while the cat's away.....

Aren't we supposed to be up to no good when the cat is away? Shouldn't the mice be playing? Well, not in my house, sister! My husband is gone on a dune buggy trip. Long gone. Well, not LONG gone, just in Clearlake. Coming home tomorrow (I think....). Man, it's hard when you're a single mom. I have Nikolas here watching the girls, but Oh, MY, G O S H !!! If Kenny didn't love these trips so much, and come home so relaxed and happy.........I might be a pisser about the whole thing!

I got up today at 5:00 am. Out the door by 5:07. That's right, no shower, bedhead and all.....Went to meet my sister in West Sac for our weekly meet at Starbucks and grocery shopping together. (It's the only way we can make time to hang out!) Then, I left West Sac at 7:45, and got home by 8:15. Unpacked groceries until 8:30. In the shower and out the door by 9:00 am. Got to the office by 9:05, no make-up, hair half wet. Worked at the office until 3:00 pm, and met a client to go show property. Showed property across two counties, got home at 8:15. The girls were starving despite a call from me at 6:15 telling lovely nephew to make dinner for them. Yes, I do love him so..........(he's too cute not to forgive). Now catching up on Facebook and the blog, while drinking vodka and cran-raspberry.

Back out to show property at 10:15 am tomorrow, in the office again at 12:00, and work until 3:00. Hope I can come home and put on jammies for the rest of the day. Need a bed, a cocktail and some zzzzzzz's. This mouse is tired, hoping cat comes home soon. Mouse doesn't play so much anymore when the cat's away. Mouse misses cat and babies do to.

da do run run?

My girls had their annual Plainfield Elementary School Jogathon yesterday. In our house, it's more like the day we go to watch the girls NOT run. There are many variations of this excercise. We call them the semi-run. The run only when teachers are looking or yelling. The run one lap, and then walk the rest. Or, my personal favorite.....the walk if you feel like it and say "to hell with it all".

Lolo has mastered the actual run. The kind of run you do till you just can't do it no more. We call it the do run run.

Oh Lolo. Smaller than most of the species her age, she runs and smiles. And smiles and runs. And her knees are up by her elbows, but still she runs..... She ran 8 laps around a 1/6 mile track. That is roughly 1 and 1/3 miles. Pretty good I say.

Now Alaina, my oldest, and perhaps most closet-girly of all three (I say closet-girly because she will swear she hates pink, but cry if she breaks a sweat and is VERY worried about her hair) hates the Jogathon. She likes the sunshine, the open-air market (i.e. shopping) and the water horse (which is just a giant drinking fountain) but could live without the whole production all together. She's actually a lot like me when I was young, except she does what she feels like doing instead of doing what she's supposed to for fear of the consequences - which was what I always did. So, since she feels like walking, she walks. It doesn't really matter to me what she does, except she could use the excercise (she's a little on the lazy side - ssshhhh).

Julianna runs until her cheeks turn bright red, and I think her health is failing, and then she gets a drink, and walks a little, then runs some more. She is really thin and her skin is pale, and she turns this shade of pink that makes you think she has heat stroke, but it's just her normal look for breaking a sweat. Maybe it worries me because I don't see her break a sweat much(?) Until, near the very end, when she quit jogging or running or walking all together and went.........(drumroll please).......... shopping! But, she got caught by a teacher who told her she couldn't buy anything yet because she was supposed to still be on the track with the rest of her class. Ooops, busted. But, Papa told her "who cares", and held her on his lap until she got to go shopping. We won't tell anyone that she's my "To hell with it!" kid.

The girls spent plenty of money on very necessary items such as rain sticks made out of wrapping paper tubes filled with sand and covered with magazine pictures. Dried gourds make anything from a vase (julianna bought me one) to a bird feeder. Small blackboards on popsicle sticks make very fine garden plant labels (don't ask me what you do when it rains and washes the chalk off). Many plants are for sale and you can even buy a bag of garbage/soil (homemade compost) for 50 cents.

You know, I joke about the day, and the activities, and the kids, but you can't beat Plainfield for the old-school kind of school where parents show up and take pictures (and know everyone's names) and chear on the home team.....Hurray for jogging, walking, hiding out, quitting early, shopping and just plain growing up. You can't beat any of it!

