WICKED

last night i rode the subway down to hollywood and vine and met lottie and arianna for dinner and a show. the place we wanted to eat at was closed down so we schlepped ourselves in our party dresses and heels down hollywoood boulevard, narrowly avoided a few propositions, and made it to musso and franks safe and sound. after three delicious grilled cheeses (thats one for each of us NOT three for me) we made the hike back and settled in to watch wicked, the new it broadway tour.

lottie's friend and my acquaintnce tera is good friends with the girl who played elphaba, the wicked witch of the west. basically the storyline was told from the perspectives of elphaba and glinda and how they grew up together and how elphaba is really just misunderstood. the performances were stellar, and the script was hilarious. the only negative thing was the people sitting directly behind us, but we were able to change seats at half time.

i am sure some of you guys have seen the musical and prolly liked it. but if you havent and you get the chance definitely go! especially for all you kansans - youve been hating the wrong person this whole time! and youll never guess who the real bad guy is! the big bad wolf! just kidding.

it is always good to get a reminder that other people have the other side to the story and youll never get the whole story unless you were a part of it. all of the ozzians had no idea why elphaba was the way she was, and they hated her, but once they understood the circumstances, things were different. anyways, not to get tooo depp, but the moral if you will was a great one to keep in mind. look at life through other people's green lensed eye glasses. :)

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big bang theory

edward pickup 2 take 1. cameras a, b, c, x on my mark

we went to warner brothers studio last night to watch the filming of a new cbs show called big bang theory. it was soooo much fun. we watched the pilot first on tvs scattered strategically through the studio audience and then they began filming the show. they went in order chronologically so we got to actually see the whole show. sometimes they would film a scene multiples times with a few different lines to see which go tthe most laughs. it will be fun to watch the show when it airs (september 24th on cbs) and see which lines they chose. they gave us free pizza and the emcee (who was possibly the most annoying person i have EVER had the privelege of being locked in a room with for three hours) told jokes and did magic and handed out candy during the resetting of the scenes/transitions.

the sound stage the show was shot in was where they made cultural classics like casablanca, batman and robin and gremlins 2. veronicas closet was the longest running tv show previously shot there. it was stage 25 which is directly across from 24 which was the friends sound stage. instead of the usual plaques on all the other buildings that one has a special plaque that just says "the friends stage." i would have liked a tour but that was on the program for the evening.

it was so interesting to watch the guy up in the scaffolding manuevering the boom and all the cameras... you could watch the action live or see it on the aforementioned tv sets with the different camera angles like it would be on tv.

it was cool to see these relatively unknown actors (they are the types who have been in a lot of stuff and seem vaguely familiar but arent superstars by any means) and how excited they were to be the leads of this new show. they were all super professional and knew all their lines - they only had to reshoot because of a missed line once or twice. the concept of the show is good and the script is actually really funny. it would be cool if the show really takes off and we can say we were there for the first episode. it is about these two nerdy genius guys and their across the hall neighbor who is beautiful and blonde. the jokes that they make are super intellectual and funny because i only have half an idea what they are really talking about.

i think we might add this show to our regular weekly rotation. you should all watch it and see. maybe you will even hear me laugh! :)

google talk

so most days i talk to anna and lottie all day long on google talk. i sometimes get to talk to my mom, and nikki and christina are on sometimes too. it makes my day when emay is able to talk for a few minutes in between hanging out with rachie poo and being a homemaker (heres me jealous!)

but the best is this conversation i am having with anna. (we are playing scrabble on facebook)

anna.ostrander: you took my spot!!
meaghan: :)
anna.ostrander: i have all vowels and only 3 different ones
meaghan: yuck
anna.ostrander: gotta go get a lung brb
meaghan: ok cool

she has to leave the conversation and get a lung. thats sweet.

