Vodka and Soda

Photo Fridays: Almalfi Coast, Italy

in september 2006, my husband and i decided it was time for our last hurrah before planning for a family.  not only was this our last hurrah, but it was sort of our second honeymoon as well. 

i like to travel during the month of september; i find the weather in most areas are nice - not too hot and not too cold.  we were in italy for 3 weeks and hubs surprised me by bringing me here, to the Almalfi Coast, where we spent 2 wonderful nights for our anniversary.

just looking at these pics makes me wish i could go back there now.......

vegas: T minus too long

i can't believe that our girls vegas trip is next month.  it seems like yesterday when we were in the midst of planning and wondering if this was actually going to happen.

well it's happening, bitches! holla at yo' girl!

thanks to reni for designing a most awesome banner.  

in the spirit of getting ready for vegas - even a haggard mom like me needs to get her groove on - i thought i'd spend some time putting together some outfits for our nights out on the town.  check out my goodies:

 

i've been eying these wedges for months but didn't want to cough up $110 for them.  i'll pay out my ass for a nice bag but i'm a little stingy in the shoe department.  today felt like a shoe-shopping kinda day and because i've been slaving away at the office on a project that's kicking my ass, i decided that it was time to treat myself for all my hard work.  well, didn't i go to the shoe store only to find these wedges on sale?  i tweeted steph about them to which she replied: "yes of course, because when it's on sale, it's almost free".  she's a smart woman, that stephanie.

i've been mentally assembling my vegas outfits for a while now and i've been slowly and carefully buying clothes that are comfortable yet classy.   it seems that i'm either getting old or my tastes are maturing because those loud, slutty, barely-cover-your-teats tops just don't do it for me anymore and there's no way that i could get away with wearing short coochie-showing pants without looking like a trolling cougar.  instead, i find myself gravitating to more sophisticated pieces that are sexy and tasteful.  

i've also had the urge to buy accessories and for some reason, i couldn't get cocktail rings and silver cuffs out of my mind so today, i got these two rings - it was a "buy one get one free" deal.  who can resist that?

i'm not having any luck in finding a classy silver cuff that is small enough to fit my tiny wrist without making me look like a kid wearing her grandmother's costume jewelery. 

i love all of these for various reasons.  #1 is classy and elegant; i love the texture of #2 and i love the woven look of #3. 

i just can't find anything like this anywhere!  if you have any recos, help a gal out and tell me!

I have a feeling this summer is going to be all kinds of awesome

Now that Vampire Diaries is done, I feel all empty inside.  I can't get into my other shows because they're so boring and lacking in everything that has to do with Damon Salvatore that they're not even worth watching.  The only shows I like now are Big Bang Theory because of the geek hilarity factor and The Voice because I get to stare at Adam Levine for an hour.

However, not all is lost.  I have a feeling this summer is going to be lots of fun; here's why:

I've posted several times about my all-girls trip to the adult amusement park that is called Las Vegas and I'm happy to say that everyone is locked, loaded and ready to tear this mutha down.  We got a sweet deal on the hotel - Treasure Island was having a 50% off sale and for some reason, the flights going to and from Vegas were dirt cheap (we're talking $230CAD one-way) so after everything was said and done, we paid under $650 for the weekend.  Can I get a w00t!  

Not only will we be celebrating Reni and Maur's birthday that weekend but we have shopping, drinking, eating and gossiping on the agenda; the stuff that all-girls trips are made of.  The only thing that I need to do is shop for going-out clothes.  Most of what I have in my closet are old clothes and home-wear; that basically translates to old ho gear and yoga pants/ratty cotton tshirts.   At the ripe age of 35, one can't wear ho gear that one used to wear in her early 20s; you know, when things were still perky and pointed north.   After not finding anything that suited me in my usual go-to skank stores, I ended up buying two taseteful tube tops for $12 each at Old Navy and two pairs of amazing capris from RW&Co.  I also have my eye on some Steve Madden wedges but do I want to cough up $109?  Perhaps.  Ok I probably will. 

Then, on August 22, I have a date with Adam Levine.    I'm meeting him at the Molsen Amphitheater where he'll sing his undying love for me in front of thousands of witnesses.  I know you're jealous.