Betty Ford for Facebook....

Okay, why do we all love Facebook? I used to think "oh, give me a break, who needs facebook?". I didn't know what twitter meant and I figured, who cares??? Then, one life-altering day, I was told I had to join Facebook so that I could see what other people put on Facebook, and it was like "WHAT?" ....I have to join a website so than I can see what other people already WANT me to see??? Then, I realized, it's not like my time is:

a) that important or
b) hard to come by

so what the heck, right? I said, "I'll peek at other people and satisfy my curiosity....and not really JOIN Facebook". So, I remained Faceless on Facebook for awhile. I mean, I've seen my face enough already, and nobody else really wants to look, right? But, people kept saying "you need a picture, where's your picture, what no picture, blah, blah, blah......" But, I stood strong, and held firm, like the old song goes, like a rock. I remained faceless. As a matter of fact, if you clicked on 'view friends' it probably said - 'angelique has no friends'. Still, I didn't care......

Then, I thought - well, maybe one picture. But, just like those damn cigarettes...."one picture can't hurt me, right?" One picture leads to two, two lead to four, then an album. Before you know it, people are asking you "why so many pictures?"........Then one day you find yourself looking at all your friends and their friends, and searching for people you know/knew/want to know and best (worst) of all, people that you don't want to know that you know.... the next thing you know - YOU'RE HOOKED!!!!

That's right, my friends. Hooked on Facebook! Now, just like the old days when people would say "Come on, Ang. What's the big deal? Try it, you'll like it"...................... Now I'M the one pushing today's new drug.....Just today I sent a YOU HAVE TO JOIN FACEBOOK email to my sister of all people. I'll drag anyone down with me - no one is safe.

Really, it's a semi-safe addiction all things considered. It certainly isn't as permanent as the Big Green Gecko tattoo I thought I would ALWAYS love.......(nope, after the age of say, 23, the old girl is not very much fun anymore, and she's faded, and old-looking just like me)!

After all, Facebook is informative and fun! It's fabulous and exciting! You learn many new things and get to send your friends e-drinks! If I hadn't joined Facebook, I would never have known that my Third Eye Chakra is the most open. And after so many years singing the classic 1960's hit "Sing it loud! I'm black and I'm proud!", and thinking I was a direct descendant of Otis Redding (or closely related in another life), I took the wise Facebook Quiz HOW BLACK ARE YOU? and I found out that I am not black at all, but JUST PLAIN WHITE! (That's okay, because I always knew Michael Jordan was out of my league...) Or, how about 'which pin up girl are you'? Even boys can play that one.!!! Sure, it depends on the boy.......................

Above all else, I can safely say that Facebook is my new favorite place to waste time. I'm giving up Dutch Bros cold turkey - 535 calories in a Large Annihilator???? Please! Facebook gives me just as much energy as the caffeine, and I'm saving calories! The only way Facebook could make me fat is if I never get off my A** (which could be a possibility now that I think about it.....)

Maybe I could parlay my new favorite vice into a money making opportunity??? I will convince everyone I know to join facebook until we're all so addicted that we don't get anything else done. When people start losing their jobs, and becoming depressed, and wondering why........I'll open up a rehab for Facebook.

Betty Ford for Facebook?

No, I' think I'll call it "Erasebook".

Gotta go, I need to see who wrote on my wall...........................................................

Bob's Your Uncle

Oh Me, Oh My..... My Godfather Has Connections!

My Godfather/Client/Friend who shall remane nameless has some interesting connections, I must say. In one recent story about a (long ago) health scare and the accompanying healthcare provided to him at a Sonoma Valley hospital, he explained to me that no visitors were allowed to see him unless they signed in at the nurse's station, and were cleared by the guard placed at his hospital door. No nurses were allowed to enter his room unless summoned by him, and no "orders" were to be given to him by anyone other than his doctor. He was provided a private room, with a close private entrance by which his visitors could enter and exit. There was a confidentail document, signed and sealed by the State Department (?) that was only to be opened in the case of his death....weird, I know.