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beverly hills cop

on sunday sarah got a bunch of people from the westside service, which meets at beverly hills high school, to go to cpk for lunch. joel, the bhhs representaive that does lights for us, agreed to join us. we all got there first and we were ordering our food and jeremy saw joel through the window walking toward cpk. we thought oh good he is almost here. then he saw him walking away. we saw a big commotion in the street and police cars with their lights flashing but there was a big pillar blocking our view of what was actually happening. by the time joel actually arrived, we had all started eating already. but boy did he have a story.

so he was walking by starbucks and these two men were yelling at each other about one guys (a french tourist) little dog sniffing another guys (regular old american) big dog and the big dog growling at the little dog. joel steps in and says why dont we just calm down no harm no foul etc and the frenchman starts yelling at him and then follows joel down the street cursing at him loudly and in a very cliched manner (someone should tell him that "f***" is not the only curse word in the english language... cmon get creative...) and in a strong french accent and then he spit on joel. joel very calmly told him that was assault and he was calling the police... pulls out his cell phone and dials 911. the frenchmans girlfriend also spits at joel but misses. they take off and cut through chipotle to the back alley. the police come take his statement and start looking for the dude.

meanwhile joel comes, orders, starts to eat and relay the story. the beverly hills cop comes into cpk and tells joel that they have a guy in custody and want him to come identify him. so he leaves and does that. apparently when the guy went into the alley he took his shirt off (to avoid drawing attention - which completely backfired/as a disguise) and people dont do that in beverly hills and thats how they found him. so they took him and booked him and he has a court date in a couple of weeks. if he doesnt show up (which he prolly wont since i imagine he will be safely back in france) his priveleges of coming into the united states will be revoked and if he ever goes through customs trying to enter the country he will be immediately arrested.

becasue a big dog growled at his little dog. talk about needing to just relax.

i had no idea the french were soooo uptight.

total eclipse of the heart

last night was a totaly lunar eclipse. i was safely in my bed soundly sleeping like all good little boys and girls are at 4 in the morning and the tears are pouring and i want to make it worth the fight... sorry i am aparently channelling gwen stefani today. anywasy like i was saying before i so rudely burst into song (cant a girl finish a song around here?!?!?) jeremy got up at 4 this morning to watch the eclipse. he said it was pretty cool.

im getting a hair cut today! yay! mostly just a trim but i am contemplating bangs. i think i have hair add. im not one of those people who will look back at pictures from high school and realize that my hair looks exactly the same. i know girls like that and it stresses me out. its like cmon take a chance... its just hair. you can dye it back and it will grow... so go crazy!

fran leaves on thursday and we leave on friday to go to phoenix for the long weekend. we get to see uncle ron and aunt sharon and matt and noelle and if i am really lucky fatou and cassie. we will just see. when we get back carolyn? caroline? carolynn? carolyne? some other girl is coming to stay with us. she is also a protege. i think she will be living with us for about a month but im not sure.

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rock it out...

after the vh1 countdown was over i ran some errands then jeremy and i went to sarahs open house in her new house that she is renting with a bunch of cool girls. she gave us the grand tour and we even got to open the trap door in the floor of the dining room... she and jeremy played fooseball but the game was a draw... too many people arriving and she had to play hostess... they are living in a house of a mosaic family that moved overseas. the house is totally pimp and in a great area. there is a huge yard and they have it decorated super cute...

after we got home i made some cucumber sandwiches (because they are like my favorite thing ever!) and took my rock star self over the kriss to finish makeup and help set up. we made the living/dinig room look like the green room backstage at a concert... lots of black and red and candles. you would never know we were at a baby shower! here is the night in pictures:

the first picture is me with the momma to be aka christina dronen aka gwen stefani in preggo mode. then we have the poster that kris customized for the party. the babys name is gonna be ashley claire dronen (acd) so we just went to the next natural progression of acdc and rocked it out! the four of us were the hostesses (me - 80s groupie, lottie aka baby spice, kim aka 1983 madonna and kriss look is inspired by sanjaya recently of american idol infamy).

we also had an air guitar contest. which was freakin hilarious/awesome. this was the best baby shower ever!!!!! for those of you facebookers all the pictures from that are posted there. if you arent you should be.

