Blueberries for Breakfast

The boy and I had a fairly uneventful weekend, at least considering the amount of work we still need to do on the house and the amount of unpacking that needs to be done. Saturday we finished cleaning the apartment and officially drop off our keys and moved out. (If you're feeling nostalgic here's the tour of the apartment from when we moved in a little over a year ago.) I think that means we're now officially homeowners, since it didn't completely count as long as we were still renting the apartment. At least that's my input.

Then this morning while the boy worked on painting the molding in the kitchen, I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast.
Its the first time we made pancakes in the new house! Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to be saying "the first time in the new house!" for everything for quite a while now.

We actually didn't get to a movie this weekend. Instead we spent last night setting up our new Wii and Wii Fit. We bought them as holiday presents to each other, but hadn't set them up previously due to all the moving craziness. We set a goal for ourselves to get 30 minutes in on the Wii Fit once a day. Now I know 30 minutes isn't really a lot. And playing on the Wii Fit isn't a real work-out. But its definitely a lot more than the no activity I'm currently doing now. I think its a good start, and hopefully I'll have fun doing it.

But the weekend isn't quite over yet. I still have big plans for tonight that involve watching new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, and most importantly the Special Duggar Delivery where the show the birth of the 19th Duggar, Josie!

Anyone else have a Wii? Any good games you think we should think about buying? Or if you have a Wii Fit, what are your favorite Fit games to play?

~Shoshanah

Number Locked Out

When one of my co-workers tries to show me something on my computer, she normally has a difficult time of it. The reason being that my number lock key isn't normally on. See she goes to type in number using the number pad, and can't figure out why the number don't show up on screen. Whereas whenever I type numbers on my computer I always use the digits right on top of the numbers.

Out of curiosity, I've asked most of my other co-workers, and it seems I'm the only one that uses the actual number keys and not the number pad on the right. Even if I tried to use the number pad, I would have no idea what I was pressing. Instead I'd have to look at each key to make sure I'm touching the same one. I'm sure its the same if they were to try to use the numbers up top. So my questions is, which is the correct way to use a keyboard?

I seem to remember learning to type using Mario Typing, and you only go to move Mario if you typed the numbers on the top. It didn't count if you used the number pad. (And yes, I remember learning to type with Mario Typing. Some people had Mario on their Nintendo, but until I was in middle school and we bought a 64, it was only Mario typing for me.) Although it could have been I number had number lock on as a kid, and that's why I couldn't get Mario to stomp any mushrooms.

So my question to all of you out in blog land is, Which numbers on the keyboard do you use? And which do you think are the "correct" one to use. I'm guessing if you use the number pad, you probably think those are correct. But maybe there's some people who actually believe they're using the wrong numbers. Maybe I really am the only one who uses the number up top. (If so, why do they put them there!) But hopefully you'll let me know I'm completely normal and other people use those numbers too.

~Shoshanah

It's a Theater Thursday

I know normally I only post reviews of new up-and-coming-just-released movie. But today's a little bit of a change of pace. Instead I'm participating in Crazy Shenanigan's Thursday Thursday, where I'm writing about one of my favorite means instead. The movie I'm picking for Theater Thursday is...

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Haven't heard of it? I wouldn't be that surprised. The movie starts out with Adam Pontipee, a backwoodsman living in the Oregon territory in the 1850s who goes to town looking for a wife. He meets Millie, marries her and brings her home that day. She thinks it will be romantic being married off in the country with only her and her husband. But she shows up to the house and meets his six other brothers (Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, and Gideon) who all live in a house together. Think of something similar to Snow White were she has to educate them all.

Once the men realize how lovely having a wife is, they decide they all need wives to. They all go into town for a barn raising where they all meet girls and fall in love immediately. Except the girls already have beaux, so they have a dance off

which then leads to an all out brawl. (I know the video is in Italian, but there's not a lot of talking in the clip for it to really matter.) After they beat up the girls' beaux they're shunned from town, and they no they'll never get to marry the girls they love.

But older brother Adam has a plan for them. Why they'll just kidnap the girls and make them marry them! So all 6 girls are kidnapped, and they creating an avalanche so no one from town can get to them all winter long. While the girls start out upset, the is a musical, by the end of the movie they're all happily in love and get married, hence the title Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Some of the best parts of the movie truly are the songs. There's "Goin Coitin'" where Millie teaches the boys the ins and outs of courting a girl. There's "Sobbin' Women" where the wise oldest brother, Adam teaches his young unmarried brothers that if you kidnap them they might cry for a while. But eventually they'll love you for it. And one of my favorite's Lonesome Polecat, where the brothers sad and alone (after beating the townsmen to a pulp) sing about being lonely in the country. After all "a man can't sleep, when he sleeps with sheep."

