OakMonster’s Den

Because Olaina loves me, last night she called me while in the major chain grocery store just to let me know that 6-pack of Guinness are on sale.

Because somehow I have become a wayward future alcoholic, my thought on the Guinness news was that I didn’t have any space in my fridge so perhaps I should start making room by drinking some beer in there.

Because I actually still love my liver and sanity, I did not follow through with that thought. After all, there is still 1/3 jar of Mai Tai chilling in the fridge. (Anyone wants to come over and help me with that?)

Because my bus buddy picked me up to carpool to town this morning, I did not get my routine morning nap so I was a bit cranky at work.

Because I was more antisocial than usual, I actually scared people off enough that I stayed the course and got 90% of my shit together. Thank god for that!

Because I didn’t want to cook tonight…originally anyway…I baked some chicken breast last night along side my lasagna to make Chicken Salad Contessa (a Waldorf chicken salad, more or less) for dinner today with the intention to take that to work for lunch for a few more days after that.

Because I was shopping hungry, while I was in the grocery store this evening to pick up the jar of mayonnaise to make said salad and other items, I was hit by the incredible urge to make a pot roast and so I bought all the ingredients.

Because for some odd reasons, I thought pot roast is made with pork and not beef, I bought a cut of pork loin roast instead of, say, a rump roast.

Because there is no such thing as a pork pot roast cooked in a crock pot to be found anywhere, I had a hard time finding the recipe of the pot roast I have envisioned–the tender slow cooked meat with veggies and gravy–not to mention one that Brandon can just plunk everything into the crock pot tomorrow morning unsupervised.

Because Brandon works 4-10 schedule and Tuesday is also a holiday for him, he takes 3 days of vacation time and get a week off. Hence, he is put in charge of the crock pot dinner tomorrow.

Because I couldn’t find said easy pork loin roast recipe until I settled for this recipe meant for a beef roast, I was in the kitchen browning the roast, chopping up veggies, and deglazing the pan at 9:15 p.m.

Because I didn’t want to do any more dishes after my pre-cook dinner productions, I drank the last of my leftover wine straight from the bottle. (Well, there was barely about a glass left in that bottle after I used a cup of it to deglaze the pot roast.)

And finally, because my husband loves me, he’s going to come in to curl up with me until I fall asleep so that this crazy Monday can be over.

Then I can start anew tomorrow, hoping for an easier day.

P.S. Because it’s unfair for a 21-year-old to have a cancer scare, please send your good mojo to Bua, my twin sister from another life. She will be in surgery around 4 p.m. ICT (Bangkok Time)–that’s 2 hours from now.

The season has begun.

Please head over to congratulate Beth Fish and Chris Rude Cactus with the new addition to their family Owen Gregory “Wally”.  The ever so adorable Mia Bean has a little brother!

Following Beth/Chris/Mia’s footsteps, within the next few weeks, I have 4 more pregnant friends due.

I’m not sure who’s going first but I think James and Aurora go first with Dresden William “Peanut”.  Then Nan and Mike are expecting a baby sister for Owen.  Then Celeste’s brother and his wife will welcome their son Noah, a baby brother to Sadie.

Coming in last is Shane’s sister Toni and hubby Eric with a baby boy.

I’m pretty sure I’m leaving someone out of this list. I mean, 5 babies in a span of a month! What was in the water last June?

All of these new birthdays are adding on to the already crowded March. We already have 7 birthdays in March.

It’s going to be an interesting month.

Of course you know how us Southern Californians are weather wussies.  For the past month, we had the coldest and wettest of winters we had in a while.  You know, may be 5 days of rain and temperature of mid-high 50s during the day.

Then Friday arrived with the low 70s.  Saturday was practically spring.  And today is just like any other summer day.

You know just how warm it is going to get by how quickly the beautiful and snowy San Gabriel mountains–thanks to the recent storms–disappears from my neighborhood’s horizons, swallowed up by the wall of haze and smog.

