gimme some lovin'. gimme gimme some lovin'!

okay, i realize i've been really sucky at keeping up on my blogroll lately. i know it. life is just nuts lately and i'm scraping up time here and there to upload pictures and keep up with my own blog.

and yet i'm super bummed that the comment lovin' has been super low around here lately. what'sa girl gotta do to get some these days?? now, i fully admit that my life isn't exactly excitement city, but are my posts really that boring and pathetic, unworthy of comments? how sad. and yet i just keep pluggin' along. hey, if you've got a topic or a question or something interesting for me to talk about, lemme know.

and now i'm a little scared. heh. well, have at it. let's see what you can come up with. because today's post? chock full of random shit that'll likely drive you away even further.

i was super stoked a couple of weeks ago when i learned via twitter (which is how i get most of my news these days) that my beloved mcrib sandwich was finally making an appearance again. that shit has been MIA from local mcdonald's outlets since 20-freaking-06! and like my friend nanette said, the second thing i think of when i hear "mcrib" (the first, of course, being "YUM!") is "the osbournes," where jack gets all excited for the same reason and kelly totally makes fun of him for screaming "the mcrib is back!" haha.

it wasn't supposed to be available until november 30th, and i was literally counting the days. but again, via twitter, i read that folks were finding it all around the l.a. area. and so i took a chance and headed to my local mickey d's to check it out, and i was ridiculously stoked to pull up to the drive-thru menu and find this:

whee! luck was on my side that day. i drove home excitedly and dug right in.

looks kinda nasty, huh? but no - it was fabulous. mmmmm. i think i may need another one, stat. happy thanksgiving to me.

last week, the bean was going through some kind of weird pissed-off phase. she was flipping out and throwing classic "terrible twos" temper tantrums, but with a twist. she'd start freaking out over nothing, we'd let her get it all out for a few minutes, and then she'd stop crying and go back to her normal, sweet self as if nothing had happened. "bipolar twos" is more like it. sheesh. and when she decided to try and pull that crap with me the other day, i sat her ass in her high chair, continued with whatever i was doing at the time, and moments later found this:

luckily, it's been a good week so far and we haven't had any reruns of those OOFC episodes. i hope she's over it, but only time will tell. i think this might have had something to do with the weirdness, though:

holy eff, the bottom of her shirt is freaking filthy. but this was post-post-blood draw treat, so i'm giving me a pass.

last week also found the teen, rock-ell, the bean and me heading to 7-eleven after school to fulfill a mad slurpee craving. we wandered through the aisles for a few minutes before we found ourselves at the giant beverage bar, stupefied at the sheer number of choices available to us.

and then the teen spotted this thing:

it's a freaking big gulp guitar. this thing holds 52 ounces of liquid refreshment and is absolutely ludicrous - and we had. to. have. one. the teen gleefully chose a blue guitar and got to work filling it with something out of the soda fountain, and we all giggled our asses off the whole time. even the typically indifferent folks behind the register were laughing as they watched our antics, although i'm not sure if they were laughing with us or at us. either way, it was utterly silly and fun, and totally worth the, uh, $7.99 we forked out for it.

meanwhile, i settled for a simple coke slurpee in this cute domo cup:

and then the giggling started up again in the car as the teen wrapped that guitar strap around herself and sipped lustily on her beverage of choice. it was just so comical, but maybe you had to be there.

jumping from one topic to another, it's back to my brother's wedding for one of my favorite shots of the day:

also last week, i finally indulged in my first starbucks holiday beverage of the season - the new caramel brulee latte (i implore you not to click on that link if you don't want to know how bad that thing actually is). i even got it hot, which is quite atypical for me as hot coffee usually puts me to sleep. and while i was standing in line to order it, i caught a glimpse of the new mini card, designed by project runway champ christian siriano. it was so sparkly and pretty, i had to have one. and i was even more tickled to see the adorable red knit "sleeve" that came with it.

y'all know how easy it is to please me. heh.

the bean likes to kick back and relax with a starbucks drink, too. and the tall hot cup with lid is the perfect size for her. she can hold it easily in her little paws and drink from it without spilling a drop.

before you start to cyber-kick my ass, rest easy with the knowledge that i am not feeding my two-year-old coffee drinks from starbucks. no, that cup is full of horizon organic chocolate milk, of course.

sheesh, what kind of mom do you think i am?

when the hub's away, wan will play

well, if you consider lounging around doing not a single damn productive thing and eating a ri-gosh-dang-diculous amount of junk food "playing," anyway. crap, i hope he doesn't read this post. he'll karate chop my ass. okay, not really, but read on...

because with the hub off on a quasi-road trip with his pops and the teen at her dad's, that leaves me and the bean home alone to run amok. we went to the grocery store and scooped up an embarrassingly obscene variety of snacky-snacks, came home, played and read books together, and watched the laker game.

and for lunch, instead of putting her in the high chair (like a good mom would do), i let her stroll around the living room, munching on her chicken nuggets. then i giggled with her as she sat in her bouncy chair (the one she's far too big for, but loves to death), shredded the last nugget with her fingers, and tossed the pieces across the carpet. since mollydog was on the patio, having been put outside while we went to the store, i let her in and used her as a vacuum cleaner. lemme tell you, she's far more effective than the dirt devil. not a crumb was left anywhere.

for dinner, i made the most awesomely half-assed lazy girl's version of shrimp fried rice that ever was. i mean, it was the silliest looking shrimp fried rice i've ever seen - so much so that i couldn't even bear to take a picture of it. hey, it may have looked funky, but it sure was tasty. bonus! and, um, i may have washed it down with copious amounts of soda. i don't think i've had this much soda in one day in a long, long time. i've got to step away from the coca-cola tomorrow. and probably friday, too. yikes.

as i was cleaning up afterwards, i heard a giggle behind me. i turned around and then couldn't stop laughing when i found this:

of course, what did i do? well, it WASN'T "take the bag off so my kid wouldn't bump into shit and hurt herself." oh, no. i lunged for the camera to capture it to share with you.

after she wandered around with the bag over her head for a while (of course, totally sneaking peeks every so often), giggling and babbling the whole time, she whipped it off triumphantly.

to cap it off, i let her go to sleep in her t-shirt and shorts. haha! didn't even change her into pajamas. it's like a freaking free-for-all around here. and it's only day one - the hub and the teen don't get home till friday.

man alive, it's days like this when i'm shocked that i'm allowed to be a parent. muahahahahahaha!

oh, check it out: i finally managed to catch a few of the bean's words on video.



please ignore my whiny-sounding prompting.

and here's another - it cracks me up when she damn near falls over while doing "itsy bitsy spider."



and in this one, please ignore my horribly off-key singing. i know i'm no carrie underwood, mmkay?

i wonder what kind of shenanigans we'll get into tomorrow. we really shouldn't be left alone for long periods of time, methinks. heh.