Our Dirty Laundry

Brady is going out of town tomorrow for a deposition. Knowing that our laundry pile was at an all time high, I called him on my way to the gym and told him that if he needed clothes for this trip he needed to do his own laundry.

I mean this is a lot of laundry, especially for two people. With Jader's wedding in two days, I have a million things to do, I really needed to get a work out in, I'm stressed about Sebastian, long story short, I seriously did not want to do Brady's laundry tonight. He assured me that he would take care of it.

I wasn't exactly convinced that Brady was going to do his laundry, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and went to the gym.

When I got home, Brady was on the couch:

Me: Did you do your laundry:

Brady: nope.

Me: Are you going to do it?

Brady: nope.

Me: You are such a lazy asshole.

Brady: I know.

Me: Say it, Say "I'm a lazy asshole."

Brady: I'm a lazy asshole.

Then I trudged up the stairs and started doing his laundry. He is lucky he is so damn cute. And before all the feminists jump all over me saying that I shouldn't do my man's chores, I will leave you with this, our dry cleaning bill is about $200 a month and Brady pays it, every time. I would much rather throw a load in the wash than spend good purse money on dry cleaning.

Smokin' Hot Deal

On my monumental trip to Target the other day, I got this new bedding set for $30. Thirty bucks for the comforter, bed skirt, and 2 shams. Originally $110 marked down to $30. Man, I love Target.

And Frank approved of the new bedding.

Shrimp, Hummus, and Cake, Oh My!

Today I went over to my good friend Rogue's house for a marathon cooking session for our book club which was being held later that day.

We photographed all our recipes for Rogue's blog, she has the coolest camera equipment ever. It made my little kodak point and shoot want to cry and hide in my purse. But that's ok because Rogue and her husband lent me a fancy shmancy camera to use to teach myself basic photography. They also lent me The Idiot's Guide to Digital Photography. They know me so well




Our book club read Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. It is a haunting story of a young girl living in Hawaii in the late 1800s who is sent to the island of Moloka'i when it is discovered that she has leprosy. The characters in this book are rich and detailed, and the history of this island really adds to a compelling and emotional story.

Anyways, in keeping with the Hawaiian theme, we made fried coconut shrimp with a sweet and spicy sauce.



These came out fantastic. I had coconut fried shrimp the night before at the Orange County Mining Company and ours were way better, our sauce was much more flavorful and tangy. Our shrimp also wasn't heavily breaded so you could still taste the shrimp amidst all the coconut.

We also made a pineapple upside down cake. This was so rich and sweet and delicious. It had so much butter and sugar in it, Paula Deen would have been proud. And yes, I am going to the gym tomorrow, for about 8 hours.




And finally, we made macadamia nut hummus with toasted pita chips dusted with cumin and lemon pepper. Another great recipe, I have found a new way to love macadamia nuts, although my favorite way to eat them is still probably with covered in chocolate.



Of course, Rogue and I were not the only ones to bring food to book club, hence this very full plate and why I always come home from book club with a stomachache.



I love getting together with these lovely ladies for book club, we even managed to talk about the book this time!

Saturday Night

Tonight we met up with our very good friends, Ben and Leslie for a drink at Orange County Mining Company. I love this restaurant, the food is great, the view is breathtaking, they have an endless soup and salad bar, and they pour a damn good martini.

We sat in the bar, had appetizers, and an ice cream sundae named "the mother lode." Oh, I am so going to pay for this at the gym tomorrow.

We met Ben and Leslie at law school. Brady was good friends with Leslie, then she started dating Ben, and then Brady started dating me. Now we are all old, married people and get excited when we stay up past 10 o'clock.



Its great to have other young (as in experience) attorneys to talk to, helps you realize that you are not the only who has no clue what they are doing.



The highlight of the night was when a giant tarantula crawled up onto the patio of the bar. This is a picture that Brady took after he shooed the spider off the patio and back onto the hill below.

Our ditzy waitress saw us taking pictures and wanted to see them. "Ooooh," she squealed, "I saw this spider on a show about the most venomous spiders in the world." Um, tarantulas are not venomous. We then listened to her tell the table next to us about when her boyfriend dumped her she got so fat and weighed 132 pounds and now she's finally back to 115 and how she couldn't believe she got so fat. I just turned to Leslie, rolled my eyes, and said, "bitch."

Who Wears Short Shorts?

I do!

Well, I do now. For a very, very, long time I have refused to wear shorts. In fact, these shorts are probably from college, there is a slight possibility they are from high school. I have always been so self-conscious to wear shorts in public, convinced they make me look super, seriously fat.

But today, when I went to Target, I thought, "hey, why don't I throw a pair of shorts on instead of getting all dressed up?" I dug these beauties out of my closet, took a deep breath, and put them on.



Now I know they do not look fantastic; hell, I'm not even sure jean shorts are in style anymore. What I do know is that (1) these shorts fit, and (2) my husband said I looked cute in them, and not fat at all. Woo hoo! Wearing these shorts in public really makes me feel like all the dieting and working out is paying off! And Frank was very proud of me as well.

That is it, I'm going to the beach.

Today I came home from the gym to find this in my kitchen.



We have officially begun the process to file a claim with our homeowners' insurance to deal with the water damage caused by the dishwasher leak. A contractor was sent to our home to assess the damage, since he found mold he could not complete any kind of work and pretty much had to seal off the contaminated area. The lovely machine is a dryer/dehumidifier to dry out the wet floor and drywall. We should know more about whether this is a covered claim after the weekend. I just have a sinking feeling that this journey with our insurance company is not going to be fun.

I really wanted to improve on my Saturday after dealing with Sebastian, the evil mold monster. So I threw Brady in the car and we headed to Laguna Beach.



We had a great lunch at El Callejon, which used to be Javier's. Its pretty much the same as Javier's and luckily the food is just as good. Weight Watchers and Mexican restaurants really don't get along, so here is my tip to handle the temptation: I order a side salad and two chicken soft tacos a la carte. I take one of the tacos and dump (in a lady like manner) the chicken on my salad, pour salsa on top (salad dressing is the devil) and have that with the other chicken soft taco. Sheer will power is used for the tortilla chips.

We walked around all the cute art galleries and little beachy shops. We even went to the Wyland gallery. Brady loves Wyland, he has an original Wyland of a shark that he had commissioned, he has met Wyland in person, Brady thinks he's great. I...hate Wyland. I think his work is cheesy, unoriginal, commercial, and that it all looks the same. I think he is a whore in the art world and will put a freaking dolphin or whale on anything that will stand still for two seconds. But Brady loves Wyland and I love Brady, so I went to the gallery and I allow the shark to hang above our couch.

This would be a great picture if my hair wasn't standing straight up.

Brady and I as represented by alcoholic beverages. Blue moon and chardonnay. A lovely end to a lovely day....and then we drove home to visit our new friend the dehumidifier.