JOURNAL REVOLUTION

would you fly? ok, we'll toss out a prize.

In a couple weeks my pal, singer/songwriter Jen Foster will be in Los Angeles and I am gonna do my best to get her to say on the grooowwwwnd like she does when she sings it in her song Closer to Nowhere. I am going to toss stuff on the grooowwwnd in front of her and ask her where it is. Like, hey Jen, where is that rubber band? Do you see that book, where is it? Hopefully, she will answer the right way at first because I can see how that could get annoying really fast. Well, annoying for her!
I am hoping that by the time Jen gets here she will be the Jen Foster who is about to be singing at Austin City Limits. She's getting pretty close and we can all help this talented WOMAN get there by voting for her here.  In Closer to Nowhere she asks, If you could fly, would you try? 
Yes, we would.  And we'd help our friends fly.
If you vote then comment here, we will send a prize or two to random (there's that word again) commenters. Maybe a book, maybe a t-shirt, maybe a print.   Vote and tell us what you had for lunch.  We always want to know what was on the menu. Please vote and comment here by July 20th for a prize. I think you can vote for Jen until 8/22 at the Dell site, though.

*You can hear Jen's music on  the Dell Lounge voting page as well as on her Myspace page. You could leave a tab open in your browser and listen all day. I do.

in search of vanilla marshmallows

Today We're FEELIN' GROOVY about:
~People watching at the Rose Bowl Swap meet on Sunday was pretty good! Lots of fun pants and hats.
~Wicked women (a la Elphaba)
~Rediscovering playing Password with the family
~Rediscovering Ambien now that my insurance is working again
~I am about to go to trader joe's in search of vanilla marshmallows that Tod said are the best ever. We shall see about that!

Our Bêtes Noires:
~Way too many photo freaks at the swap meet. I was going to tell you about  (and show you!) these really cute clocks this woman created (so you could buy some) but she was a total bitch so now I am not going to. I took a photo of one of her clocks and was about to ask her for her card  but as she came toward me instead of saying hello and being nice, she told me NO PHOTOS!! so there ya go. I was sure to say to my friends in a voice she could hear that some people just don't understand free advertising.  A little while later I took a photo of something in someone's booth and the booth owner made a funny comment to me and guess what...I BOUGHT SOMETHING! Funny how that works. Engage potential customers in pleasant conversation and they might give you money instead of the evil eye.
~Freaks in general at the swap meet. One lady didn't want me taking photos of the vintage clothing she was selling because people might make knock offs and sell it in other countries. Uhhh. How would she know? She didn't even design the clothes herself. She was reselling old clothes not made or designed by her and was worried about the designs being ripped off.
~There are no funnel cakes at the rose bowl swap meet. Will I ever get to try a funnel cake?
~The radiator in my husband's car broke. Of course it did. He is unemployed right now. I suspect our house will break now, too.
~The gardener CHOPPED the blooming roses, but left the huge weed that is threatening to take over the front yard. [That is Karen's gardener. My beloved Ygnacio would never do such a thing.]
~I have even uglier feet since the 2 broken toes, and my feet were REALLY bad before that.

Question for everyone: has anyone done that varicose vein injection thing to get rid of the veins? How much does it hurt--say, compared to the childbirth that caused the veins to begin with?

frosted heaven

I have stories to tell from the weekend but no more time left today and my hands are tired. All day today I kept noticing how I kept not having what I needed: no more advil, no more diet coke, no more watercolor paper, no more staz-on ink, no more ink for my printer, no more priority mail envelopes, no more batteries, no more  milk, no more garbage bags. And, as I stood at my sink about to be really annoyed that there were no chocolate chips to pour into the cashew butter, I saw what else I didn't have~ there we NO MORE BALLS in my yard. Those brats must be out of town.
I did have some cookies so I took a little break on my own lawn.  Those two were just to be sure the entire package wasn't poisoned. If you see the mini version of these cookies in the store, don't get tricked into buying them. They aren't as good as the full sized pieces of frosted Heaven.

I could spin a story

I was going to write a post about how it's not that hard to get your kids to pose for photos when you make it fun and I was going to use this photo of  Terry and her cute kids as an example of a really fun moment. Ok, so if you want your kids to let you take photos of them, don't be a total bitch. There.
Let's get to what matters: Terry's husband is Japanese. Terry is not (but she is fluent in Japanese!). Their beautiful kids are half Japanese. Look at that photo of me and Karen in the upper left corner. Look back at this photo.
Look again.
Hmmmmm.
Now our mama used to always tell me I look the way I look because our grandfather was from a part of Russia that was near Mongolia. WTF? I could spin a story way better than that.
I think I'll be spending Thanksgiving with the Uchida family this year.
Aren't my new brother and sister adorable?