It's an instant classic, and so easy to fall in love with. As long as you don't believe in all that modern day feminism stuff. To think there's people out there who actually think a women shouldn't be kidnapped into a marriage. That's ridiculous!

Trust me though, once you've seen the movie its pretty hard to forget, and it really is one of my all time favorites.

~Shoshanah

Blogger's Block

I know I've been posting pretty sporadically lately, at least compared to the amount I normally post. But its been a little crazy with fixing up the new house and moving and everything else. (In case you're curious moving is almost officially done. All that's really left to do is clean out the apartment. Good thing considering our lease is up at the end of the month.)

But since I've been posted less than normal, you might expect that I have a ton of posts saved up to write. But no, its just the opposite actually. Since I've gotten out of the habit of posting is getting difficult to get back in. Its funny because not only can I not think of things to write about, I can't even seem to remember the types of things I used to post about!

Its funny to think back to last November when I posted everyday during NaBloPoMo. The crazy thing is that then, I had so many ideas of things I wanted to write that I couldn't even seem to fit them into a mere seven days a week.

I'm sure eventually I'll start "feeling it" again. And I'm sure there will be a time in the future when I stop "feeling it." I guess its similar to life where things at random can seem to head up or down without any real rhyme or reason. But even if I'm not posting regularly, I'm still out there in internet-land most likely reading your blog.

Anyone else ever been hit by a case of blogger's block? Or even better, is there anything you've just been dying to hear me write about?

~Shoshanah

Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!

In case your not really a football fan, the Saints are going to the Superbowl. If I'm honest the "not a football fan" would have been me until fairly recently. The boy had already succeed in converting me to an LSU football fan (as well as baseball, as well as any other LSU sport). Now I think its pretty safe to say that he's officially converted me to a Saints fan as well.

Louisiana has pretty much gone crazy since this is the first year the Saints have ever been to the Superbowl. Definitely after the game last night there were lots of firecrackers going off in the neighborhood. And this was just in Baton Rouge. I'm sure you can only imagine what New Orleans was like.

Something else fun, is all the songs the radio has been playing. Last week they mentioned Prince had written a song for the Vikings, and that there was one Vikings song. Well as the DJ announced, they could probably play 24 hours of only Saints songs and not repeat any. I figured it be fun, for everyone not in Louisiana to here some of the songs they've been playing. At least these are my two favorites that I've heard.

Party in the MIA


Super Bowl Mambo


I hope everyone enjoys the songs, and everyone is rooting for the Saints this weekend. After all, even Peyton Manning probably wants the Saints to win since he grew up watching his dad, Archie Manning, play football as the Saints quarterback.

~Shoshanah

God Save the Queen

The Young Victoria
If you look at the books I normally review, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that I enjoy historical fiction. Unfortunately historical fiction movies (especially those about European Queens) tend not to be huge money makers. Which means whenever they do release one I always try my best to see them.

Queen Victoria isn't a queen that I've read a lot about. I read Jean Plaidy's Victoria Victorious I few years ago, but that's about it. So I had some background going into the movie, but not very much. Her life before she was queen is almost unexpected since even though she was a princess, she lived quite an un-princess life.

A lot of the movie focuses on the love story between Queen Victoria and her future husband Prince Albert. It's interesting to not that even though he married the queen, he never actually became king. Its due to the fact that a king has power over the queen, and since it was Victoria's throne, Albert could never be above her. While the movie doesn't address this specific issue, a large part of the movie is the power struggle between the two.

One thing I do tend to find hard to understand in historical films like this is keeping straight all the different political men. But in this film it was overall easy to keep them straight.

I would recommend this movie, but honestly I would probably recommend any historical movie like this. I can tell you the boy wasn't a fan since there wasn't a lot of action, and "nothing happened" according to him. But if you enjoy movies about queens, and if you're somewhat curious about Queen Victoria you'd probably enjoy this as well.