Maureen and I blocked off our calendars for 11am today when tickets went on sale and let me tell you, it was the most nerve-wracking thing.   I don't recall Ticketmaster being this demanding when I purchased tickets for The Police a few years back.  Not only do they rush you to complete multiple forms in under 2 minutes but they display this countdown clock on each page that screams YOU HAVE XX MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS PAGE!  in big, bolded red font so you're under tremendous pressure to make snap decisions on the fly and you're on the phone with who ever you're talking to losing your shizz and screaming at each other "WHAT SEATS DO YOU HAVE?!? SHOULD I BUY THESE?! TALK TO ME, GOOSE!!! WHAT SHOULD I DO?!?!!  I ONLY HAVE 30 SECONDS LEFT!! SO SHOULD I BUY THESE?!!?! SPEAK WOMAN!!!!".  To make things worse, they throw in these wicked, long ass captcha words that you can barely make out because they're all twisted and wack and you're cussing and cursing because you keep getting it wrong.  And after you've finally bit the bullet and purchased what you think are possibly the best tickets you can get given the high demand for the best seats, you torture yourself by continuing to search for seats only to get pissed off when you actually come across better seats than the ones you bought.  That's what me and Maur did for about 20 minutes after our purchase was complete.  It was not cool.   But whatevs; we got tickets and that's all that matters.

Also on the summer agenda:  multiple trips to Canada's Wonderland thanks to our season's pass, a family trip to the zoo with my sister's kids and lots of bbq's, picnics and beach trips, not to mention a mini-trip to the Sesame Street Amusement park in PA and probably another trip down south. 

See, I told you this summer's going to be all kinds of awesome.

Assumption: NM1 integration for retrieval and update exists in Single View.

Random Tuesdays

Thankfully it's  Random Tuesday so I can ramble on about everything that I wanted to post but didn't because I've been obsessed with this show. 

Are you excited about the finale?  because I am.   I spent the last week and a half absorbed by every episode and now I'm all caught up.  I was so obsessed with this show that I even watched it while I was at work and didn't care that my boss caught me several times.   Get fired or watch Vampire Diaries? that was a hard decision so I chose Vampire Diaries because I know what my priorities are.

***

Mother's day was awesome.  My little monkey made me some amazing artwork which I'm going to take to work and gave me a big hug and kiss.  Do you see that cute little planter?  Kayla decorated that as part of my mother's day gift so now we have a tiny planter of grass.   I think it's time for a trim.  Hubs bought me beautiful flowers even though he knows I don't believe in that stuff and did the morning shift so I could lie in bed guilt-free because it was my day!

 

 

***

My hair is out of control.  Regardless of how often I cut it, it grows like weeds so I can never keep a hair style for very long simply because it grows out too fast.  My stylist is a tad too far for me and I've been too lazy to book an appointment to trim it but then an idea struck:  because my hair is at a really nice length, why not get permanent waves?  I love the wavy beach hair look and my hair is the perfect length for it.

who knows if the perm will stick because I kid you not, my hair is like teflon.  I permed my hair once a very long time ago and they used industrial strength solution but by the time I got home, it was dead straight.   Let's hope my stylist can work a little of her magic so that I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars in vain.

***

We're booked for Vegas, bitches!  After months of searching and patiently waiting for prices to drop, we finally booked our flight and hotel for the Asian Sensation blogging expedition on July 8-11, which also happens to be Maur and Reni's birthday weekend awwwww yeah!.  Now it's all a matter of finding some decent going-out clothes which is a change from my usual wardrobe of Lululemon yoga pants and ratty yet comfy cotton shirts.  July can't come fast enough!

***

It may seem that all I can talk about is Vampire Diaries and dear readers, it's true.  Not only is the show awesome but the soundtrack is also really good.  I almost never get any soundtracks from any show or movie but I actually went and bought 2 songs off loathsome iTunes because my torrents weren't finding the right one.  Both songs are so hauntingly beautiful; I can't stop listening to them.

"Bloodstream" by Stateless.  This song is so good, I want to have sex with it.

 

 

"Cut" by Plumb.   Gives me the chills.

 

Turks & Caicos: the day we met DJ Lance Rock on the Catamaran

 

On a beautiful Wednesday morning, we coughed up a pretty penny to sail the ocean with Elmo and friends on the Catamaran.  This is a separate activity that isn't part of the all-inclusive package and is booked separately.  It was a little "boat party" for kids with snacks and drinks while you cruised the beautiful crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Ocean.

