Little Andy banged his big toe in the door today, and the toenail was hanging by a thread.  He was crying at dinner, so I told him that when the nail fell off, he should put it under his pillow and the “Toe Fairy” would come overnight.  His parents immediately shot me a “what the hell does the Toe Fairy bring!?” look!  Andy instantly stopped crying and started laughing!  As we said goodbye from the car, he was still talking about the Toe Fairy as the following video will attest:

So the question is, what do you think the Toe Fairy should leave under Andy’s pillow??

What should the Toe Fairy bring Andy??  (Click “Send Form” to email me your answer!)

Toe Jam
Nail Clippers
Socks
__________??

I got to see all of my favorite cousins today!  Jenn brought Cole & Tressa to meet me for lunch.  I haven’t seen them since before I left for Italy:

Dar joined Lisa, Joel, Andy, Tommy and me for dinner at Pei Wei:

 

The infamous toe!

When I got home from Orange County the girls had baked me brownies!

Last night, we had dinner at The Grove:

I like the other Abercrombie model better I think!

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
“The Pentagon is concerned that Facebook could pose a security risk to U.S. military personnel. Apparently there’s no telling what al Qaeda could do if it knows what a soldier’s five favorite romantic comedies are.” — Conan O’Brien

That’s what I get for taking an 8 year old to see Star Trek.  “Are you out of your Vulcan mind?”, is Tommy’s new catchphrase.  The movie was great!  We both enjoyed it immensely.  I’m down here with the the boys this weekend, while their parents attend the Dave Matthews and Jason Mraz concert in Las Vegas.  Originally we were all going to go to Vegas together, but Lisa and Joel haven’t had a weekend alone since before Andy was born.  So they’ll drive back tomorrow afternoon and we’ll have a nice Mother’s Day barbecue at Jenn’s.  After the movie today, we went to Cole’s Little League game where Tommy proceeded to entertain and shock the crowd with his latest phraseology (not everyone knew he was saying “Vulcan”, and when said quickly it sounds like another word!).  Since I know nothing about baseball, I took Andy to the playground and we scouted for rattlesnakes from the safety of the slide.  He had his first visit from the tooth fairy last night, as you can surmise from his new toothless smile.  It make the way he says “Caaaaweee” even cuter! 

This “Trekkie” group had set up a display in the theater lobby.  We walked up to the table and they all said, “Hi, we’re geeks!”.  They weren’t lying!  Tommy’s 8, and he’s had more girlfriends than all of them!

 

All he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth!

Self portraits

Best of the rest…

I’m pleased to inform you that the reports of the Easter Bunny’s death, have been greatly exaggerated:

Sorry…my camera is missing about 5 screws (just like the middle of this photo), and light is leaking in!  I’m getting it repaired this week!

 

Best of the rest…

Unfortunately though, reports of another hare brained mass breeder’s career death are also premature:

Don’t worry.  I’ll keep doing my small part, even though I know it annoys some of you, who wish we could all just get along…like this:

Mon

16°F

It was 84° F (29° C) here today which is a far cry from the weather back home in the Midwest.  My Dad is on his way to Michigan via Chicago, weather permitting, to attend a funeral.  Sadly, 2 days ago his twin sister’s boyfriend Ted was plowing several neighbor’s driveways out from a huge winter storm and dropped dead of a heart attack.  Ted was a very kind man and treated my aunt so nicely.  He worked for the Pepsi company for most of his life.  They called him Pepsi Ted.  He died doing what he did best, helping other people.  He will be missed.  Here’s a photo of him from 4 years ago when he visited me in Hollywood.  He had never been out of Michigan, and they came the day before the Oscars.  We walked the red carpet and they even got to see some celebrities.  (Joan Rivers was one of them if I remember correctly, LOL.) 

 
In Memoriam

When Dad gets to the Iron Mountain, he’ll have this to contend with.  This is the front of Steve & MaryLou’s house today!!

Our weather on the other hand was so beautiful that Andy and I took a “nature hike”.  Here’s a photo Lisa took of us “on the trail” from up above at the house:

That’s me and Andy in the center with the dogs!

Andy, Carey & Roxy

Roxy, Buster, Andy & me on our “nature hike”!

Andy & Mommy

Grandpa @ the grill

Andy & his Great Grandma

Sunset from Dar’s back yard

My Dad may be in the U.P. but I’m eating pasties in 80 degree weather!

My aunt made us a delicious pasty dinner…one of my all time favorite meals!

Best of the rest…

And finally, even Democrats can be cool behind the Orange Curtain apparently!  I saw this on Jennifer’s Facebook page and it made me laugh out loud:

Last night we celebrated Michele’s 40th birthday, 70′s style.  I thankfully don’t own any of my clothes from that era, but I do have a groovy Lacoste shirt and some vintage Adidas shoes.  So  yesterday I went to this great Hollywood thrift store called Jet Rag and found a classic 70′s padded vest, similar to the one Ashton Kutcher used to wear on “That 70′s Show“.  Remarkably, it was only $6.00!  Then I got a matching headband and sweat bands from Sport Chalet (first time I’ve ever been in that store…surprise surprise) and also found an old pair of long tube socks. 

I was going to wear some coduroys, but it was in the upper 80′s (not 70′s, LOL) here yesterday, and I thought it would be too hot.  So I took an old pair of nylon shorts and cut them in to short shorts, a la Daisy Duke.  (Never mind that I have the whitest legs west of the Mississippi.)  To put a modern twist on my outfit, I downloaded a “Pong Clock” onto my iPod Touch.  It basically plays an endless game of retro Pong, and doubles as a clock.  Since the party was down in Mission Viejo, I stopped at Dar’s house where all of the kids were having a sleepover.  Dar was nice enough to sew a velcro patch on my vest, and I stuck my iPod to the vest and voila!  Ashton Kutcher eat your heart out!