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ps a rockers life is never dull... except after the after party...

i love fridays

fridays during the breaks (when teachers and students arent at school) are the best. no one really does anything. karla and i went to target and i bought party favors and prizes for the baby shower tonight. the best game we are going to have is an air guitar contest. yep. at a baby shower. we will have some other more traditional games too. i got some cool stuff. yay!

i finished thinning the files from 2002. i got seven boxes down to 3. that means there is four boxes worth of room for the files from this year. this is a seriously vicious cycle!

i met jeremy at the mall after work. i got my toes and fingers done. i asked the lady to put lightning bolts on my toes and she had to ask someone what those were. and finally another dude came over and actually did them. all of the other nail people gathered around and were watcing him do them. i was like a training video. it was cracking me up. little bit of a language barrier there. kinda looks more like a n but its cool. then we went shopping. he bought me this really cute dress at ae (that he picked out) and some staples at old navy. there is no gap at the mall in burbank which is sad.

after we got home i finished a book called friday night knitting club. very good. and we watched psych which is rapidly becoming one of my all time favorite shows. early to bed early to rise... right now is vh1 video countdown... i love saturday mornings!!!!!!!!!!!

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thinning files

so the process of thinning old student files is arduous and boring. and dirty. i worked on it for about 2 of my 8 hours of work today and that was soooo more than enough. my pod was running out of juice and there is no radio in the conference room so i decided to stop long before i was actually finished. and thats just with the files from 2001 and 2002. down in the garage the files go back to the 80s. and thats my job to thin them out and keep only what we need. hurrah!

sprouted spaghetti is not as good as those bleached enriched sticks most of yall prolly eat. healthier, but just not quite the same. it gets mushy even when it is stil al dente. we used our last 2 lb block of koci beef when i made spaghetti sauce last week - there was enough to have again tonight. sadness. i dont know when we will get more. anyone in the topeka want to fly some out? i would really apreciate it thanks.

i did get in-n-out for lunch... protein style burger and animal style fries. does life get better?

lately anna and i have been obsessed with playing scrabble through facebook. it is scrabulous! (i didnt make that up. its actually the name of the application.) we play one or two games a day. i also like playing with random people... so far i am a big scrabble loser. i have only won 4 games but im having fun so it doesnt matter. it is fun to play with someone who lives across the country. so everyone get a facebook page and add scrabulous. i will play scrabble with anyone. and apparently i am easy to beat. so there.

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comings and goings

every time someone at work leaves or starts the hr manager sends out an email with that title. we have been getting a lot of goings and not as many comings. my boss, theresa, who was the principal, left to go work as a teacher at a school closer to home. so the vice principal is the interim principal (she calls it on probation). so karla is my new boss. we spent the better part of yesterday cleaning out theresas office and throwing away multiple trash bags worth of stuff. karla has been moving her stuff out of her office downstairs and is almost settled in. i am happy with the transistion. karla is younger and a lot more easy going and we have worked really well together in the past. since we are not hiring a new vice principal any time soon, ceci and i are getting a lot more responsibilities. i get to go to my first work conference at the end of september. cant say i am too thrilled. i will have to be at karlas at 6 in the mornign so we can get down to anaheim by 8. waking up at 4:30 am doesnt make me happy. but i have over a month to prepare mentally.

i have also been working on cleaning out the student files from over five years ago so there is room in the storage garage for the recently terminated student files. it is a stupid boring dirty job, but thats why they pay me the big bucks. oh wait...

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that good old air mattress

having got our air con problems mostly worked out (as long as we dont run any small appliances in the kitchen or watch tv, it doesnt blow the breaker) the living space of our apartment feels great. cooling the bedrooms has always been hard because of the layout of the apartment as well as the fact that the little window unit can only do so much against the unstoppable forces of heat in the valley. usually the temperature drops enough at night that it is comfortable to have the windows open and fans going in the bedrooms. the past couple nights have been hot. our roomie fran is in vegas with the other proteges yesterday today and tomorrow.

yesterday after work i took the subway down to hollywood and highland (only a little scary by myself) and went shopping. i went to the costume stores and wig stores looking for the perfect outfit for this weekends rock n roll baby shower. i found some good stuff, but nothing in my price range (as awesome as a michael jackson wig would be... $40??? its not like im going to get multiple uses out of this thing). i decided that instead of dressing as my favorite rock star, it is going to be easier (a little bit more fun) to dress as a groupie. so i got a little tank top and some cheesy jewelry and im good to go. the tank top is actually something i would wear again, although not with my short jean skirt and leggings with glitter on them. intrigued? the party is saturday so check on sunday for pictures... :)

when i got home i cooked dinner (tuna steaks... yum!) and we went to two of my favorite stores. bevmo and vallarta. yay. then, since fran i gone, we blew up the air mattress and slept in the living room. i actually got cold last night. it was a wonderful feeling - waking up at 4:30 am shivering. i think we are sleeping out there again tonight. it brought back good memories of camping out on the floor of kevin and nikkis apartment when we first moved out here. gt gt.