Unfortunately, Kayla wasn't as down with it as we had hoped.  She was disappointed that Abby Cadabby wasn't on board and by then, she was already over Elmo.  I believe her word for Elmo is "passe".  I also think the gentle swaying of the boat made her sleepy as it did for all the other kids and the music was a bit too loud so really, it ended up being a boat party for the adults who were taking advantage of the booze, tunes, fantastic weather and sailing along the gorgeous ocean.  

The DJ was a funny guy who looked strangely familiar.   He played kiddie music but mixed in some old club anthems (Show Me Love, oh hell yes) and old skool tunes which  made me boogie-oogie-oogie.  As I enjoyed the ocean breeze in my hair and sat on the deck pretending to be a celebrity on a private yacht, it suddenly hit me that our Dj was none other than DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba.  See for yourself.  

I know, right?  

DJ Dizzle is fo' shizzle

 

Now for some beautiful pictures:

Turks & Caicos: the day we were forced to be social

On the third day into our vacation, we were *gasp* forced to be social. During all of our other trips, hubs and I usually ignore everyone keep to ourselves; mainly because we're not 'small talk' kind of people.  I have to talk a lot at work so I tend not to talk very much when I'm on vacation unless I'm thanking the hotel staff or yelling at someone because they stole our beach spot.

On a regular day at the beach while Kayla was frolicking in the ocean, I came back from getting another a drink and noticed two kids pointing to Kayla's sand toys and walking towards them.  I overheard the boy saying to his sister "they're over here" and proceeded to approach her toys as if they magically appeared on the beach for all kids to play with.  I know I sound like a tyrant mom but I find it incredibly annoying when kids are rude and think they can just take everything and anything that doesn't belong to them.  I believe that all kids should be taught manners and they should always ask for permission to play with something that's not theirs.  I certainly am adamant that Kayla learns such manners and I expect parents to do the same with their kids.  I'll get off my high-horse now.

So here I am, standing guard and watching these two kids approach me; ready to say something if they decide to walk away with her toys.  Believe me, I'm no stranger to playing Mama Bear if someone tries to bully my kid or take her stuff.  Regardless if you're 50 or 5, I will do all I can to protect my child and her belongings.  I was glad to hear them asking me if they could play with her toys to which I said ok but I asked that they return them when they're finished.  You damn straight I was ready to stand right there while they played in case they forgot whose toys they were playing with.

All the while, I'm surveying the beach for any sign of their parents.  I discovered their father in the ocean and noticing with alarm that his kids were playing with unfamiliar toys, he started coming out of the water so I waved to him and gave him the thumbs up since I was standing guard anyway.  This is when Kayla looked up, saw those kids and started running towards her toys.  I could see the wheels in her head turning and the words THOSE ARE MY TOYS! forming on her mouth to which I softly asked her if she could share her toys with these kids.  She looked at them and while I was sure she would grab her shovel away from the girl and bonk the bucket over the boy's head, she gave her favorite purple shovel to the girl and gracefully said: here, this one is better.  Bless her kind heart. 

This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship during the remainder of our vacation.  We later found out that the boy's name is Benjamin (who is 5), his sister's name is Eliza (who just turned 4) and they have another 7-month sister named Julia.  They're from New Jersey and flew in the same time that we did.  For some reason, Kayla only remembered and wanted to play with Benjamin and boldly ignored poor Eliza while I desperately tried to talk to Kayla to tell her that she should play nicely with both kids.  Because all three of them were congregated in our area, this forced Benjamin and Eliza's parents to sit near us, throwing all four parents into an awkward situation that is called forced conversation.  

Thankfully, they turned out to be very nice people, not like some of the loud, rude and obnoxious clowns that were scattered around the beach/resort.  Eric and Lauren are friendly and warm and Benjamin and Eliza are great, well-mannered kids.  At first, we were all a little apprehensive about sitting around together simply because we were fearful of being intrusive but after we got over it, it was actually nice to sit and have adult conversation.  We soon found ourselves looking for Benjamin as much as Kayla was whenever we headed to the beach or pool.

Benjamin is hilarious in the things he does and says.  Eliza is sweet and loves to dance and Julia is an adorable chubby baby.  Just talking to all of them made me laugh.  Every day, Kayla would ask about the kids and whenever they saw us, they'd perk right up and run over to talk to her.  I became known as "Kayla's mommy" so every time they wanted to do something, go somewhere or just say something to me, Benjamin would come up to to me and say "Kayla's mommy....". It was adorable and so cute to watch all three of them playing in the sand and ocean.

