JustMeAgain

Happy birthday my Josh!

 Today is Josh Groban's birthday!  Being the devoted Grobanite that I am, I could not let the day go by without sending him a few good wishes! In fact, I just sent him an e-mail a few moments ago. Yeah, Josh and me, we are tight. Sure, maybe in the exact same way that he is tight with all the other million fans he has all around the world.  Specially considering that ANYONE who wants to send him an e-mail to wish him a happy birthday, can do that from here. 

This whole e-mail idea is a good idea!  So, what do you guys say we should all send him our best wishes so that all his dreams come true (and Josh, you know what I mean, right?)

Just for fun, I thought it would nice to link back into previous posts where I mentioned my love for Josh:

1.  The glorious day of the concert with front row seats!  What an amazing day thanks to my friend Beth who had purchased the tickets three or four months in advance, as a birthday gift to me, for which I will be grateful for life! 

2. A few pictures I posted after the concert. Beth's husband went with us so I got a cute shot of Beth and her hubby.

3. The post when I blamed Josh for the good luck the Sharks (our local Hockey team) were having at the time.

4. Another Josh inspired post. The National Anthem in glorious splendor by Josh!

5. A sneak peek at the album I made for Beth with the concert pictures!

6. Christmas is just more magical with Josh (and Starbucks, of course!)

7. The finished album for Beth with our Josh Groban concert pictures!

8. And Beth finally getting the album!  And I still think she liked it.

And I am sure there are plenty more if I dig in every post I ever posted. But I'm getting tired and it's getting late. Or early for that matter. I'll leave you with an old picture of Beth and me at the concert two years ago (how fast time goes!)

 

Disneyland, how do I love thee?

 

...Let me count the ways (borrowing my favorite poem's words!) * I love thee to the depth and breadth and height of every majestic building in Main Street USA * I love thee to the level of everyday's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.  Yes, everyday! Not a moment goes by that I do not wish to be with thee...and when I am not, the memories of the quiet and the not so quiet walks through your sweet pink and happy streets help me get through the day. * I love thee freely...I love thee purely...what is possibly not to love? In your grounds, one can be a child again and everything turns into a magic dust! One can lose our worries and just be free! Life is all of a sudden a pretty shade of pink! * I love thee with a passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.  This could not possibly be farther than the truth! Being with you was a part of my every day childhood dreams! * I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life! Yes, yes, yes! With every smile and happy tear that ever existed! :D * ...and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death. No question about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cupcake dissappointment

This post was all supposed to be a post about a successful cupcake creation weekend. Instead, I can only share bits of the sad reality.

I made cupcakes a few times earlier this month, as I had mentioned in recent posts, but those were made out of pre-mixed boxes. So, being the perfectionist I tend to be, I wanted to make them from scratch. I wanted to be able to say that I actually MADE the cupcakes all by myself specially after dear hubby went through the trouble of getting me this book the other day. I guess he had a bit of too much confidence in my baking abilities. Poor guy.

So, first off, on Friday night after dinner, I headed out into the grocery store to find the supplies, or ingredients I should say, that I needed to make the chocolate mint cupcakes. They surely looked lovely in the book. First of all, I had no idea there was such a thing as "self-rising powder."  You must know, I don't ever cook, or step foot in my kitchen unless it is to do dishes. The hubby is the cook in the house. And thank heavens for that! So, figuring out all those ingredients was a task all by itself. And walking around the isles of the grocery store reminded me of mylast failed attempt at baking nearly three years ago. Yes, it's been that long since I last tried to bake something from scratch.

What was the aftermath on Saturday afternoon?

It all went wrong. Really, really wrong.

* The mess in the kitchen was horrible. It's still smelling like all the mint extract that I managed to drop on the floor. I've cleaned the floors twice since then , but I still have a minty kitchen.

* The cupcakes were a bit too overgrown off the edges and looked ugly.

* They also tasted pretty bad. Actually, REALLY bad. 

* The frosting was a complete disaster.

* Sadly, they all went straight into the garbage can.

As I was looking out for the link to the book, I noticed other reviewers had a lot to say about the recipes in this book.  Some of them said they had tried several recipes and had "terrible results." Now, I am not looking to put the blame on the book by any means, but I'm thinking maybe I should try a new recipe next time.

Or have better sense and give it up entirely.