The Great White Hope

It pays to have a Nana who works at Disneyland. Andy gets dwarf etched apples!

Lisa & Jenn making me feel groovy!


The guest of honor, looking gorgeous!

My endless Pong game clock was a hit!

Even Elvis made an appearance before leaving the building.

 
Of course, I had to go out and play with (the other) Elvis & Charlie.

Best of the rest…

And finally, what 70′s party would be complete without cheesy 70′s karaoke?  Yes, there was Journey, yes, there was Abba, but mine and Jenn’s rendition of Elton John and KiKi Dee (if you haven’t seen that video,click the link for all it’s cheesy deliciousness) had everyone scrambling for ear plugs!

Last night we went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the Arclight.  We were sitting behind Ron Howard (Opie), and the theater was packed.  I like seeing movies at the Arclight (despite the $15 ticket price), because it caters to an industry crowd that really appreciates good film making.  When the movie was over it got a standing ovation, and then someone suggested a minute of silence for the victims of the terrorist attacks in India.  Since the movie was set in Mumbai, it was an appropriate gesture and quite touching.  This was honestly the best movie I’ve seen all year.  (We’re going to see “Milk” tomorrow though, which also got a 93 on Rotten Tomatoes.  I’ve heard excellent things about it too, and it’s obviously another timely topic in light of what’s going on with Prop. 8.)  Seriously though, go see Slumdog Millionaire.  If you don’t like it, I will pay you double!!  Honest   The world needs a movie like this right now.  It’s amazing. 

I hope all you statesiders had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Here are some pictures from feast.  I’m going to slip into a turkey coma now.  Good night!

Best of the rest…

I’m dogsitting for Buster & Roxy this week, so today Lisa surprised me by bringing Andy over for lunch.  (He’s feeling much better by the way, thanks to everyone who asked!) 

I’ve been trying to lose some weight by not eating after 8:00 PM on weeknights for the past 3 weeks.  It’s been going pretty well.  However, when I got here last night I walked in the kitchen and found this:

I have to go to the hardware store to get a padlock for this cupboard now!

Then Jennifer called me tonight and asked me to meet her and Tressa & Lisa S. for Taco Tuesday at Tortilla Flats.  It was a gorgeous night on the lake and a good time was had by all.  On a side note, Lisa’s husband Gary is getting out of the hospital today after 8 weeks and a horrible ordeal that included maggots and lots of chemotherapy.  (Did you know they still use maggots in hospitals for wound care?  I saw the pictures tonight and it was amazingly disgusting, but it really works!)  Keep him and their entire family in your thoughts.

Tressa playing “Spore” on my new iPod Touch.

Jennifer, trying not to look jealous of my iPod Touch.

The always fabulous and amazingly resilient Lisa.

Jenn, Lisa, Tiffany, Tressa & Carey


Tressa with her favorite cousin

I used to sing this song in 2nd grade.  In fact, my Dad has reel to reel tapes of me singing this in 1972.  Here’s the modern, overly dramatic version that I sang for Tressa.  I didn’t realize until the end that the table next to us had joined in on the action.  LOL.

It’s actually 4 AM (despite the 8:08 time shown below that I started this post!) and Vivek and I are sitting here on the couch blogging from separate laptops and watching Project Runway.  Before that, we watched the opening ceremonies which were really impressive.   Especially the gymnasts!

Beijing is off to a good start!  Yesterday I had dinner with Dar, Jenn & Tressa, and I also took the dogs to the dog park.  There was a woman there who looked vaguely like Kate Walsh from Grey’s Anatomy (without makeup).  She was actually really nice and took a picture of me with the dogs.  Still not sure if it was her, but several people insisted it was.  At any rate, Oreo & Shadow are really getting acclimated to the Hollywood lifestyle.  They may not want to go back to Orange County when their family returns from Hawaii!

Living the dream…

Kate Walsh?  You decide.

I took this for Christine.

A pre-Olympic dinner at Fat Fish!

Getting used to chopsticks!

Dessert!

 
Pehaps my last entry should have been called “One of Those Weeks”.  Continuing my streak of bad luck this week (I didn’t even mention in the previous post that my camera broke again…long sandy story), the rental car had a flat tire when I left work today!  Since Enterprise was closed already, I called AAA.  (No, I don’t change flat tires.  That’s what AAA is for!)  Lisa’s husband graciously offered to come, but AAA got there in less than 15 minutes which was great.  It could have been better though…  As he was changing the tire, I texted Lisa:

Talk about your flat tires!

On a brighter note, I went to two birthday parties yesterday!  The first was for my friend Luciana’s 2 year old daughter Amanda.  Luci lives in São Paulo, Brazil and we’ve been friends since 1991.  The last time I saw her, was the night of my attack in 2002.  It was so wonderful to see her and her husband Mateus under much better circumstances!  I had not met her children, Amanda and Lucas, and even though they didn’t speak English (and my Portuguese is limited), we became fast friends!

Lucas and I spoke the language of peek a boo!

And soon we were melhores amigos!

The birthday girl with mamã…

and paizinho.

Eu te amo você ama-me

If you’re interested in the rest, click the photo above.

From one pizza party at noon to another at 4:00, LOL.  Cole & Tressa’s party was at the pool, and a good time was had by all.  The shark cake was a big hit!

Doing the limbo.

This was a $200 cake that Jennifer got for free when a friend of the baker’s called to say they had an extra cake!!  The “sand” was brown sugar and the shells were white chocolate.

The rest of the photos can be viewed by clicking the above photo.

Speaking of multiple birthdays…or births…Diane sent this photo of the boys last night.  Isn’t it the greatest?

Cole, Trey, Jaden, Tyler & Carter