Even a week later, she still asks about Benjamin or pretends to "talk" to him on her phone.  

Turks & Caicos: the day we dined with the Sesame Street folks

 

Prior to our departure, hubs researched the hell out of this trip and booked us in for a Character Breakfast for $40USD which included a buffet breakfast, Sesame Street themed decor and place-settings and lots and lots of balloons.  The grand "surprise" was the appearance of the Sesame Street crew:  Abby Cadabby, Ernie and Bert, Big Bird, Elmo, Zoe, The Count, Grover and our lovable simpleton, Cookie Monster. 

Never had I seen so many kids lose their fucking minds all at once.  It was like a rave filled with kids going nuts and instead of being high on ecstacy, they were high on the Sesame Street characters; every one was screaming and yelling and totally losing their shizz.  It was actually pretty hilarious to watch - the kids freaking out while parents tripped and fell over each other trying to take as many pictures as possible.   We were no different.

The best part were the characters; they stayed for quite a long time, freely roaming around the entire area, stopping to pose for pictures, trying to navigate around the kids who attacked them and sitting at each table for parents to take pictures.

It was amazing to see Kayla squeal with glee as each character made their appearance.  She clapped and screamed every name, danced with them and threw herself into their arms.  They did a congo line, the Makarena and Chicken Dance while all the kids followed along, bumping into each other and knocking one another over as they fought to stand/dance beside their favorite character.

Totally worth the $40; so much so that we booked a second breakfast a few days later, pushed all the kids out of the way and boogied with the characters (just kidding).

Turks & Caicos: the day I went into vacay mode

After my meltdown, we fell into our daily routine of waking, eating breakfast, beaching and relaxing and things took a turn for the better; like 180° better.  We were on vacation in beautiful Turks and Caicos and we had a bunch of activities to look forward to for the remainder of the week.

It typically takes me a couple of days to fully unwind because I'm such a schedule-oriented person but this vacation, because it was short and I had Kayla to tend to, I thought to hell with it, vacay mode starts now.  So I mentally checked out, tossed my internal schedule out the window and went with the flow.  The only thing we stuck to was Kayla's 1pm nap and this was just so we could stay out later (past her regular 7:45/8pm bedtime) to enjoy the festivities, shows and parades. 

I made a promise to myself that during this vacation, I would read at least one book.  My co-worker graciously lent me his Kindle so it was easy for me to load up a few books to take with me on this trip.  Not only did I read one book but four - yes, four - in one week.  There's a lot of reading that can be done if you have a husband who loves to frolick in the sand and ocean as much as a 2 year old child. 

I started The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (non-fiction) a few months ago but due to work and having fun with Kayla, it fell by the wayside.  I'm glad I started re-reading this because it's an excellent book. It had everything to do with science, technology, history and a little bit of conspiracy theory mixed in - you know, all the makings of a fantastic book I'm too lazy to write a review but it was a great read.  Click here for a review/synopsis of the book.

Yes, I read the Brangelina story not because I wanted to, but because it was already loaded on the Kindle.  If you want to judge someone, judge my co-worker.  I skimmed through a lot of parts and only read the details about how Angelina is a mastermind at manipulating the  media, how screwed up she was as a kid and young adult and how she stole Brad Pitt. If you were thinking of reading it, I just gave you the meat of the book so save your money.

I have to say, I was truly impressed by the Devil Wears Prada.  This was one of those books where I'd heard great things about it, tried to read it but after a few chapters, put it down with utter boredom.  Because I was running out of options and I had to read something, I forced myself to get through the boring parts and I'm glad I did because this is actually a very good book.  Hilarious, even and a page-turner after chapter 3.  I could barely put this down.

The City of Bones.  Not usually my cup of tea but I thought I'd give this a try after hearing good things about the series.  At first, it was a little slow and my impatient personality tossed it aside and deemed it unreadable but again, due to limited reading options, I kept at it then could barely put it down after the 3rd chapter.  I'm now reading the 2nd book. 

So with all this reading, how did I tend to my daughter, you ask? It's called letting my husband do the heavy lifting.  While hubs is great at splitting the child-rearing tasks, I tend to take most of it on because, well, I just do.  This time around, he fed her, helped bathed her, even put her to bed most nights and you know what?  it felt great to let go of the reigns for a bit and really relax. 

