(I’m totally singing the crap Celine Dione song right now.  Wasn’t Meatloaf in that video?)

But yeah, I’ve been in California for 15 hours.  And, like always, I immediately feel like I never left.  Trust me, I dig Seattle, but there are some things you can’t get up there.

Like this being the first text message you see when you turn your phone on:

Or this greeting you at the airport:

Or going HERE straight from said airport:

And eating this for dinner:

Yeah, some things about California are just GOOD.

Note: I am not technically on vacation until about 5:00 today, and am just staring at the warm sunshine bitterly while having a rather hellish work from home day.  On the bright side, thanks to my trusty Google Reader, I was alerted to the existence of THIS today:

Dude.  It’s $250 worth of the BEST eyeliner known to mankind.  And it’s a collector’s set- which means that somewhere, somebody is a PROFESSIONAL EYELINER COLLECTOR.  They go to eyeliner galas and auctions and buy eyeliner that appreciates in value.  THIS is obviously what I was meant to do with my life.  People, if you love me, pool your money together, email other readers, buy me this and start my new life as a freaking true eyeliner afficionado.  Trust me, I would be REALLY good at it.  I promise.

Summer is over.

We’re back, we’re on the mend, and we’re firmly entrenched in the day to day grind again.  My work is way too hectic while Mike is complaining about being bored after his first full day back in the office.  And I’ve finally surrendered to the fact that fall is here- I’ve switched my regular morning coffee from an iced tall triple Americano to a hot one and I’ve begun the search for THE PERFECT BOOTS.

I admit I’m having a bit of anxiety around the upcoming cold weather.  Last year we looked ahead to every cool breeze and rainy day through a gentle blur lens of blissful ignorance.  This year I’m staring down October and beyond with a little more knowledge, and let me tell you, that shit is dangerous.

But there are two things getting me through what promises to be a very hectic week.  1) In 10 days we’ll be flying to Tulum, where we can do nothing but sit in the sun, look at ruins, eat fish tacos, drink margaritas, and swim in the ocean.  2) I still have a couple of pictures to past from our California trip last week.

Mary and I hiked the Hollywood sign.  It was hot.  Gloriously, gloriously hot.

Um, it may have also been a bit smoggy.  Ok, so not everything about California is awesome.  The air does totally blow.

This is my crazy mom teaching swimming lessons.  She likes this kid so much that she made me drive and watch her give the lesson even though it was right smack dab in the middle of the day.  In case you ever wonder how I can get so excited about the most mundane things in the world, let me introduce you to my mother, the spaz.

This is Mary holding the orange Marc Jacobs bag that I totally fell in love with at Nordstroms Rack.  Last time I put a picture of an awesome bag on my blog, it magially showed up in the mail a few days later.  Maybe this will happen again!  Of course, this bag was $398, so I’m guessing the chances are slightly slimmer.

Finally, I’ve saved the best for last.  Why in god’s name isn’t there a Yogurtland anywhere in Seattle?  Seriously people, get your crap together and make me a delicious, self-serve yogurt place.  Do you have any idea how much I freaking love this place?

Enough to make stupid faces and take stupid pictures like this.

Pure bliss.  And I want some NOW.

Ok fall, come get me.  But bring me yogurt if you can.

Hi Orange County!!

We are here.  We are busy.  We are trying to get in face time with everybody we can.  Call me!

We got in at 6:30 on Saturday and were picked up by my awesome parents.  We ate dinner next to a bunch of cougars at Mahe in Seal Beach where I drowned in grilled halibut and au grautin potatoes.  Yum.  Then I begged them to stop at Pinkberry* where I indulged in yogurt goodness (I am SO happy they got rid of their nasty coffee flavor in favor of delicious Pomegranate.)  I also realized that I AM turning into my mom, as witnessed in this picture:

Pinkberry was just a warmup to the yogurt goodness that is Southern California- Yogurtland is what it’s really all about.  Oh yeah, and friends and family and Thanksgiving are good too.

* Note: I hope you clicked on the Pinkberry hyperlink and now have the “Pink-berry” song stuck in your head too.

Hi!  It’s me!

I haven’t posted in 3 days and I’m sure that anybody who knows me assumes that I just got bored with this blogging thing.  But no, I promise, my short attention span is not responsible for the lack of recent posting.  The blame for my virtual absence lies entirely with another one of my (many) flaws: my infamous clumsiness.

We had high hopes for the weekend: finish getting the house in order Friday and Saturday, then spend Sunday exploring more of the city.  We made our 3rd trip to Ikea since moving here Friday evening, but after returning one pair of desks, we found out that we couldn’t fit the desks we did want in either of our cars, so we left, extremely dejected.  We were mightily cheered up though by our first taste of Pagliacci’s Pizza, which is pretty much iconic in Seattle, and deservedly so.  Delicious pizza, pasta salad and blackberry gelato restored us to our normal, jovial selves.

SaturDAY was good.  We slept in, went back to Ikea (4th trip- damn you Ikea!), found a desk solution we could live with, and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond, where, thanks to one of those fabulous 20% off coupons and the culmination of YEARS of whining, we finally got a Dyson:

Seriously, he was soooooo happy.  The boy loves vacuuming.  Which is good for me, but bad for our finances- we already have a Roomba, a handheld Dyson and a Swiffer Vac thing.  Not to mention the fact that we left a Shop-Vac and and older non-Dyson upright vacuum in Anaheim for the boys.  ::shaking head::

Anyways, at approximately 8:30 pm, disaster struck.

This is the staircase that I dropped my beloved 4 year old Dell Inspiron laptop.  Stupidly, I had rested it on the banister while I was cleaning, so me knocking it down was inevitable.  You would think that I would know better, but no, I don’t.

This was the physical damage:

Obviously, it would no longer turn on.

At this point I went a little catatonic.  Mike spent 5 minutes trying to reassure me that the hard drive was fine and it wasn’t really a big deal, but then quickly remembered that I’m totally unreasonable (true) and let me sulk while we set up the office.  At some point I took a Xanax and went to sleep.

By noon on Sunday, we were at the Sony store buying a replacement.  Then we drove to Renton and visited Fry’s (talk about feeling like we were home again) to get whatever Mike needed to rescue the contents of my poor hard drive.  While we were in the ‘burbs, we called our friend B, who met us at Ratcha Thai for a late lunch.  The food was a little “eh,” but dessert more than made up for it:

Oh tart yogurt, how I love you, and how I miss your excessive availability back home.  ::sigh::

We came home.  I turned on my new laptop.  It worked.  I squealed.  Mike restored everything from my old hard drive in about 10 minutes.  I squealed louder and danced a little.  He told me to stop.

All in all, everything is back to normal at our house.

(I know you’re looking at this extremely flattering picture and thinking, ‘God, Mike is a lucky, lucky man.’  You’re right.  He is.)