But I didn’t expect the weather to be so warm on Friday!  Nora took me to see Wicked as my birthday and Christmas present, and I thought my impending cold was going to kill me by the end of the night.  As it turned out, high dosage of vitamin C and Airborne was doing a good job on its own, and the warm evening helped some more.  I had a fantastic time.  The music was great and the leading ladies were AMAZING.  (Can’t say the same for Fiyero though.  I had a different mental picture for him and this actor just doesn’t quite fill those shoes for me.)  And, tada!  The cold didn’t manifest after all!

The weather was also clearly on James & Aurora’s side yesterday as they solicited help from friends to deep clean their house in preparation for the arrival of baby Peanut Dresden.  J&A provided pizza.  The friends provided extra cleaning supplies and labor.  I supplied extra encouragement in the form of a sun tea jar full of Mai Tai and a jug of the virgin kind for the Mommy of the house.  It was truly a great day to do such a huge job.

It’s amazing how much more enjoyable cleaning the house is with some Mai Tai you can sip through out the day, I tell ya!

Today?  Another glorious day!  I did my version of spring cleaning so far with taking my donations to Goodwill and finally taking all my bottles and cans to be recycled.  Brandon opened up the house and once I’m done here, I’m going to finally clean out my office.

Yeah, I know. I said I was going to do it a few weeks ago.  But you know me.  I tend to hibernate when it is cold out.

I can assure you I’d rather be on the couch for the rest of the day again this weekend, but my schedule is not going to allow any more free time for quite a while more.  Besides, keeping me busy doing other things would give Brandon a chance to be “alone” without me actually leaving the house.

We got news yesterday that Brandon’s cat Christmas, the one that his mom kittynapped from him when his parents moved out to New Mexico years ago, maybe at the end of her 18-year run.  A kidney failure sent her to the vets, but as of this morning, she was still hanging in there.

Christmas was his companion for many years (before the kittynapping)  and has always been our long distance pet.  When we’re out in New Mexico, she and Brandon are almost inseparable.  So, this news is not one that is easily digested.

But hopefully, if all goes well, Christmas might come out of this sickness and hang around a few more months.  At least, we hope to see her when we go out there this year in May.

Thanks to my brother Onk for making me cry first thing in the morning on the Friday of an extremely stressful week.

I will never hear this song the same way again…

I have always admired the works of Improv Everywhere.  You know, the No Pants on the Subway people in the news recently?  The U2 on the rooftop prank seen on VH1 Best Pranks?

Well, their newest gig was Frozen Grand Central Station here.

My point in all this is that I have ALWAYS wished that there is one like that for Los Angeles area so I could join them in the madness.

And guess what?  They just started an international community for folks to start a group anywhere.  As of last night, I joined the cause.  And this morning, I got Olaina into it too.

Agent OakMonster is at your service and recruiting like a mad woman!

My beloved Dr. House/Hugh Laurie is now the new Captain of the DreamBoat(tm), walking Russell Crowe right off the plank as of last night.

3 appearances in my dreams would entitle anyone to the top position, don’t you think?

In my dream last night, Dr. House was Dr. House, not Hugh Laurie. House and I had been friends for a long time. Of course, we were out and about when we walked up to this community center type facility.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” His mischievous blue eyes twinkled.

It was an origami exhibition. You know, the crazy elaborate and complicate ones? And today was a special session when the artists teach you how to make these great works for VIPs only.

I of course lost my shit and ran squealing to the nearest learning station. House watched me sped off with a smile and moved on to another station.

When I finally came to from the joyous delirium, I came back to find him working on a piece of paper at one of the tables. He looked up when I approached and kept his eyes on the paper as I took the seat next to him.

“I love you,” he said without looking up.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“What??”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. Then he kissed me.

“I’m in love with you.”

I just stared at him. His blue eyes still sparkled but gone serious.

“Are you kidding me?”

“Did that feel like I was kidding?”

“But, you know I’m…?”

“I know.”