suddenly there is the ocean

I hate to drive. I have been hit by way too many drunk drivers and stupid people without insurance to love driving anymore. Even though I hate it, I do it anyway because I still need to live and get places and I like to get where I am going on my own. There is one drive I absolutely love. It's the 38 mile drive on route 126 between my house and the beach.  In between my house and the beach are miles of hills and fields full of fruits, vegetables and flowers, all just...growing. There are cute little fruit stands with hand painted signs with strawberries with smiles every mile or so. And then suddenly, there is the ocean. It's the best of both worlds all in a few miles. One of the best things about getting to the end of the road is that it is about 20 degrees cooler than the hotter than hell temperatures in the Santa Clarita Valley. One of the even better things was that today at the end of the road Kimberly Kwan , her absolutely gorgeous daughters, her perfect parents, and her sweet dog (who is the reincarnation of our first dog- Dead Sam 1- who is also named Sam), greeted me. Even though gorgeous, perfect and sweet sounds kind of boring, this family is so far from boring. I was so ready to move in with these people, especially since they have really good taste in food and aren't afraid of four letter words.

We have been working on a project that involves working with a lot of different types of people and we are so grateful to everyone who has gone out of their way to share their lives and their time with us.  It is such a joy for us and today was no different. Though, I was really hoping that today Kim and I would get arrested while working on our thing.  I like to make it fun for the people we are working with, too, so they have a story to tell. I like to give a little back. I like to be sure the parents of the people I work with really trust me.  So today Kim and I  trespassed at someone's house and snuck on their  boat for a few photos. I think it was ok since the boat was in the front yard and really was more like art than a boat.  If they didn't want people climbing on their boat, why would they put it there? No alarms or anything went off. Alright, fine. After that, we had a little dinner with the family, then Kim took me to a dive bar where I took photos of drunk burly men without their permission in order to get a brawl started so the cops would come but...NOTHING HAPPENED. What the fuck?  It's hard to attract the law in that sleepy beach town.
I'm not giving up. The Adventures of  Kim and Linda continue on Sunday. We'll be near antiques. Trouble will happen.

*On the way home, I saw the street I thought my mom lives on so I was going to stop in and surprise her. It's funny how I can take an hour to go 2 miles and not ever get anywhere. I think I will buy a TomTom when my husband goes back to work. I think I will call mine EddieEddie for fun.

ruining my reputation

Today We're FEELIN' GROOVY about:
~I've got a photo/food/laugh- our- butts- off  date with Kimberly Kwan tomorrow. I can't decide if I hope we do or don't get arrested. I am really excited because I know I can swear and be my normal bad ass self around her.  Yes, by bad ass I mean sarcastic and non-archival quality.
~Leaving secret notes to people in the gmail chat box on the left side of gmail.
~Zappos. I've never actually gotten shoes from Zappos that fit, but it must be so damn cool to work there! You can see more about them on Nightline and you can follow the CEO on Twitter. They do things like have Mac N Cheese contests! You know where we're going to job hunt as soon as we're done being a lawyer and an artist (and authors).
~No balls in my yard for a few days!
~Our interns on our new project are really bossy and keep telling me to do stuff. I love that.
~I'm down to 3 piles and 1 box next to my desk!

Our Bêtes Noires:
~The Starbucks near my house keeps putting way too much ice in my tea and now I've accidentally finished two drinks. It's ruining my reputation as a person who never finishes her drinks.
~OMG! The clothes on the Zappos homepage could not be much uglier. [If you want to see some cool clothes, check out The Rev It Up List]
~My husband and I were both outside for the  exact same amount of time yesterday and I am the only one totally covered in mosquito bites. It just figures I attract them.
~Deadlines. DEADLINES!!!!!!
~ The ant invasion has begun again, and the termite infestation is not far behind.
~AHHHHHHHHHH! I forgot! <----- we keep forgetting but remembering stuff just in time to not be forgotten!

flowing

Today between the hours of What's for lunch? and What's for dinner?* I updated the page of answers to questions we are frequently asked. There is a new link to the answers page over there on the left.
There are also some new links to some of our new friends on the left under PEOPLE TO MEET**. We have been so lucky to work with and meet some really wonderful people the last few months and will work with more in the months to come. I wish we could pack you all in our car and bring you along on our dates with these people but we can't do that so a little linkety link will have to do. Most of these people are women and you will see from their blogs that they all have the ability to use the SARCASTIC font, the I AM ALIVE font, the I AM NOT A ROBOT font, and the all important I DON'T TAKE MYSELF TOO SERIOUSLY font.  The other thing you will notice is that they are all extremely talented. Check out some that may be new to you like  Marnie Woodrow's blog~ she writes novels and bakes scones and tends to grapevines. I want to live her life for a few days. Listen to Jen Foster's award winning lyrics, you'll be singing her songs all day! While you've got your speakers turned up, be sure to listen to Jann Arden's Uncover Me and some of SHeDaisy's songs. SHeDaisy is a band of THREE SEESTERS! Oh you know we are loving them.
There are also some talented and very funny men on our link list and we're sure you'll find that when you click on their links that the extremely talented men swear way more than the women do.  They also talk about sex way more.   
We will be adding to the PEOPLE TO MEET list as the days go by so be sure to keep an eye on it. We are loving the way our new (super secret) project is going and all the people we are meeting along the way. Everything and everyone seems to be flowing together so perfectly. 

