Contamination

This past weekend Mr. Handsome and I worked on finishing my kitchen table. It was a big task, but we got it done. More on the table in another post. Anywhoo, we needed rags and I found some... they were red. I am obsessively careful about my white towels being washed only with other whites. Obsessive. However, there seems to have been some contamination. Now my white towels are pink. After a long soak with bleach afterwards, they are a bit less pink, but pink nonetheless. Bummer.

uh-oh. Pink!!


The culprit


pre-bleached towel


post-bleached towel

Holiday Madness

Can you believe this schedule?
Dec. 22- arrive in SD. Dinner with the fam plus the awesome Gillingham's after some shopping
Dec. 23- more shopping & Tamale Party
Dec. 24- went walking in the AM with long-time friend Dilenna and then got a text from jumper boy @ 11am asking me why I'm not in LA yet because the champagne is already flowing... drive up there and spend Christmas Eve with his family
Dec. 25- Christmas morning with the boy's family, Dug out huge plumeria trees in the front yard for his sister to bring back to San Diego for their new home. Drive down to SD spend Christmas evening with my family
Dec. 26- help Jumper boy's sister & brother-in-law plant huge plumeria trees in the new backyard, load a U-haul trailer with stuff to bring to the dump. We decide to hang with them the rest of the night eating Thai food and drinking champagne.
Dec. 27- Jumper boy's sister makes an awesome egg chorizo breakfast on Sunday's... we stay there and enjoy the company longer... it was nice spending time with them. We try to go see Sherlock Holmes but it was sold out, so we hit the Banana Republic sale instead. Then the boy and I headed out to see his Aunt who lives near Patrick Henry High for an hour or so before we got a surprise visit from my half brothers Tony & Kenny from up in Northern California which resulted with a dinner and a bonfire with them
Dec. 28- back up to LA to spend some more time with the boy's family. We arrived in the late afternoon so we didn't do much, but his mom made enchilada's and we watched a movie.
Dec. 29th- we worked in the front yard some more. It was a beautiful day. Nice and sunny. Then we went to a fish restaurant for lunch. Too much traffic to head up to Laura's as planned, so we stayed home, watched a movie and got a little bit of food poisoning from In-and-Out. :(
Dec. 30- Drove up to Simi Valley from La Mirada. TONS of traffic... took over twice as long as it should have to get there. Spent the afternoon in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi. It was pretty cool. We got to tour his Air Force One and see a piece of the Berlin Wall that he had a hand in taking down. Laura and her husband made us dinner that night and we were entertained by their 6-month old daughter Kiersten and puppy Greta. Josh then made us the best kettle corn ever for dessert. nice.


December 31- drove to Fresno with the boy to meet his friend Gary. After a couple hours hanging out, we loaded up Gary's car and headed to Big Sur (a 3 hour drive) so the boys could base jump off some bridge they were totally obsessed with :) It was a pretty cool bridge though.




Jan.1- They jumped at midnight, climbed back up, we popped some champagne and we headed back another 3 hours to Fresno to sleep for 2 hours before waking up to drive back to LA and SD so that I could make it to the Riel family party in time. Jumper boy was now at home with his family and me at home with mine. I went to bed at 7:30 pm that night
Jan. 2- Got a haircut from my aunt Francie and then met some long-time friends that I hadn't seen since 6th grade. Did some gift returns/exchanges from Christmas. followed by dinner @ the Panton's house.
Jan. 3- Back for more hair work with Aunt Francie bright and early! then to a bridal shower for a long-time family friend Audrey. Went home, packed my bags, realized I had forgotten my gloves in Dilenna's stroller on the 24th so headed back there and chatted with her and her husband for a bit.
Jan.4- going home. jumper boy's cousin is picking me up from Logan airport at 8pm
Jan.5- picking up jumper boy from the airport t 5am after his red-eye flight

The annual Tamale Party

This year's Tamale party at the Martinez house was quieter than usual. Last year was absolutely wild and ended with Cheri on a chair leading a houseful of people to take shots of tequila. This year, there were less shots of Tequila (although my suffering from jet-lag led me to leave the party early around 10:30pm and it's quite possible that it picked up quickly after I left). Cheri and Tom sported their new gifts from the grandkids complete with painted handprints! Myself and others sported the "?Got Tamales?" T-shirt made for us by Cheri a couple years back. Got to visit with Danielle, one of my closest friends from childhood and got to see her cute little boy Nico. Every year, on the 23rd, this is what we do!

Dinner @ the Panton's

I've decided that since I've still got an hour to kill before boarding the plane, that I'd go ahead and write another post! On Saturday evening we were invited over to the Holly and Rex's for dinner. It was so fabulous... it was a group of us who have been in each other's lives as long as I can remember. Holly & Rex's daughter Lauren was there with her new husband Marty. Uncle Bob & Aunt Listy came along with Kristy and Seamus. My mom and dad, brother Curtis and his girlfriend Lauren came too. It was just a lot of fun. Holly had these popper things that had trinkets and a fortune and a paper crown that we all wore after dinner in celebration of good times. We drank, we ate, we talked, we watched Lauren & Marty's wedding viedo... it was fun. These are some of the best people that I know. It was a nice "send-off".

I *heart* California

I am in the airport killing time with the Free WiFi (a holiday gift from Google apparently) waiting to go back to reality. I have had a good trip. I'll post some more pictures later and tell the stories as time goes so that it's not just one giant post. Today dad took me to the airport and we left around 6:20am or so... the sunrise was sooo pretty. Really gorgeous, deep oranges, reds and pinks lit up the sky. Of course we get sunsets in New England, but this was particularly beautiful with the silhouettes of Palm trees in the view of the sky. I'm going to miss it even though most days I was asleep when this was going on.

One other thing that I will miss is Jamba Juice. I really really love a good smoothie. There is a Jamba Juice on BU's campus, but that is of little help to me. Otherwise, there are no smoothie joints to be found in my region. Sad. Fortunately San Diego airport has one in the terminal and I can sit here and enjoy one last Caribbean Passion fruit smoothie with yogurt instead of sherbet.