~Shoshanah

The End of the Wallpaper

When I last left off our kitchen was in a bit of a disarray. But by the end of Thursday night (aka the end of the 6th day of striping), the section around the refrigerator had been completely stripped of wallpaper.
Now before you get excited thinking we stripped all the wallpaper in less than one week, this is what the rest of the kitchen looked like.


So while I got to work on all the rest of the wallpaper, the boy started sealing the drywall.
You might have noticed from the pictures that the actually walls took quite a bit of damage. Luckily the sealant was able to primarily fix it. Its not perfect up close, but it definitely work. And really when you think about it, it almost looks like we purposely textured our walls!

After letting the sealant dry overnight, it was finally time to paint.
If you look on the right side of the picture you can tell there is still wallpaper. That's what I was doing while he was painting. Although I'm sure if you ask him, he'll say I was only wasting time taking pictures.

While we weren't completely done with the painting, we were finished enough to bring in the fridge.
We know the fridge is just a tiny bit to big. The boy measured the height and width, but didn't remember to check the depth. Instead now we just have a really big and nice fridge.

Now that there's actually a fridge in the house, it means we can officially start living there! This is actually the first entry I've written in the new house, because honestly, though we could have moved once we had a fridge, we really had to wait until we had internet or cable!

~Shoshanah

A Lesson in Stripping...

Wallpaper that is! I've mention over the past week that I've been working on the house, mainly by stripping wallpaper, but haven't given a lot of other details. But since I'm sure you're all curious, here's the start of the whole saga...

One of the first things I knew I wanted to do with the new house was get rid of the wallpaper in the kitchen.

I liked the blue the rest of the room was painted, and then plan was to strip the walls and repaint everything that blue to match. (Did I mention the previous owners left 6 cans of paint for us? Except that blue wasn't one of them. At least it wasn't hard to match.)

I knew we had to remove the wallpaper sooner rather than later because there was wallpaper behind the refrigerator. And I know if we moved the fridge in, it would never get down. I talked to a few friends and family members who gave me confidence and ideas and after a quick stop at Home Depot I was ready to go!

Step 1: Remove any loose ends of paper.
Look how much paper we can get off at once! This should be no problem!

Step 2: Score the Paper.
You can't really tell in the picture, but that little red thing pokes little holes into the paper, that way the solution that's coming can get underneath and dissolve the actually stickiness.

Step 3: Spray with special wallpaper removing gel.
You're supposed to wait about 15-20 minutes before moving on, but in general I found it easier to start step 4 a little bit sooner.

Step 4: Scrap of the wallpaper.
Looks easy enough right? Except what's that I see? Under the top layer of wall paper there's actually a second layer. And while these steps work easy enough on the top layer of wallpaper, the second layer which was stuck directly to the drywall and has been there for most likely over 20 years does not want to come off. But the end of the first day I was no where near finished with even the section behind the fridge, and I was out of the special wallpaper removing spray. We wound up improvising and just using Windex or watered down ammonia, which gave the house a nice aroma. The best part was that after I had started this whole process, I noticed the pretty blue paint I liked in the rest of the kitchen was actually painted on top of the wallpaper.

So the project turned out to be just a little more than I bargained for. Don't believe me? Well this is how that one section of wall looked on the 3rd day of wallpaper peeling.
At least it was slowly going away right?

~Shoshanah

Who Wrote the Book?

The Book of Eli
There's a lot of movies in theaters right now that I really want to see. Except we haven't had the time to go to a lot of movies with all the work we've been doing on the house. So we finally went to the movies this weekend and saw this, instead of all the other movies I wanted to see. Definitely not my pick, and clearly I didn't have the highest expectations going in.

The movie takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, where Denzel Washington plays a character tasked with taking care of a book that has the ability to save the world. (And if you think about the title and what book could save the world, you probably could figure out exactly what book we're talking about here.)Denzel Washington was good in the movie. As was Mila Kunis.

But the movie itself? There was a pretty big plot twist at the end that according to the boy "did nothing but detract from the movie itself." It's the type of plot twist that almost makes you want to re-watch the movie to make sure they held up the plot twist the entire time. Except then you'd have to take the time to re-watch the movies.

I wasn't a big fan of the actual symbolism in the movie. If you've figured out the book in question, then know the movie was basically that type of movie. While I know there are a lot of people who enjoy seeing this time of symbolism in a movie, I'm not one of them. Maybe it would be better if the symbolism was only implied, but its a bit over the top.

