three months all in one post

oh hey!  is anyone still here?  i guess i wouldn't blame you if you'd all left me forever.  it HAS been a whole ass month since i posted anything and even worse...i just realized that there was a whole list of like 500 comments that had been sitting in a folder awaiting moderation.  so a couple of years ago, i realized that i was getting a shitton of spam comments (some of which were REALLY inappropriate, yuck) and the only way to keep them from being published was to turn on comment approval.  out of that whole stack of comments, i found maaaaaybe five that were actual comments that i clicked on to publish (and they were mostly super old, so i apologize you if you'd sent one of them!).  the spammers continue to this very day, and so moderation will have to stay on.

i'm going to just recap the rest of the year from the bean's birthday through new year's eve in a quickie photo dump because why not?  and there are a few things that i'd like to go into a little further detail in separate posts, so i'll try my best to get to those soon so that i can be up to speed again and make myself blog more regularly again like in the good old days.  and even if this is just for my own amusement because no one is reading blogs anymore (let alone mine, ha), so be it.

so as soon as the bean's birthday bbq was over - and i mean literally, like an hour later - i headed out to meet up with lilcee and dailygluttony for something fun and silly:  the only los angeles stop on peloton instructor extraordinaire cody rigsby's book tour.  we had a blast and giggled the whole time, and capped it off with delicious korean bbq for dinner afterwards.

the day after that, we headed out to the mall so that the bean could do some birthday gift card shopping.  i was really amused to see a stop at build-a-bear included in the itinerary.

i just barely stopped myself from picking up a harry styles prayer candle.

the sophomore class retreat was a little later this year than last time.  the bean was quite thrilled to find that this year, they'd be in proper cabins instead of having to rough it like when they were freshmen.

and there's also this...lots of driving practice in preparation for testing for their first driver's license.  like much of gen z, the bean is not exactly thrilled to learn to drive but i'm pushing this one because let's face it...we live in southern california.  knowing how to drive is a basic life skill around here.

the eras tour movie was a must for me, lilcee and winnie.  so much so that they made the trek all the way out here to my neck o'the woods, where there were still decent seats available in the local AMC.

whenever there's a fun pop culture-related gimmick out there, you know i'm all in. and i roped in teddy and cocoa too...because they kinda didn't have a choice.

this year's theme for homecoming was "atlantis."  after some debate, the bean and i managed to find the perfect outfit - at kohl's, believe it or not.  i had to do some alterations to the pants, which was terrifying because while i'm a pretty confident sewist that usually applies to creating new items and not fixing existing ones.  anyway, it turned out pretty nicely and the bean was happy with their look once it was all done.

we had tickets to the anaheim stop for the jonas brothers' current tour (simply titled "the tour"), and when they announced a popup merch shop before the show i headed down solo because the old lady had to work and the bean had a commitment at school.

i hadn't realized until the week of the concert that i'd somehow managed to score some pretty amazing seats - right in front of what fans were calling the "b stage."  and so i'll be doing a separate post about the show because we got so many great shots and had such a great time that it just deserves its own recap.

i mean - look at this.  i didn't even have to zoom in for this shot.  amazing.

this was the bean's last-minute halloween costume.  heh.

the city of duarte rededicated one of the parks to my sweet friend tzeitel, so i headed out to be there for the unveiling ceremony.  it was lovely to see the turnout, and i just know she was watching and super stoked over it all.

lilcee and mini cee threw a fun surprise party for mr. lilcee's 50th birthday.

i took my handmade wares to a holiday market, hoping to make some christmas cash.  it was...not great.

the old lady and i attended a super fun charcuterie making class at my barre studio.  an evening of snacks, friends, meat and cheese.  what more could one want?

the old lady got us into a cast member holiday 5K at disneyland - my first race since 2017, and also one of my bucket list items.  only cast members and their friends and family are invited to this event, and it sells out just as quickly as all other rundisney races do.  it was lots of fun, and probably the only time i'll get to do it because the old lady swears she has zero interest in doing it again.  

i got to take a quick walk down memory lane one saturday morning as the bean practiced for a performance with their dance team.  the venue was adjacent to my old high school, and while they perfected their routine i slipped away to walk through the campus and do a little reminiscing.  i hadn't set foot on campus in thirty years, and while a lot has changed most of it was still the same and it was really fun to see all of the spots where i used to hang out with my friends.  and this is where i got to be a cheerleader - at least for a few months.

speaking of dance, i finally managed to get the bean into a class at the famous millennium dance complex in studio city.  my friend amber has been dancing here for awhile, and so it was really fun to see her and have the bean try out a class (they were awesome, and so now it's a regular part of our week).

i'm a terrible dancer and so didn't join in, but i was starstruck by the lineup of autographed photos that were hanging on the walls.  i mean...britney! n*sync! selena gomez! and...joe jonas!

while the hub fed the lonely masses at the lounge on thanksgiving, the old lady had to work and the old man headed off to his mom's, the bean and i headed out for sushi.

we did get together the day after to share a thanksgiving meal, and then that weekend hosted a friendsgiving gathering with some old pals.

we welcomed another member to the 50's club:

and celebrated wan-niversary #18.

the SFAMily revived an old tradition for the first time in years - holiday hoorah 2023!

lilcee and i lived out a high school dream, spending an evening with depeche mode:

the bean continued their tradition of dressing up as santa for the last day of school before christmas break.

the old lady organized a fun surprise for her hubby's birthday, gathering a bunch of friends and family for a hockey game with the local minor league team.

the hub treated the bean and me to a fabulous pre-christmas trip to NYC (sadly, the old lady and old man couldn't join us because of pesky work schedules).  i'll do a deep dive over a few posts shortly, because it was just amazing and also deserves much more attention.

matching pajamas and mountains of presents on christmas day, per usual:

and then we decided to try a re-do of our new year's eve party with some of our favorite friends.  the last time we did this was NYE 2019, and we all know what happened after that.

and there you have it!  all caught up, with just a few more recaps to get fully brought back up to speed.  i keep saying it, but i really do want to be better about keeping up with the blog posts again.  i won't make any promises that may not be kept, but hey...i promise to do my best.  whee!