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more than meets the eye

so on saturday afternoon we went to a movie. it has been forever since we went on a date to the movies just the two of us. we saw bourne ultimatum a couple of weeks ago with al and lottie, but before that it had been months prolly since we were at the theater. but i digress.

we saw transformers. it is seriously one of the best movies i have ever seen. i know that sounds totally dorky but have you seen it? it is totally sci-fi, but you dont feel like you are watching a sci-fi movie. all of the technology being used by the humans seems totally legit. the only thing that seems out of the ordinary is the alien that take the shape of vehicles. the action was intense... shia leboef rocks my face off... tyrese and josh duhamel are yummy... the plot was decent (as in there actually was one, which is becoming rarer in movies these days).

anyways. go see it. youll like it.

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does life get better?

last night was a cookout at lance and kris's house... we ate the chicken that we forgot to take camping with us. one of the best parts of the night was all the guys except jeremy were wearing blue shirts and blueish grey shorts. so they left him out and made him stand in the corner. all night long. actually only for as long as it took to take these pictures. but still. good story huh???

yesterday morning some girls came over and we worked on crafty projects and hung out. i finished my baby projects. ha ha. not for my baby. for kayla and ricky's baby and eric and christina's baby. thanks though.

today after church we went to the beach with lance and kris. i fell asleep for like an hour or something. i think kris has a picture of my drooling all over the sheet on her facebook page. but that was the best nap ever. and due to my skillful application of sunscreen - no burn. yay for me! after i woke up i was stretched out on the blanket reading and i sat up to take a drink of water. when i laid back down i felt somethig wet... a bird had pooped alllll over the sheet. well all over half of it. but it is a queen size sheet - thats a lot of doody. that pretty much killed the mood and we left shortly after. but it was good while it lasted.

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seriously?!?!?

last night jeremy took the busted air con to home depot and traded it for a new one. they didnt hassle him or anything so we were thinking great. this is working out well.

he gets home, and i help him install it (yeah i really did. although installation of a window unit in an apartment in la is a matter of lifting the thing in to the premade hole in the wall. but still. its shake and bake and i helped.) he turned it on and ahhh blessed cool air. we were watching the chiefs play the dolphins on monday night football on thursday nights (in what universe does that make sense i ask you) and the breaker blew. so we unplugged the tv from the same breaker as the air con, turned everything back on and watched the game.

the breaker blows again. we figure out the some of our small kitchen electrics are on the same breaker, even though they arent being used, so we unplug those and reset the thing. watch a couple more minutes of the game and...

it blows again.

this happened four or five mroe times and the guy downstairs (the apartment nmanager) comes upstairs to check on the new air con.

he wants to put a new plug type in the outlet that is specific to just the air con and so he does. we tried to explain to him that that is what blew up the other one because too much power is runnig through that circuit but he didnt listen. we get everything set up and test it on one of our little fans. it burns up the motor in the fan, but he still had us try the air con in the plug.

it ran for about five minutes before blowing up.

that was our third air con in four weeks.

it took forever to fall asleep last night as i was wallowing in a pool of my own sweat.

an electrician is supposedly going to come over tonight and fix it. we will see. im not holding my breath.

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meaghan's no good, terrible, very bad day

it all started last night when the brand new air con stopped working. so we slowly roasted meanwhile...

last night: three of these and one of these

this morning: one of these

and then come home and sweat to death.

yuck.

but i got the day off work... :)

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more movie and book reviews...

we watched a movie called aspen extreme sunday night... kevin said it was great... well, it was a very 80s movie - the clothes the hair etc. the storyline was interesting i guess, but it kept going on and on at the end after you thought it would be over. not going to be on either of our top ten lists, but not on the bottom ten either. the most interesting thing in it wasnt that interesting until yesterday's street drama jeremy witnessed... but there is a drug deal gone terribly wrong in the movie and it reminded me of the story jeremy told. i wonder if the guy on the bus yesterday was looking for steve. also this omvie features an extremely young teri polo. if i hadnt seen her name it would have taken me a loooong time to figure out who it was. we have been watching west wing season 6 and she is congressman matt santos's (a democratic presidential candidate) wife. not as much young looking in that one though.

