Old friend, new blog

Meet Sue! She's my favorite friend and she's started a blog!

Sue is mom to Ruby, an adorable sassy one year old. Her blog includes stuff about mommyhood, great books to read to your tot, modern conveniences for busy moms and good beer recommendations.

Here we are prepping for my wedding, we look so fancy and put together, HA! Five minutes before this photo was taken, my mom came in the room to find us sitting on the floor, in our dresses shoveling sushi into our mouths. Then my poor mom tried to iron out the wrinkles from my dress, yes while I was inside of the dress, and burned my bum with steam. All I remember is Sue laughing hysterically at the entire situation.

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Sue's blog: @ny price, go here to check it out, and don't forget to comment!

That's 72 to be exact

Of the things I miss most from Pennsylvania, pierogies are number two. (Tastykake Kandy Kakes are number one.) Have you ever heard of the wonderful fried treats called pierogies? That's what I thought. Pierogies are a delightful Hungarian potato dough dumpling filled with fluffy mashed potatoes, boiled then deep fried. I then enjoy them salted and carefully drizzled with ketchup.

We have tried to find them in California, but nobody knows what we're talking about when we ask. We then commence the story about how our favorite hot dog restaurant, Yocco's, offers these little fried bites of heaven, and oh how we're craving them. We just can't go on living without them. Yocco's sells the Doggie Pac which includes a dozen dogs, buns and all the fixings. My dad has been keeping us filled with Yocco's dogs for the last few years by air mailing a Doggie Pac on Thomas's birthday or whenever he thinks Thomas has a hankering. Yocco's does not, unfortunately for us, package their pierogies!

A few days ago, I received a cryptic email from my dad. "Expect a package on Thursday." We speculated what it could be, one can never be too sure when dealing with my family. We waited and pondered some more.

Thursday came and here's what arrived:

Pierogies! Six DOZEN pierogies to be exact. He split the order into different varieties sending us potato and cheese, plain cheese, and potato and onion. I dropped a dozen in the fryer and they turned out perfectly!

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Millie's Pierogi, get some for yourself, here.

Groovy orange vase

I'm not much of a garage sale fanatic, but Jane called me this morning to let me know our neighbors had some cool vintage stuff splayed on their lawns. With Thomas still asleep, I threw on some jeans, grabbed my coffee and headed over.

Check out this vase I picked up! It's groovy, in every sense of the word, isn't it?

I love the irregular drippy top. The bright orange of the body fades out to lighter orange on top and bottom, and look at those cute little nubby feet! Thomas is going to love this find!

Happy Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween a little bit earlier in the week. Saturday night we went to a party at our friends Carolyn and George's home. The invite instructed we come as dead rock stars. After weeks of pondering the possibilities and four trips to the thrift store, we ended up as Mama Cass and a white Jimi Hendrix.

When I found that dress, I had to have it. I didn't have an immediate idea for who I could become while wearing it. I snapped some shots on the iPhone and uploaded them to Flickr. My sister Jen helped me formulate the rest of the ensemble. She took one look at the dress and knew what to do with it! Right away she spouted, "Mama Cass! Tie something around your head, get some daisies, a ham sandwich and go barefoot!"

Plus Jen found this photo of Mama Cass knitting! Hooray!

The dress fit pretty well and I didn't think I would be able to put a pillow under the dress to make me look fat. Thomas was dead set on fattening me up for the costume. He made me shove every throw pillow in the house under my dress and finally he was satisfied with a green square one. Thrilled with his decision, he scampered off to the garage to get the duct tape. A word to the wise, don't ever let your husband convince you that duct taping something directly to your skin is a good idea. Ever. Learn it now. This is what happens at the end of the evening, and it stays that way with a mild burning sensation for the next four days.

Thomas on the other hand was a bit more challenging. Do we send him as Kurt Cobain, a young Jerri Garcia? Nothing seemed to work right. Then I found a photo of Jimi Hendrix in a black shirt and a white jacket with tight jeans. He owns a white jacket. That was a good start. I found a classy polyester double-knit navy blue button-down shirt with white triangles. To add to my excitement, the shirt was not only his neck size but cut long in the torso. Perfect!

We found a scarf for his head, and frizzed up his hair.

The only hurdle left was pants. I didn't find anything appropriate at the thrift store. Thomas doesn't own jeans, he considers them too average, too expected, too common. I was racking my brain to figure something out. His business khakis certainly wouldn't work. Scanning the dirty laundry piles in the bedroom, I spotted the perfect item. I convinced him to wear my skinny jeans.

Thomas. Skinny. Jeans.

He complained that they were crushingly painful. He couldn't reach his feet to put on his socks or tie his shoes. But damn, they looked good!

Cables and so much more...

Always on the lookout for something interesting, Thomas came across a Flexible Joints Camera Tripod and ordered it for me. He wanted an extra cable for his iPhone and somehow I ended up with this oddly exciting new piece of gadgetry.

It's a pretty nifty little tripod that you can bend in any direction. He thought it would be good for uneven surfaces in the garden or at dog beach.

Thomas orders cables and odds and ends from a website called DealExtreme.com. I always remember the name because their shipping packages are extreme. It ships from Hong Kong and always has something silly on the customs label, like LED FLASHLIGHTS. For a while there he was ordering quite a few items from DealExtreme, and I'd happily go out to get the mail only to be greeted by the mailman saying, "Gee, Tom sure likes flashlights. Does he know he could get this stuff at the grocery store and save us all a lot of trouble?"

I would take the package inside, "Here hon, more flashlights for you." But I never visited the website. It's no wonder I end up with new stuff when he needs something as mundane as a cable. That website is insane!

You can purchase everything from useful items, like cables and tripods, to more unique items like this adorable LED Piggy Flashlight:

Next time he orders he better get me one of these, an Invisible Ink Pen.

Or you could even pick up one of these very curious, um, Water Pipes.