 

 

Okay, now go here, someone who actually knows what she is doing, creating wonderful Chocolate Mint Cupcakes.

Cheating

 

*  I am in love with Starbucks.

* I cheated on my Starbucks love this week. 

* Only once. 

 

* Okay, twice.  

 

* But never again. 

 

* Peet's is not as good as Starbucks. 

 

* Not in a million years. 

 

* In my defense, I was in Monterey for a work related meeting, 

 

* and the place where I was at had no Starbucks near by. 

 

*  The view was amazing though.  

 

Wanna see the view? It was oh, so glorious.

 

Just a quick hello and a few more tags

Catching up on a few more facebook tags from Cheryl and Tiffany.  The good thing about tags is that they are instant material for a new post! 

Here is Cheryl’s tag.

And here is Tiffany's tag.

If you feel like sharing, just copy and paste the questions from each tag and post them in your blogs.  Let me know in the comments if you played so I can visit your blog and comment!

Just Two Things

I was tagged in face-book by my friend Crys and I thought, why not making it a post?  So here it goes:

Two names you are called that are not your real name:
1. "Oh, Mom" (following by an annoyed face every time I attempt to take more than one picture of my daughter.)
2. "Hey, you again" (by a selected few.)

Two things you are wearing now:
1. Dallas cowboy sweatshirt ~to the hubby's delight. I can care less about the blue star on it, I just like it because it's warm.
2. A warm blanket (it's almost 4 a.m. as I type this, so I am snuggled in my favorite blanket, catching up on  recorded shows while the coffee is brewing.  Will be getting ready for work in about a half an hour or so.)

Two of your favorite things to do:
1. take pictures (everyday!)
2. work (since I do so much of it, it MUST be a favorite.)

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To be able to stretch time
2. To solve every existential problem in the life of the people I love

 

Two things you did yesterday:
1. Work (yes, even though it was a holiday)
2. Blogged!

Two things you ate yesterday:
1. Chocolate
2. Starbucks coffee (I know, technically, I drank this, but considering the calories these drinks have, they can very well be counted as meals! And for me, it was my lunch substitute.)

Two people you last talked to:
1. Beth
2. Crysaly

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
1. Work (pretty long day tomorrow.)
2. Laundry (I've recently realized that I really need to do laundry twice a week, on weekends and mid-week, if I want to make things easier on me.)

Two favorite holidays:
1. Thanksgiving
2. Christmas

Two favorite drinks:
1. Starbucks Coffeee
2. Starbucks Chai

Two people no longer alive that you'd like to talk to:
1. Walt Disney
2. Jesus

 

Two sounds you are listening to at the moment (I added this, because the rain drops on the window sounded delightful.)

1. Rain drops on the window

2. TV

 

Two recent pictures posted in flickr (okay, I added this one, too, to the questions! ~how else could I add some pictures to this post? -ha ha.)

 

1. No matter what shadows you may run into.

2. Long Beach.

 

To-do today: Eat that frog!

Check out this link, it explains a pretty cool concept about how to approach what I like to call PRO-crastination.  Only because I tend to be a PRO at crastination, you know? A "professional procrastinator"of sorts. Disneyland imagineers say that sometimes your BEST ideas really come to you in those last five minutes before the deadline strikes. And I live in that concept!  But when I saw this little link about the frog, it just made so much sense, too.  "If the first thing you do when you wake up each morning is eat a live frog, nothing worse can happen for the rest of the day."  Gotta love that. So, today, I'll try to eat that frog before I do anything else! 

And just out of curiosity, what is the thing you tend to procrastinate the most about?  Dishes? Laundry? Making the bed? Organizing your closets? What is the worst frog that you can think of having for lunch?

And before I get back to my frog, let me just say a quick hello, please, and thank you to all my parachute packers! See this inspiring slide so that you know what I mean.

Happy Valentine's Day to all

 

Wishing you all a day filled with love.

~just because

 

I miss my daily posts...so I thought I'd share a picture.  This is a chandelier from my sister-in-law's bedroom.  She has the most amazing medieval theme room. 

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Well wishes for my friend Karen.

 
A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until
she gets in hot water.
~Eleanor Roosevelt

You can visit Karen Dinino's flickr page and twitter page if you want to waive hello and send her a good funny line.  Or you can leave a comment on the seester's blog.  They both love to laugh and take only the good out of life.