The Bargain

Last week, after our evening class, Randy and I went to the Downtown-Thursday-Night deal in Redlands. It's like a farmer's market - slash - street fair thing. As we walked down the street full of people, I zeroed in on the lovely booth full of knock off purses! Quickly I dragged Randy towards the prize and frantically began digging through faux Chanel, Coach, and Fendi bags. Unfortunately, they were all very obvious fakes. But on the other side of the table sat a pretty little purse that was very similar to one I had been coveting at Nordstroms. The purse (as you can see above) is made out of seat-belt material. Too cute! The sales girl told me that she was willing to make a 'deal' for many of the purses that night, and although the price tag only said $19, I didn't think to grab any cash earlier in the day, so I sadly left the booth and continued on down the street. Not 3 minutes into our journey, I spotted an ATM. Quickly I pulled $20 out and headed back to my booth with Randy in tow. As I got closer to the booth I suddenly realized that I hadn't considered that tax would be added to the price of the purse, and I only had that twenty dollar bill. So I walked up to the booth, grabbed my purse, handed the girl my $20 and said, "I'll give you twenty dollars for the purse". "Okay" she said, and the deal was complete. As I walked out of the booth with my shiny new purse, Randy just shook his head and said "Way to bargain, Jo... you just walked up to her and offered her MORE money for the purse than she was asking. Once again you cease to amaze me!"

Double Smooshed Cookies...

My husband's family makes these chocolate and whipped cream cookies. They are chocolate wafers stacked three high with whipped cream in between. You should see the whole group swoon when they are brought out. It's almost a religious experience around their house. Recently we were sent home with a plate of the sacred family cookies.

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I was instructed to hold them carefully in my lap for the ride home, but not to eat any. (Randy didn't want any crumbs in his new truck!) While on the way home, he pulled off to grab some dinner. I carefully placed the plate of cookies on the seat of the truck, closed the door and followed my husband into the restaurant.

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Towards the end of dinner, I received a phone call so I left Randy to pay the bill and walked out to the truck alone while chatting on my phone. In the middle of my conversation I opened the door and hopped back into my seat, put my feet up on the dash and chatted 'till Randy joined me. As he hopped into the truck, I finished my phone call and reached for my seat belt. As my fingers sunk into the cool mushy mess behind me, I realized that the cookies were nowhere in sight. Uh-oh...I'd sat on 'em. This is probably the one and only time I will ever put a picture of my rump on this blog. Totally for your amusement! Enjoy!

Friday Afternoon at Disneyland

For Christmas, Randy and I were given a pair of annual passes to Disneyland (how cool are my parents?). We were finally able to get away for an entire day and do the Disney thing!

In the rush to get out of the door and on the road to Anaheim, Randy forgot to bring a hat or any sunscreen for his big shiny head. So our first order of the day was to find him a hat. Where else would be go but the Mad Hatter!

Randy didn't really want to try on funny hats for me, but I managed to convince him to try this one! Could he look any more miserable?

I, however, had a blast with all of the different hats.

As to be expected, Randy found something in a nice earth-tone that didn't bring too much attention. I was amused to see that he bought a Grumpy hat, though.

By the time we finally found a hat, we realized that we hadn't eaten any lunch yet. We walked over to the Blue Bayou only to find out that they were booked up for the NEXT THREE DAYS! Sheesh! After a few more unsuccessful attempts to find something appetizing, we just left the park (because we can!) and had lunch at Downtown Disney

Sometimes I forget how pretty it can be in southern california!

After lunch we decided to check out California Adventure... There a two things that will turn Randy back into a little kid... firetrucks and airplanes. He loves them both. Randy knows more about planes than anyone I have ever met...

The minute we walked through this hallway with planes, he began explaining when each plane was built, what it is used for now, and any pertinent information regarding the plane.

I once was a skeptic when it came to Randy's vast knowledge of planes. Since I had no way to prove that he was wrong, I figured he was just making most of his information up. One day, I went online and found pictures of 15 different planes. Not only could he tell me the names of the planes, he could tell me who built most of them and what their purpose was and when they were used. I tell you, it's a little creepy sometimes.

Look at his eyes light up!

I wasn't all that excited about the planes, but I managed to find Heimlich!

"I'm a beeeautiful butterfly... but I'm sooo hungry!"

-Heimlich

Randy also loves to look at plants and trees. He thought this pink one was very pretty.

In contrast, I enjoy cotton candy. I thought this pink selection was quite tasty!

Can't wait to go again!

Happy VD!

Normally the middle of the week has Randy and I pretty busy. Even with Valentine's Day this week, there will be no time off. In lieu of the traditional night out, we decided to take a drive today into Oak Glen, a few minutes above where we live. It was foggy and gray and we loved every minute of our adventure. .

We stopped at the little shops along the side of the road and headed in for caramel apples!

Instead of apples, I found some maple fudge. I about fell over when the clerk slapped my hunk of fudge on the counter and it came to $10! Fortunately, it was really good. Not ten-dollars-good, but good.

Of course I HAD to have my hot apple cider. And as to be expected, I spilled it all over myself and Randy's new truck! Whoops! Since we were celebrating Valentine's Day, Randy let it slide and just rolled his eyes at me! Phew!

In addition to the trip, we also exchanged gifts today. Of course, by "exchange" I mean we went to the store together and each got to spend $30-$40 on ourselves!

Randy knew just where to take me! The MAC store!

McFatty

Since today was yet another long day, I decided to scrap any plans of making dinner and just do the drive-thru thing. I pulled up to the golden arches and ordered. After handing my credit card to the first window, I obediently pulled up to the second window. There the smiling McDonalds worker cheerfully asked me to pull up into the parking lot because they were waiting for my "fresh batch of hot fries" yeah, right, whatever. As I pulled into to the fastfood purgatory, I looked at the folks in the 1994 Chevy Astrovan parked alongside me. Two women wedged into the front seats, waiting for their McSupersized bounty. Feeling a little guilty in judging them, I sucked in my stomach and sat a little taller... you know, to elongate my otherwise rotund stature. After a few minutes, my guilt subsided and I began trying to get a good look at them. As the time ticked away, I could see the ladies getting more and more agitated. Clearly delirious with hunger. After six minutes of shifting themselves back and forth in their seats, the passenger was instructed to, "figure out what the hell is going on in there". As I unsuccessfully scrambled around for my cell phone (to get a picture of this for my blog), the passenger door opened and the van began to dip to the side. Slowly she slid out of the seat, until her pudgy feet managed to reach the ground. As she made her way for the door, her momentum increased. Thighs smacking together, belly fat smacking up and down against her legs, she charged into the restaurant and began to frantically bob her round head and wave her sausage-like arms. I chuckled at the show in front of me. Quickly she was handed three bags and two sodas which she feverishly placed on the table beside her and began to count every single item she had received. After stuffing the food back into the bags, she reemerged through the front doors headed straight for her minivan. As she reached the car door, she turned to me and between breaths informed me to, "go ahead and get in there and find my food because those idiots just forgot about everybody out here". "Thanks, I'll take that under consideration" I replied. As I finally got a good look at her face I thought Oh my goodness, she is probably my age. As she heaved herself back into the van, I turned my engine on and drove away without our dinner. Best $10 I ever spent.