Thief

I use a commercial shared kitchen for the business, and it's a great concept. Except that it's a little like living with roommates again. You never quite know who's drinking your milk or eating your frozen burritos. And you want to maintain a good relationship, so if someone drinks your milk here and there, who cares?

So anyhow, I bought a case of mini chocolate chips. 12 bags in a case. So when we open it up and use one, there should be 11 left. 12-1=11. Basic math. But... there were only 10.

Okay, no big deal, I tell my bakers. It's fine. Just one bag. It's bound to happen. It's like $2. Whatever.

And then we go back the next time. I count. Only nine bags.

My one baker says, "Leave a nasty note! They're STEALING from you! From US!!!"

I mulled over it for the next couple of hours and finally wrote this:
Hi. :) We're so flattered that you love our chocolate chips so much. Next time we go in on an order, we can definitely order more for you. Just call us ahead of time: xxx-xxx-xxxx. Thank you so much!
And then I left it inside the box.

I don't want to be rude, and I really don't want to rock the boat. But honestly, I feel a little bit like Ross:



I don't know. Maybe I was too snarky.

Pajama Wednesday

One Wednesday morning when C was two years old, I was just too lazy to get out of bed, get dressed, and do anything besides pour cereal. It was probably a gross day outside. So I declared that day to be "Pajama Wednesday."

And ever since that day, we've maintained this Wednesday tradition of staying in our pajamas all day and lounging around. Usually, this means he gets to eat breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, too.

Last week, however, for some reason, we couldn't do Pajama Wednesday, and since we've been sick for the last several days, we've had a lot of Pajama (Fri-Satur-Sun-Mon)days this week.

The poor kid is out of pajamas. Time to do some laundry!

Saturdays with C

C and D go to the library every Saturday morning to make a craft, play computer games, do puzzles, and check out books and DVDs.

Apparently, our library has won awards for being the "Best Library in America." (Our city is a little full of itself.) And I firmly believe these animal headsets might have tipped the scales in our library's favor.

I don't know if they're supposed to be bears or rabbits or monkeys or ferrets or Arthur or what, though. Any ideas?

The last tag I'll ever do...

The 8 things tag. (Chari, you owe me.)

8 favorite TV shows:
24
House
Beverly Hills, 90210 (the original)
So You Think You Can Dance?
The Amazing Race
What Not to Wear
Designed to Sell
Friends

8 things I did yesterday:
Printed out a ton of cupcake and buttercream frosting recipes
Made cute little binders for my new employees
Played race cars and basketball with C
Spent 2 minutes in between bites talking to my husband
Baked for 3 hours at a commercial kitchen
Spent way too much time on Facebook
Brought home a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting for D
Drove by Rod Blagojevich's home in Chicago

8 things I'm looking forward to:
Getting my new glasses
Getting the business website up and running
Having another strategy session with my publicist!
Finding time to read "Your Marketing Sucks."
Going to Leipzig and Prague with D this summer
Having a son who is able to zip up his jacket by himself
Having my husband around more once he finishes school
Summertime in Chicago!

8 favorite restaurants:
Florentine's - Cupertino
Kirala - Berkeley
Joy Yee - Chicagoland
Lou Malnati's - Chicagoland
Haku - NYC
Rodizio - SLC
That Kiosque Flottant on the Seine - Paris
Sparta's Pizza and Spaghetti - Bothell, WA

8 Things on my wish list
I wish we could afford to move to Lincoln Park
and put C in private school
and hire a personal chef
who goes grocery shopping. (That's 4.)
I wish I could lose 5 more pounds
and keep it off
and increase my VO2 so that I can run a 5k
and shrink down just one more size. (That's 4 more.)

Is this a bad sign?

So I'm starting a cupcake business. If you're reading this, you probably already know this.

Well, I went to a Chinese buffet today for lunch, and even THEY'VE hopped on the cupcake bandwagon. Because it complements greasy, garlicky food so well.

Clockwise from top left: fried green beans, teriyaki chicken, Chinese donuts, pork potstickers, and yellow cake from a box topped with gritty shortening-based frosting with air-brushed food coloring and sprinkles.

I hope this isn't a bad omen or something. Next thing you know, we'll see them at Indian buffets on Devon.

The Chinese donuts though? Pretty darn good. I'll keep that idea tucked away in case this cupcake thing doesn't work out.

Seriously, just pick a team

I saw this minivan driving down LSD by Oak Street beach yesterday and thought it was worth capturing on camera. I highly doubt I'll see anything like it ever again:

White Sox.
Cubs.
Red Sox.
Yankees.
Jesus.

(P.S. - sorry to the cabbie I almost swerved into while attempting to capture the sheer madness.)

I try to fly, but...

My old roommate introduced me to Flylady a few years ago. I'm a fan of the concept:

Declutter.
Don't stress over the little things.
Declutter.
Get your life in order by eliminating hotspot messes.
Declutter.
Do your Weekly Home Blessing Hour.
Declutter.
Focus on Zones.
Declutter.
Do Zone Missions.
Declutter.
Train your kids to do the same.
Declutter.
FLY!
(and keep decluttering.)

So I find this ironic:

Flylady. Kelly. Flylady Mentors. Can I count deleting these messages as my 27 fling declutter boogie today?

Valentine's Day cards

So I used to instruct people in the art of rubber stamping and cardmaking. It was all I did in my past life. Seriously. I was really into it and I still enjoy it a lot. I still have a craft room. I still have 80 reams of coordinating cardstock.

But apparently three months away and I've lost my touch.

This is the best I could come up with for C's preschool Valentine's Day party tomorrow:

What has happened to me?! Not even an embellishment! UGH.

(In my defense, it IS 1 in the morning.)

Cynicism

Not that this matters because the person who said this to me last night will never read this (since she can't even figure out how to use e-mail)... but I do love her and here's why:

Me: "Isn't it weird that the older you get, the more cynical you get?"
Friend: "Oh. Totally."
Me: "I bet 80% of the people I talk to get offended by something I say."
Friend: "Oh. My percentage is probably like 95%."
Me: "Who cares if they get offended anyhow, huh."
Friend: "Seriously. Take a number."

For the record, we're both churchgoers. Oh well.

BlahBlahBlahBlahBlah

I recently got an offer for a free subscription to Strategy + Business Magazine. "Sure, why not?" I thought.

So I opened it. Here's what I found for the next 51 (I kid you not) pages:


Finally, on the page 52-53 spread, something I can relate to - a graphic image!!


But then, I turned the page.


Not to knock the magazine, but really, I don't think I'm in their core demographic. I need pictures. Celebrity pictures, even.

How did THEY get in?

I was just scrolling through some article about celebrities who were at the inauguration earlier today and noticed a lot of foreign faces. Not that I have anything against the foreign celeb list or anything, but I was just wondering how they get priority over other American celebrities to attend such a publicized event.

I mean, unless there's some amendment in the Bill of Rights that I haven't heard of, they weren't even allowed to vote for the man.

Sting going through the metal detectors

Marisa Tomei (okay, she's allowed) and Shakira schmoozing with the new POTUS

Bono, the self-proclaimed activist.

Is it just that we don't have enough quality domestic musicians to fill a set list for an inaugural concert?