here for Part 1.

The answer is YES I DID!!!!!!  I am now a proud knower-of-how-to-solve-the-rubik's-cube!

So, the first thing I did was scramble the cube.



Because this was my first time attempting to solve it, I watched Pogobat's tutorials at the same time. It took me 40 minutes to complete finish... but I did it!!!!


It was actually pretty simple to do! Once you understand the architecture of the thing, it's just a matter or using the appropriate "algorithms" to get them to the right spot!

Of course, this does not count as "learning to solve the Rubik's cube" because I was merely following the youtube guy's instructions. A true test would be to rescramble the cube and solve it ON MY OWN without the assistance of the videos.

I had Matthew scramble the cube for me.

Using mnemonic devices to memorize the different algorithms Pogobat taught me, I finished the cube on my own in 8 minutes!!!!  I get that some of you might think that I'm just showing pictures of solved cubes and didn't actually solve it myself... So for you non-believers, here's a sped up video of me solving the cube... You can tell it's me because I have ugly wrinkly hands with chubby fingers and a scar on my right hand from when I was a curious 11-month old and attempted to pull myself up using the cord of an iron that my mom was currently using (needless to say, the iron fell on my hand leaving me with permanent scars and dreams of being a hand model out the window)!

The darn thing kept getting stuck, so I probably could have shaved a few seconds if I had the cube oiled!


I can finally cross something off of my 30 before 30 list! Woohoo!

It took me a total of 90 minutes to watch all the videos and memorize the algorithms. Currently, my fastest time is a little under 7 minutes! Who knows?!?! Maybe one day I can enter a "speed cubing" competition... :-D

That goal is probably for another list though...

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Post-it Tuesday: My Weird Dream

Friday, August 13, 2010

Friday Foto: Glider Plane Ride



circa 2005

Here's an old school photo I found recently while trying to figure out what picture to post today.  One of my BFFs, Bon, and I went on an impromptu Napa weekend trip many summers ago.  Since turning 21, we never really took advantage of living 20 minutes from wine country until that weekend.

We hit up a few wineries and somehow came across a flyer for "Glider Plane Rides".   We had no idea what they were about, but it looked like fun so we jumped at the opportunity!

I'm no expert, but a glider plane is pretty much a tiny ass really small plane without an engine.  I have no idea why we thought floating in the air in a machine that did not have power would be a good idea... but I guess we were drunk on wine when we made our reservations.

Since the glider plane doesn't have an engine, it is launched into the sky using an aero-tow.  Basically, a "real" plane with an engine tows the glider up into the sky using a long rope, which is then released when you reach the appropriate altitude, leaving you floating in the air with a pilot who navigates the plane as it ascends to the ground. 

It was scary!!! First, do you see how tightly squeezed we are in the passenger seat?!  Bon is like 80 lbs and I was still surprised we even fit!  Secondly, our pilot thought it would be really fun to do some spins and dips after we were released by the aero-tow! Naturally, we were freaking out thinking we would plummet to our death doing all those crazy tricks without an engine!

Luckily, our pilot was very experienced and assured us we would be fine.  I was able to calm down and open my eyes to see the view from the air...  it was unbelievable! I would totally recommend it the next time you're in Napa.

Every time I look at that picture, I can't help but smile thinking about the fun memories from that weekend. 

I heart friends.