i read a book yesterday called the kommandant's girl. it is set in poland during wwii. the main character is a jew who poses as a protestant polish girl and winds up working for the nazis. it was really really good. you should all read it. well all the women reading this blog anywyas. wasnt a very guy sort of book. the plot was arresting, the writing was well done - two thumbs up. one of the most serious books ive read in a long time thats for sure.

we watched football this weekend. only 18 more days until k-state plays. and i think we will be able to watch that game here because they are playing auburn and it is on espn. but my tv guide channel doesnt go ahead that far for me to check. but i am keeping my fingers crossed!!!!! also i am waiting for the bucs to repeat their super bowl victory. can i get an amen? :)

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she don't like cocaine

so yesterday jeremy was walking down the street in downtown burbank. for those of you who do not know, downtown burbank is a pretty nice area. there are some homeless people, but the streets are clean etc. so anyways, he sees this guy get off of a bus, cross the street to the other corner, drop a bag, and get on another bus which leaves. some epoepl had been walking behind him and saw him leave the bag and tried to get his attention before he got on the bus but couldnt. so the man opens the bag and pulls out snack sized baggies full of cocaine. you cant make this stuff up. another guy comes up behind the couple and was swearing at him like " you crazy mutha.... that could be a bomb! you coulda just blown my ... up!!!" and the crazy guy runs off.

so i ask you.

#1 who leaves cocaine just laying around??? was this a drop off gone wrong?

#2 who starts going through a bag left by someone like that? have you never been to an airport with all the security announcements etc saying if you see an unattended bag report it to security immediately!?!?

#3 can you believe jeremy actually saw this with his own two eyeballs? crazy huh?

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earthquake!

we have had two earthquakes in the past couple weeks. one was a pretty good sized one not too far from us. we felt the first one, which was smaller, because we were awake when it happened. we are far enough away that it was just a gentle rumble. everyone keeps talkng about the big one and how we are due for it and im thinking that im terrified. earthquakes arent like hurricanes or tornadoes, both of which ive been through and am not too scared by. mostly because you have notice. with a hurricane it is usually days and tornadoes hours but still. earthquakes are just here and then gone, leaving death and destruction in their wake. ok so no one dies or was even hurt by the two we have had recently but still. the most ironic thing about this earthquake is we had an earthquake drill already scheduled for the school on friday. so at least if it happens during 8-5 i know what to do. find a doorway!!!!!!

in other happier news, jeremy and rojelio, the apartment manager, are at home depot right now buying us a new air con. so when the temperature goes into the 110s this week, we wont die. and neither will cosmo and roxie. also, we saw our first hummingbird since we bought our new feeder. over a year ago, when my lavender was still alive, they used to come and suck on those flowers. a while ago we bought a feeder that is hanging on the deck and this morning we saw our first one. hopefully he went and told all his friends so we get more.

yesterday we spent the day cleaning out the hall closet. kim is organizing a garage sale co-op so we have been getting piles of stuff to sell together. even though we dont have that much stuff, we definitely ave some crap that we are ready to unload. we watched clean sweep on tlc at the same time to inspire us. we also went through our dvds and vhs (yes we still own vhs...) and xbox games. i am excited to get rid of all this stuff. after helping two of our friends move, we are ready to really pare down before we move next. no need to cart this stuff across the country right? peter walsh would be proud.

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two things i really really love

i love shopping online. not to the exclusion of shopping in the stores, because i like to touch stuff before i buy it. but i like shopping online because i get that thrill from making the purchase, and then the thrill again a week later when the stuff comes in the mail and i have new clothes (or books or cds or whatever).

i also really love shopping at gap online because they sell things that actually fit. most of their clothes are now offered in a tall size online only (like shirts! shirts with sleeves that go all the way past my wristbone! and that cover my stomach so my belly ring isnt hanging out everywhere! all things that are important in presenting a professional image at work!) also they offer one piece swimming suits in long torso sizes. so now i can have a swimming suit, which, for all you men out there ( i know i dont have to explain this to the ladies) is very different from a bathing suit.