On one occasion, two visitors came to see him in the hospital, but did not sign in. They walked past the guard, and nurses station, where people stared in awe, as though watching a celebrity. Many people were whispering hushed statements, and one nurse came running after the visitors to stop them, for fear her "patient" would be upset by the intrusion. Just as one of the men were bending down to hug the patient, the nurse hurried into the room, saying "I'm sorry Mr. Mondavi, but you can't......." and stopped herself as she heard her patient say "Hello, uncle Bob."


Robert Mondavi, of the wine fame......who everyone seems to know by sight in the Napa/Sonoma Valleys had come to visit my Godfather/Client/Friend.



There you go, Bob's your uncle!

Leave the gun.....take the cannoli

So, Barzini will move against you first. He'll set up a meeting with someone
that you absolutely trust guaranteeing your safety and at that meeting you'll be
assassinated. I like to drink wine more than I used to. Anyway, I'm drinking more.

If you know me, you know I can't get enough of The Godfather.

It's just the best!!!

It's the one movie I can watch over, and over and over again. Words cannot express my love for the Don. You could learn everything you need to know in life by watching (and learning) The Godfather. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. The secret to good pasta sauce. When someone seems too friendly, be very scared. Never say never. And many, many more life lessons.

Interestingly enough, my husband feels about this movie (or entire series) like I feel about Legends of the Fall, Dances with Wolves, The Patriot, Gladiator etc... These are movies he could watch every day of his life. Well, not me. If I had to, I might slit my wrists. Not to say I didn't love those movies. I did. But, I can only have my heart ripped out by a movie once. Not twice, not a few times, and certainly not daily. If I'm ever sent somewhere to be tortured, rest assured, I'll either have to watch Cops (God forbid), or movies that are heart wrenching, where all the good people die.

Anyway, I digress..... back to my first love. The Godfather. As some of you know, I recently joined "the family" business. I am now a realtor working for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Funny thing, it's not half as bad as you would think. More on that later. Anyhoo, I got off work yesterday thinking I would go home, do 4 or 5 of the 36 loads of laundry laying on my garage floor, and jog a few miles on the treadmill. But no. I took one look at the TiVo, and it was done. So, I watched 7 (yes) hours of movies yesterday afternoon. I did skip the commercials, so it wasn't quite that long after editing for content, etc. I would not - as most moms- allow my girls to watch these movies. So, Lolo comes into the room at one point and starts to run on my treadmill (at least someone is using it), but I gave her the look, and told her I was watching a mommy movie and she couldn't see it. No big deal, she left the room.

After the first movie, the guilt got the best of me and I decided to feed my children some dinner. At 7:00 pm, I drug myself out from under my quilt, put on my slippers and went to the kitchen to slave over the stove and make dinner. 8 minutes and two cheese quesadillas later, I was on to movie #2. Lolo, again, came in the room and wanted to eat her quesadilla with me while I watched my movie. I told her it was a mommy movie and she said "Don't worry mommy, I'll leave when the private parts come". Is she not the cutest thing ever??????

Can you believe I typed that much crap to tell you one little funny line that my daughter said? Welcome to my world.


More on The Godfather.......

You can imagine my surprise and delight when I recently met a "client" from a "family". I like to say he comes from "THE FAMILY", but he says he's not like those "dirty wop, guineas". (You have to know, these are NOT MY WORDS....) He clarifies for me that he is Genovese, and not Italian or Sicilian, and that he and his "family" are merely "businessmen" and like all good Jews, just good at making money. He recently asked "permission" to leave the family "business" and went to a meeting from which he did not know if he would return. Hhmmmm.......

My client also clarified for me that I am not, in fact, a Jew from the old country, like I thought. My father's family apparently left Russia for Germany during the Revolution, and then left Germany for the United States sometime before my grandparents were born. But, as my "client" puts it, you must be Jewish through your maternal side, to be a cultural Jew, which apparently, is the only real kind. So much for the one ounce of religion/culture I thought I could cling to in my last dying moments......Guess I'll look into Buddhism after all.

Again, everything you need to know, you learn from The Godfather.