I do think this movie had potential, and that if they had decided to make it just an action movie it could have been better. But instead the movie was based on "the book," and that just didn't work for me.

~Shoshanah

It's Getting Golden

Not only did we make it back from the house to the apartment with enough time to watch the Golden Globes, but there's enough time to post my picks for tonight as well!

Television
Best TV Series - Drama: Big Love
Best TV Series - Comedy or Musical: Glee
Best TV Actor - Drama: Hugh Laurie, House
Best TV Actress - Drama:Anna Paquin, True Blood
Best TV Actor - Comedy or Musical:Matthew Morrison, Glee
Best TV Actress - Comedy of Musical: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Best Miniseries or TV Movie: Grey Gardens
Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
Best Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie: Joan Allen, Georgia O'Keeffe
Best Supporting TV Actor Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Best Supporting TV Actress Jane Lynch, Glee

Film
Best Drama: Avatar
Best Comedy or Musical: (500)Days of Summer
Best Actor - Drama: Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Best Actress - Drama: Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Best Actor - Comedy or Musical: Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Best Actress - Comedy or Musical: Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Best Director: James Cameron, Avatar
Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Animated Film: Up
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon

I do realize that some of these are more my hopes than actually predictions, but maybe if I want it enough if will happen? And some are complete guesses, but we'll see. I'd love to hear anyone else's Golden Globe predictions, or just let me know what you think of my choices. Good luck to us all!

~Shoshanah

Edit: 10 out of 23, not bad but not amazing. At least I did better than last year. And my picks could have been higher if I had remembered to pick winners in the Best Song and Best Score category. Not I just have to beat the boy in our Oscar picks! (He won't pick Golden Globes with me, which is probably a good thing for me seeing how I did!)

The Home Tour

I'm taking a break from striping wallpaper tonight. I've been at it all week long, and will be this weekend as well. So instead, on the house related front I'd figured I'd give you all a little tour!
You enter into the living room, which does include a real wood burning fireplace.
From the living room you can look into the dining room.

Although it's really more of a dining area.
On the right side of the room is the kitchen,
and to the left is the laundry area.
On the other side of the kitchen are the two pantries, and the hall to the bedrooms.
Going right down the hallway on your right side is the guest bathroom,
which is next to the future guest room.
Then there's the second guest bedroom, which will most likely turn into an office/library. (After all, what's a house without a library?)
Then finally there's the master bedroom
and the master bathroom. And that's only the inside! I still have the outside to show you all, which has fruit tress. Although I might wait until it starts getting a little warmed before I go outside to take pictures.

As I've mentioned earlier we've already made some changes to some of the wallpapers, as well as a few other things. Although there's a lot still today, some of which can wait till after we move. I mean I can't say I have a large desire to keep the trout on my toilet seat!

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and suggestions as to what you would change is this was yours And I'm curious to hear what all you think we've already changed!

~Shoshanah

Historical Historical Fiction

A Yankee Girl at Fort Sumter by Alice Turner Curtis
This was actually a Hanukkah present from my mom, and it wound up being a perfect idea. The book is a historical fiction book about a little Yankee girl living in South Carolina just before the start of the Civil War, which is one of the time periods I enjoy reading about. Except the book was actually published in the 1920s!

According to the cover the book was published for girls between the ages of 7-12. And while the story itself is easy enough for a girl that age to understand, the writing is a little more complicated. Its funny to think what type of reading was expected almost 20 years ago versus now. Also there's in a few things in the book not quite politically corrects. Thing that you would never expect to see in a books written for girls today.

One thing I found amusing was that in the first few pages of the book it thanked the woman who donated her copy of the book for reproduction. When means that if some small girl hadn't love the book and kept it, then who knows if we would ever be able to see it today. Probably the publishing company discarded their material, but due to this one girl (now woman) there were still able to republish this.

I do think its a really cute book, especially if you're somewhat curious as to what children books were like back in the 1920s. Since my mom bought this as a present I'm not sure how easy this is to find, especially considering it looks like I'm the first person to have read this on Goodreads.com. But if you happen to find it, I'd say it's worth a look.

~Shoshanah

The Big News

No we didn't get engaged, and probably won't be for a few more years. But on a similar note... We bought a house together!

I don't mean we decided to buy a house together or that we made an offer on a house. I mean we officially bought a house, signed papers, and closed yesterday! Its still a little surreal, and I'm not sure everything will feel completely real until we've been living there for a while. But it is technically official!