Turks & Caicos: the day I had a meltdown

This is our first family vacation.  After almost 3 years of not going on vacation at all - when hubs and I used to go every year; sometimes twice - it was time.  It had been nearly a year since I'd learned to relax about motherhood so I felt ready to venture onto something new and test my (sort of) new found parenting style.

When we first booked this trip, I balked at the cost.  Never had I paid so much for just 7 days; even my 3 week trip to Italy cost a few thousand dollars more but we were in Italy.  For 3 weeks.  I had heard so much about this resort and for real yo, I expected this grand suite and I would just have to lie there while people tended to my every whim because I seriously paid out my ass for this trip. 

We arrived late - damn you, Air Canada - Kayla was tired from missing her nap and I was annoyed at the fact that she just wouldn't settle even for a minute.  I know she's only a kid who is on her first trip but damn, sometimes I wish she had a pause button.  Given the fact that I barely slept that night from being over-anxious about forgetting something or trying to figure out what we would do if our luggage got lost, I was cranky, tired and I just wanted to go to my fabulous room for which I paid a fortune and relax while we got ready for dinner.

What we walked into wasn't as grand or as big as I expected.  Instead, it was your standard one bedroom suite with a trundle for Kayla to sleep on.  No bodacious men fanning me with feathers, no grapes to feed me, no butler at the ready to jump at my command.  Just a regular suite with an overhead fan, tiled floors and a regular tv.  After snooping around and searching for the hidden door that opened to the magical suite of my dreams, I only discovered a broken lock on one of the sliding doors which sent me over the edge.  I majorly freaked out and started screaming.  Phrases such as I PAID THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR THIS FUCKING DUMP?  I WANT AN UPGRADE! and words like FUCK, GODDAMMIT, SUCKS, SONOFABITCH and HATE flew out of my mouth in rage.  My poor hubs was trying to diffuse the situation while Kayla, luckily, was off exploring the bedroom.  Holy shit, looking back, I can't believe I lost my cool like that.

It took me a long time, a few drinks, slamming random objects around and several calls to the front desk (who repeatedly advised me that they were at capacity and would do everything they could to seek an larger suite) to calm down after which I sheepishly apologized to hubs for losing my shizz. We were, after all, in paradise with the crystal blue ocean and powder white beaches waiting for us the next morning so although I was disappointed with our room, I decided to make the most of it and not ruin our first day of many by being a bonafide bitch.

After a few deep breaths, I decided not to focus on this:

and instead, focus on this.  How could stay angry when I had this to look forward for the next 7 days?

And now back to our regularly scheduled program

We're back from beautiful Turks & Caicos and it's incredibly depressing to wake up to cloudy, cold and snowy/rainy weather that Toronto has to offer.  Why is it snowing and freaking cold in April?  Get your shit straight Mother Nature, we're supposed to have sun and warmer temperatures.

We spent the most of yesterday unpacking, resting and doing mounds of laundry.  That's the one thing I hate about coming home from vacation - the mountain of laundry that has to be done. I have 2 more loads to go so you can guess what I'll be doing today and probably tomorrow.  Oh joy.  At least I had enough sense to book an extra two days off. Aside from the loathsome laundry situation, I plan to spend today writing and researching three things:

1) self tanner because it seems my tan fell off somewhere between landing in Toronto and waking up to snow/ice pellets yesterday and dammit, I am going back to the office looking golden.  Yes, I'm that shallow

2) Kayla's birthday party because my monkey is turning three in 2 months.  THREE! where did the time go?

3) hardware for a friend's Macbook because doing this kind stuff gives me a total geek boner

It was a tough ride home on Saturday night and I'm still tired. We didn't get in the door until well past midnight and Kayla ended up passing out in the car just after 11pm.  11pm!  at least I now know she can stand to be up that late without a major meltdown.   Our flight was late (7:15pm) which in adult terms is ok but in kid terms is not.  Never mind that Kayla didn't sleep at all on the plane even though all the other kids were passed out but the plane was having trouble with their cabin light as in they couldn't shut off the light above us.  The majority of the cabin lights were off except a few, including ours.  It was really excellent.  That meant an active Kayla who wouldn't stop moving even though she was beyond tired because seriously, how could she sleep or relax with a fucking spotlight blaring down on her? 

Anyway, I'll be posting several updates about our trip.  If you're curious, this is what we left.  It was amazing and it sucks to come home to this weather.