“And we’re…?”

“Still are.”

“But, you can’t…?”

“Just did.”

“But…WHAT???”

“Well. I just want you to know that I’m in love with you. What you’re going to do with that information is up to you.”

I searched those eyes, looking for something that would betray him. Everybody lies, right? He clearly must be fucking with me. But there was nothing in those eyes to say that he’s lying. He really meant what he just said.

“Um. Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.” He looked back down on his piece of paper, crumpled it up and tossed it to the floor.

“Now, where do you want to go for lunch?”

We walked out of that place as if nothing changed at all. In my head, I was going crazy. House loves me. ME! But I’m married. What am I going to do. But I’m so happy right now. He loves ME, like really loves me! That’s insane!

I didn’t want to know what’s next so I made myself wake up.

And I was surprised to find that I was smiling.

ETA:  Hilarity ensued my horoscope in the LA Times reads:

Scorpio (Oct. 24-Nov. 21): If your feelings are not reciprocated, take heart. Love is never lost. It will always return to you — maybe not from the direction you’d like, but it will return to you from somewhere.

It’s only Tuesday?

Fuck.

Two images that capture the weekend:

This weekend flew by at warp speed. Well, as it should as I was on board the Enterprise. Hehe. I will put the picture of our group on the bridge of NC-1701-A…that’s the Kirk-Spock Enterprise to you…up as soon as I could clean all the specks off of my scan.

The Star Trek Tour was quite fun. The price is a little steep for the experience but yeah, it was really entertaining.

The group went to Gaffey Street Diner for a huge lunch. Then later on, Erik, Brandon, and I followed our inner 13-year-old’s lack of better sense and saw Meet the Spartans. It was exactly what you think it was going to be. It has its moments though. The pit of death was great. Could we have waited to rent this on DVD? Certainly. But, it was a fun escape.

Sunday morning, I went up to Mary Ann in Sierra Madre for my hair cut. It’s not really that far from my house on Sunday morning, really. And Mary Ann is worth driving to. She KNOWS my hair. And of course, the personal time you get to spend with a friend is always good.

And it’s not a Super Bowl unless we were at Brenda’s…now, Brenda and Jon’s. This is where I got a little happy with 3 pints of Jon’s home brews, two cider and one English Bitter. Had to sit around for another hour, somewhat watching House, before I could drive 2 miles home.

But need I say more about the Super Bowl? Holy schmoly! I was just there for the food, the beer, the ad and partly cheering for the underdog. (If the Trojans can’t have a perfect season, nobody else can!) But fo the last 2 minutes of that game, I suddenly became a die-hard Giants fan. LOL.

The weekend of activities set the tone for this week of work madness.

It’s like treading the field full of prairie dogs. You tip-toe out to work, and not two steps in, you fall into a hole. You dig yourself out of that hole and thought you are safe. Then you take two more steps and fall into another hole. That’s my work for the past 2 weeks. Lots and lots of holes to dig out off.

Fuck Planet Earth:

Bridgestone Super Bowl Commercial:

Does one remind you of the other?

So, someone wants to buy OakMonster.com from me.

No. He did not send a legal or formal request. Just an email. I said no. Then he asked how much. I said no again. Then he tried to patronize me.

Nice way to ask to ask someone to sell, bro. I would’ve given it some more thoughts. But man, I hate it when people are rude.

I was the only OakMonster in town until someone went and coined the wine term. Or the term for the Oakmont golf course. And, of course, long before someone went and tried to make a company name based on the wine term that was coined.

As a matter of fact, I think someone else DID coin that wine term…or at least popularize that term.  I wonder if these guys checked with Gary at TheOakMonster.com…

In any case, I just want you guys to know that someone wants to take your beloved OakMonster.com away from me.  Just in case one day, you show up here and it wasn’t me you see in this spot but some random wine vendors.

If I can help it, I won’t be going anywhere. But who knows how these things go.

It’s me against the big world.  But I know y’all love me.  Right?