Gift the realtors left for us in the houseWe have our apartment lease till the end of the month, which is a good thing since we have approximately one box currently packed. Posting might be a little sporadic these next few weeks as we get everything taken care of. But I promise there will eventually be lots pictures to share!

~Shoshanah

Christmas in Louisiana

After we celebrated Christmas in California, we flew back to Louisiana to celebrate Christmas yet again with the boy's family! (On Sunday the 27th, we weren't crazy enough to fly on the actual day of Christmas.)

His family has a tradition where everyone gets a bunch of scratch-offs in their stockings and there's a competition to see who can win the most. Overall, this was a pretty weak year, and the boy wound up winning with about $5.
I think I might have tied with his sister for 2nd place with my 3 tickets.

But the fun part about doing Christmas with his family is that his niece and nephew are there to really get into the Christmas spirit. Or at least his niece is, his nephew is still just a little too little to have any idea what's happening.
Yes, that is a stuffed alligator. That was mine and the boy's present to him. We're hoping it becomes the stuffed animal of choice. After all his niece's favorite stuffed animal is a monkey that we bought as well.

But the big present of the day was his niece's new John Deere tractor.
And yes, those are her new Christmas shoes and her new Christmas boa. Isn't that would you would wear to ride a tractor?

And since I posted a picture of my presents from the 1st Christmas I have to do the same for the second, right?
Why yes, that is an LSU Snuggie. The boy made sure to tell her sister I wanted one. Now I can stay all nice and cozy on the couch and still read a book!

So overall, we had not just one great Christmas but two great Christmases. And even though our families are half a country apart, we somehow were able to make it all work. Anyone else have any interesting arrangements so you can celebrate the holidays with all the people you want to?

~Shoshanah

P.S. There's going to be some exciting news From L.A. to LA news in the next few days! Get excited!

Asian Noodle Stir-Fry

Amy's Asian Noodle Stir-Fry
I've heard a lot of good things about this meal, and have been wanting to try it. The only hesitation I had was that brocoli seemed to be featured pretty prominently on the box. I did want up removing half of the brocoli before it finished heating, and was worried that the amoun of vegietables would be a little deplated. But that wasn't the case at all.

I did keep a piece or two of brocoli in. But even so, I was still left with lots of onions, tofu, soybeans, red peppers, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, green peppers, and green beans. Clearly quite a selection.

The pasta was the perfect consistency. However, my favorite part of the whole meal was the sauce. Just the perfect amount of sweetness for me. Definitely another Amy's meal I would try again.

(And no one's paid me anything for this review. Nor were any of these meals provided to me. I just want to try them, and would rather keep track for myself and you all.)

~Shoshanah

Juana The Mad

The Last Queen by C. W. Gortner
I first saw this book and knew it would be the type I would enjoy. After all its about a European queen, something I never grow tired of reading. Except The Last Queen told the story of Queen Juana of Spain. While I read tons of books on English queens, and a few on French queens, this was my first on a Spanish queen. This made the book even more interesting to me, since I don't have a big background on Spanish history everything was new.

The book tells the Queen Juana of Spain, the last Spanish queen to actual inherit her country's throne. She's the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and her younger sister was Katherine of Aragon, wife to Henry VIII. History calls her Juana the Mad, but the author's interpretation of this isn't that she was crazy. Instead it was more of a way for her conspirators to discredit her, in order to keep her away from power.

I did really enjoy this book, and actually put off reading the last few chapters because I didn't want the book to end. I'd recommend the book especially if you enjoy historical fiction, like me. As I said earlier, you don't really need to know much of anything about Spain or even this time period to actually enjoy reading this. Definitely a book that I not only enjoy, but I learned quite a bit by reading.

~Shoshanah

Christmas in California

I've written about the things we did while in California, but I haven't written about the real reason we were in California. And of course that was really to spend time with family and friends. I did wind up going to a holiday party, and a lunch or two with friends, but the main highlight was celebrating Christmas with my family.
This is my brother, mom, grandmother, me, the boy, and my dad and grandfather in the front row. We went over to my grandparents' house in the in the morning and had appetizers while we opened presents. We all spent the day together and then then later had dinner which my grandmother made.
Dinner was prime rib, green beans, mashed potatoes, and one of my favorite salads. If I remember correctly there's squash, dried cranberries, and a lot of parmesan. Everything was really good, but I especially love that salad.