OH! If you have an ART ARMY banner on your blog and want a link to your blog on the art army blogger page and there is  not one there yet, please email us (or post here in the comment section) a link to your blog.

*We are on day 9 of my husband being home for summer hiatus.
** Links that were previously there are now in the second page of links.

wanting to drop

Did anyone catch that  little heart-stopping tennis match today between Nadal and Federer? Isn't it funny how when Nadal won he fell to the ground? Federer should've fallen to the ground. It makes way more sense when the five-time champ loses that he would be the one to fall to the ground in disbelief. Everyone can relate to wanting to drop when losing.Winning makes you want to jump for joy, not drop to your knees. How about when John McEnroe stopped the interview with Federer to hug him? At that point, it should've turned to a boxing match and Federer should've knocked McEnroe out because that was just LAME.

We just can't believe that Venus and Serena actually played that game. Come ON! They are seesters. They should've just called it a tie and both been happy. They should not be competing against each other.  And, everyone knows you don't encourage your kids to be good at the same sport. Duh.

Isn't it weird that we are writing about sports? We had a layover in Procrastination City today.

The Longing, Part 2

It was great to read what everyone was longing for. It was especially great because it was like a real live United Colors of Benetton ad came to life and answered the questions. I mean the Benetton of the 80s and early 90s, not the Benetton of today which we found out today is less cool than it was. If you read the comments carefully and followed the links, you'd see that comments were from all types of people- gay, lesbian, black, white, belly dancing (WOW!), Jewish, Christian, a mom, a student, a teenager, scrapbookers (double wow!)...a whole WORLD of people with one thing in common. We all long for something, even if it is just ice cream, or in Neil's case- breasts. Thanks for sharing a bit of your lives with us! And, we are happy that you know you can be yourselves here. You totally can.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago?) when I was in Northern California, not too far from where we grew up, Maria and I made a late night run to Safeway. We don't have Safeway down here in So Cal. We have Vons which is the same company but smells different and has different food so it is not the same at all. The Safeway Maria and I were in smelled like the Safeway from my childhood and as we stood in the ice cream section in the middle of the night, I had a The Penny from Somewhere In Time moment when I saw a box of Mint It's-Its. I was suddenly 11 years-old again. I was standing in the hot sun with Tod and Karen as we ate our newly discovered  It's-its, the chocolate shells cracking,  the mint ice cream rolling down my arm. The sun was melting my treat faster than I could eat it, taking my troubles with it.  That was a good day.  I was longing for that day.

When I got back from my trip, I found It's-Its at the Albertsons a few miles from my house! See, wishing for stuff makes them appear! The Secret works!* The It's-Its come three to a box: one for breakfast, one for lunch, one for dinner. No prescription required.

FRANCES!!! You win a YOU MATTER print! Please email me your address.

*Uh, not really like that, tho. And it really is not a secret. Just call around for stuff and you might find it.

it's quiet in here

Yesterday was my husband's 40th birthday. I still haven't gotten him a gift because the day before my birthday he spent $400 on my car and I decided me driving around in a safe car would make him really happy. And, since he's not working for 6 weeks,  it seems like that was enough money that we didn't really have spent on stuff for one week. I think knowing that the best wife ever won't suddenly spin off the road due to faulty brakes is a great gift for a 40 year old man! I also baked some brownies for him. See, I am a great wife. Good thing I waited until the last minute to think about the gift, too, or I'd have spent a lot on a gift and on the car and then we'd have been really screwed.

So, my husband is home for about 6 weeks because most people who work on tv shows don't really work all year long. With the writers/writer's/writers' strike that just happened, most people barely worked all last season. Just as I was getting back into my routine of working from home- jetting off somewhere, jetting back, rushing to get stuff done, watching this Eddie Vedder video over and over while trying to get caught up on email and trying to get work done from what I was doing when I was in the place I jetted off to, blasting music while I painted and glued,  - all of this at home alone in my pajamas, it changes again. I am not alone now.  It is quiet in here. My husband is taking a nap.
I am now a WIFEYBLOGGER.