our gym just opened a new branch in universal city with an outdoor pool. so now i can go swim laps and not worry about leaving pieces of my swimming attire floating in the pool behind me. which makes the whole swimming thing a lot less complicated.

we watched the prestige last night. that was a great movie. it started kinda slow and i almost turned it off, but i am glad i didnt! there were all kinds of plot twists and the ending is not at all what you would expect from the beginning of the movie. plus with hugh jackman and christian bale, who could go wrong??? highly recommended. if my opinion counts for anything. :)

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Daily Lit

so the new cool website I found is called daily lit. There are hundreds? several? many? books - mostly classics to choose from. you pick a book, enter your email address and the frequency with which you want to receive deliveries, and bam. youve got daily parts of the book.

i am reading the emerald city of oz first. it is divided into 67 parts so i will be reading it for the next three months (i chose monday through friday delivery). that will offically make it the book that took me the longest to read.

what books are you guys reading?

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welp i'm not blonde headed...

and i'm not red headed and i'm not brown headed. which leaves only one color option (in the range of naturally occuring color options that is... i'm certainly not purple headed or blue headed).


i'm black headed.

last night we went to the gym and afterwards i got bored. so we went to walgreens and i got some hair dye. i like it. it isnt all the way black - there are still some brown streaks (and even some leftover blonde) so it isnt so goth looking. everyone at work either loves it or hates it. but thats the way most people usually feel about me - not a lot of indifference where i am concerned. just the way i like it.

your black headed friend,

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movie and book reviews

we watched the most interesting movie last night. it was called everything is illuminated and it is the story of a young man who travels to the ukraine to meet the woman who helped his grandpa escape from the nazis. it was done in the style of the wes anderson movies, which jeremy loves and me not so much (bottle rocket, the life aquatic with steve zissou, royal tennnebaums, rushmore, etc). this movie though i liked. the family he stays with is made up of a grouchy old man who reminds me of the grandpa in little miss sunshine and a young man about his age who reminds of a not as much perverted borat type character (his speech patterns and things... sounds like he is using a thesaurus as he talks because the words mean the right thing but dont. if that makes any sense. like joey on friends when he wrote the letter for chandler and monica to adopt the baby and used the thesaurus on every word.). anyways, the plot was intersting and we loved it. check it out.

we also watched the queen on monday. another film we both enjoyed. it wasnt at all what i expected but i loved it. helen mirren is like my new hero. this movie mostly centered on what the queen and the prime minister did and felt and said just before, during and after princess diana's death. interesting backstage look into the royal life.

i finished the newest harry potter book (and the deathly hallows). i started in sunday at the beach and couldnt stop. i finished it last night. i love these books. some people may find them childish and some may find them satanic (both things i do not agree with). i cant really go into detail because i dont want to ruin it for anyone. but it was great. the ending was perfect - just exactly how i expected it to end. you should read this book (but read the rest first!)

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talk about relaxing...

jeremy and i just got back from a lazy sunday afternoon at the beach. we went with the slovaceks and got there later in the day than when we usually do. we ate our lunch then stretched out on the sheet. both of us had our pods, so we turned on music really softly (so you can hear the crash of the ocean on the shore above it) and drifted away in the ocean breeze. doesnt compare to any other suday afternoon nap i have ever taken bar none.

there were several alcohol busts, as well as a dog bust (thats a new one!). someone had to get airlifted out i assume because of an injury but the helicopter was too far away for us to get any details. we saw the dolphins again. i wonder if the are the same ones always, or different pods each time... hmmm...

last night we went with al and lottie and ste some yummy mexican (el torito grill) and saw the bourne ultimatum. actually they saw it and i mostly slept. we saw the 10:15 show, which got pushed back to 10:25 and by the time all the previews were over it was at least 11. im such an old lady! i would doze off for a minute and then wake up and watch part of it. or gunshots would wake me up. definitely not the most restful nap i have ever had. the parts i saw of the movie were awesome - i am going to have to watch it again definitely. i think identity is still my favorite of the three though. anyone else have a strong opinion on which of the three is the best? at least it wasnt one of those lame trlogies were the first one is amazing then the other two are kinda lame (matrix anyone?).

