SO. MUCH. FAIL.

And my epic fail is ever more evident in the fact that I have not posted in more than a week. I did say that I wouldn't be berating myself over it though, didn't I? Well then, I shall refrain from self-flagellation with the bamboo whipping stick and I'll opine about the last week of spring break.

Last Saturday I took a trip to Reno with my husband and children. We spent four days being entertained by the Imperial Acrobats of China, the halfway decent buffet, and the never-ending stream of pink tickets on the midway inside of the Circus Circus hotel. We redeemed more than 10,000 tickets for a pile of useless and semi-useful crap for the kids and hauled it all home, not aware that half of it would fall to the wayside within minutes of walking through the front door.

Then came a trip to one of my favorite cities, San Francisco. We spent a couple of hours visiting the California Academy of Sciences before making our way back to our van, which was parked an incredibly long way from the Academy. From there we drove over to Fisherman's wharf to visit Pier 39. We ended up having dinner at one of my favorite, though overpriced restaurants, Bubba Gump's. We were able to sit at a window facing the bay and my kids giggled and pointed out every boat on the water that went by.

Last but not least, this past Saturday we decided to take a drive up to Bear Valley. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day. Since the weather is becoming so nice and warm, we thought it would be a good idea to take the kids sledding in the snow one last time before it all melts. We headed up in the morning, spending a peaceful 2 hours enjoying the scenery and parked on the street in Bear Valley Village. After getting all decked out in our snow boots and beanies and gloves, we headed across the street to the sledding and tubing hills, run by the good people of Bear Valley Cross Country. They've been operating a their business for many years now and the people that helped us out at the hills were just fantastic.

If these trips aren't a good enough reason for having missed blogging this past week, then I don't know what would possibly work.

La La La Fail.

Right, so that 3 a week concept? EPIC FAIL already. It's Thursday, and unless I crank out another entry tomorrow and one Saturday morning before I go to Reno, (haha right, like hubby will dig that) my big plan bites the dust.

But hey, I DID say that I wouldn't beat myself up over not making it. So...


Anyways! I have used my fabulous Green-Pan two or three times now and I fucking LOVE it. I barely have to touch it with the soft side of a sponge and EVERYTHING comes off of it. KICK ASS. I'm so investing in more of these pans if this one keeps up at this rate.

Also, I'm going to Reno this weekend! We'll be gone for 4, count 'em 4 days. Fun times will be had by all! My niece Stephanie (who's 25, I'm a young aunt [by marriage] who's not even 32 yet!) is bringing her friend Alexis and they're going to watch my kids for me while the hubby and I head out for adult time. When we get back, they're free to do whatever they want. So that leaves the day to spend with our kids on the Midway playing games and watching acrobats. Hopefully we'll go to the Scheel's sporting goods store too. It's going to be EPICSAUCE.

A Tale of Two Links.

I have two links to share today, and they are completely unrelated. The first one is a link to a youtube video that a young London high school girl made to honor her mother, who died of cervical cancer. That in and of itself isn't why I'm sharing this link. The first reason is because it's a very well done touching tribute and I was touched by it, but the second reason is because in the video, the young girl sang the song herself, and it was hauntingly beautiful.

The video can be found here.

The second link I'm sharing will help you shake off the sadness you felt from the first one. It's the red band trailer for the new Kevin Smith film COP OUT. For those of you that don't know what red band is, it means it's the rated R trailer. When previews come out, they put up a green screen that says this preview has been approved for all audiences. But for a redband trailer, it's only been approved for restricted audiences 17 and older. So you have to put in a birthday that proves you're 17 or older to view it, but I'm sure you all know how to count back 17 years.
This movie is going to be hilarious. I can't wait to see it!

The trailer for COP OUT can be found here.

Case of the Fucked up Frying Pan

Post one for this week:

I got a new saute pan today. My lovely expensive Pampered Chef one has shit the bed, so to speak. It's supposed to be guaranteed for life that the teflon won't scratch. BULLSHIT. Less than a week after I had it, shit started sticking to it.

So I got a new one. And it's GREEN. I don't mean the color green, I mean ecologically green. I got a 12 inch skillet from the GreenPan company, website here: http://www.green-pan.com/cookware/intro.asp

I haven't used it yet, but it looks pretty awesome. So we'll see how it goes when I fry potatoes in it next time.

And I'm sending the Pampered Chef one back. It's supposed to have a lifetime warranty that they'll replace it so even though it's been a few years, they have to replace it. I've never used metal on it, only wood and plastic and I'll swear in court if I have to.

I knew this wouldn't be as easy as I thought...

So my intention was to write one blog a day. Doesn't matter what the content is, I just wanted to get one blog a day out.

That concept crashed and burned.

So I'm gonna shoot for 3 a week. If I get more than that, awesome. If not, I won't beat myself up over it.

That being said, here's a link to a funny website just to take up some of your time:

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!

So for my very first post on my very first actual "blog" outside of the greatest/live/insane-journal genre, I shall be doing something I've been dying to do for awhile now. Sharing an EMBEDDED VIDEO *GASP*! ok go finally found a way around EMI's bullshit deal with Youtube/the Google juggernaut and got a sponsor to cover the assumed profits lost from embedding. So before someone finds out and puts the kibosh on the whole shebang, here's the video! It is AWESOME.