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coley's carribbean cuisine

we went to coleys last night for ryans birthday. ryan and kim ordered appetizers for everyone. we figured well how often do we eat jamaican food??? so i tried the jerk chicken drummettes. good flavor, reallllllly spicy. i was crying. also it looks like i have no teeth. there was about 20 people there, and the jamaican punch was flowing... a good time was had by all. ron and lynn got down on the dance floor - i had no idea they danced so well together!


we were feeling adventerous still when is came to ordering. i got the chicken kinston or something,, anyways it was a pounded chicken breat with a banana inside. it was REALLY

good. the plantanos were delicious, the beans and rice were delicious, the steamed veggies were nice and buttery... dont even get me started on the festival bread. it is like a party in ones mouth. this place rocks!

jeremy ordered the goat. kris and i tried some... it was very fatty but tasted a lot like roast beef. it was good though. kris on the other hand, pictured here making her goat face, did not care for it as much.

a day to rejoice

it is very easy to make me happy. most of you know this. little things get me excited. like when jeremy shows up to pick me up 5 minutes before 5 instead of 5 minutes after. or when my bodd writes me a thank you note. or when kimmy gives me magazines. or when lottie and i chat all day on gmail chat.

so it should come as no big surprise that the los angeles public library redesigning their website would throw me into spasms of joy. now i can browse best seller lists and onto my holds list... oh no i cant get into the library to pay my fines (which i rarely have if ever, just so you know) thats okay i can pay online. oh the wonderment.

today at school the seventh and eighth graders put on a play that they wrote, rehearsed for and made the sets for (with minor adult supervision and guidance). guns drugs gangs and thugs... the play was about choices people make and how their lives can turn out different by making good choices instead of bad (cassie, erica can i get an amen?). it had a christmas carol-like ghost (the ghostly eagle or something) that visited these kids in jail and let them rewrite history. it was very poorly performed (they read and mumbled most of the lines) but they were so joyful on stage and the audience was respectful and everyone was great. if you know the type of kids at my school, you will know this is a big deal. and i almost cried at the end. it was just so great. then they had kfc and i snuck a biscuit with honey. talk about the little things making a person happy. rapture!

!m!

the worst shopping trip ever...

so jeremy and i went to the mall and to ikea last night. jeremy bought some new shorts and out of all the stores we went to i found a big fat nothing that i liked. i dont think i have ever gone shopping and found just nothing.

part of the problem was at old navy. dont get me wrong - i like old navy just as much as the next girl. but have you looked at the womens clothes there right now? if someone had never been shopping and saw what they have there, they would think that #1 all pregnant women refuse to buy maternity clothes so designers have to make ALL clothes suitable to fit preggo bellies into and #2 non pregnent women are ok with this and embrace this trend and want to look pregnant even though they arent. the entire middle section of the store was full of "trapeze" shirts and dresses. shapeless bags (in beautiful fabrics and patterns) that are basically a big circle with arm and neck holes. so not flattering.

then we went to ikea and i didnt see anything i really wanted. i dont think that has ever happened before. i bought a tea steeper thing for emily because they were out when she went this weekend. but thats it. $2.99 for the whole trip. i dont think jeremy was too disappointed but still.

finally it is friday. tonight we celebrate ryans birthday at cooley's caribbean food place. yum. (he is turning 35 again!)

the past two nights we have been helping friends unpack stuff and clean their new house... kris and i decided we should be professional movers/organizers. we make a darn good team.

!m!

gimme some aussie lovin...

jeremy and i got to hang out with our "son" russ last night. he is one of the two guys who lived with us last summer... well he came over last night to celebrate our one year anniversary. he brought us some austrailian chocolate treat called tim tam or seomthing. anyways i am excited to try it. we ate a chicken and some american biscuits and salad and bumbleberry purses and played settlers of catan. it was great. it is strange to live with someone for six weeks and see him all the time then he moves on to bigger and better things and we only see him at church on sundays. so last night was a great time to just relax and catch up and tlak about the little things that dont get mentioned when you see someone for 1-2 minutes on a busy sunday morning.

in other news, area, the club lottie and i went to on saturday, is in the news . so i feel validated. even though we didnt see paris and lilo on saturday, we danced on the same floor they have. so thats something at least. also we missed barack by just a few days. sadness!

!m!