There was homemade dessert too, of course!
A cranberry cake that wound up having almost a candy crust on top. And yes, I did cover my slice with whipped cream!

Since I'm always curious seeing what everyone received as presents, I figured everyone would enjoy seeing it as well.
My grandparents bought me a new box of See's lollipops (good thing because I was running low!). And yes, that is a Drew Brees Saints jersey that the boy bought me.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay in California for ever and wound up having to fly home the day after Christmas. But not before taking a few family photos in the backyard. Here's one with my parents and younger brother,

and a second shot of just me and the boy.

It was great being able to spent some time back at home. I love being home in California and wish I could be there more often. Unfortunately its a little hard to visit from Louisiana often. Otherwise I'd be home a lot more often. But whenever anyone creates some sort of instant travel machine I'll be back there for more often!

~Shoshanah

On the Wings of Love

I was so excited for the new season of The Bachelor to start last night! Especially, since this season's bachelor is my favorite from last season's The Bachelorette, Jake. I mean just look at him! Plus he's a pilot. Granted he didn't show a lot of personality on The Bachelorette, but based on the previews for the season it does looks like his personality will wind up coming out.

First there's Allie, who in general looks to be an early favorite. She came off as really cute last night. Plus she was a little sick and barely had a voice. So had could Jake send her home.

Then I also like Ella, the single mom. (At least I think her name was Ella.) She came off really confident, and seems to have a great personality. And I'm kind of a sucker for hoping the single mom is able to find love.

I did also like Sheila, the other pilot, but I'm not sure if she actually got a rose last night.

And the season in general looks crazy. I mean there was a scene in the preview who Jake almost stormed out of an interview and threw a chair. They also showed him crying, but if you watched The Bachelorette that was expected. Then there's the fact that a crew member had an affair with one of the girls. And when you think about it, it's almost surprising it's taken so long for that to happen. (Although didn't Bob the Bachelor wind up with a producer after the show ended?)

Either way it looks like we're in for the MOST DRAMATIC BACHELOR SEASON EVER! Anyone else a Bachelor fan? Who are your favorites so far?

~Shoshanah

Hometown Tourist

I already told you about the trip to Disneyland the boy and I took, but that's not the only bit of sightseeing we did while we were there.

We also went to Hollywood & Highland, where I tried to take a picture with the Hollywood sign. (Except a silly palm tree got in the way.)
But if you look really closely you can see the start of the H behind one of the trees. Also at Hollywood & Highland is the Kodak Theater, which hosts Oscars every year. Which is why they have this walk of fame set.
Every best picture nominee is listed in chronological order in black writing on the side along with the year it won. This is also where they put the red carpet that all the celebrities walk down to go to the show.

Speaking of movies, we also went to the Warner Brothers lot. (I think this was the first time I'd ever been.)
We went to their own site museum which had props and costumes from some of their movies including Casablanca, Million Dollar Baby, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even smaller films like Music & Lyrics.

Although my favorite tourist-y part was lunch a Philippe's.
It's funny because whenever I order French dip sandwiches at a restaurant, I'll remember I don't like them most places. But I absolutely love them at Philippe's. Seriously, there are the world's best french dip sandwich. If you're ever in Los Angeles I highly recommend them!

Its funny because living somewhere you tend not go to a lot of the tourist attractions. But now that visiting California has become more of a vacation instead of actual permanent home, I'm doing a lot more tourist-y things. Also there's the fact I want to have the boy experience so many of the things I love about Southern California.

Anyone else have a few tourist locations you'd tell people to visit if they visited your hometown?

~Shoshanah

Mad Again

Diary of a Mad Mom-To-Be by Laura Wolf
A few months ago I read Diary of a Mad Bride. I enjoyed it, and new eventually I'd want to read the sequel. So I finally picked up Mom-To-Be, started reading it, and realized I couldn't remember at all what happened in the first book. I went back and thumbed through the first, reacquainting myself with the characters and some of the craziness.

Like the first book, this was enjoyable and an easy read. If there was a 3rd book (Maybe something like Diary of a Mad Mom?), I would probably wind up reading it. Although it looks like this is it. Like the first one though, I have a good feeling I'll forget most of this book as time passes. So yes I'd recommend it if you're looking for a quick escape, and don't want to really think while you're reading it. But if you're looking for a good book to love and still enjoy thinking about even after you've finished reading, there are probably better options out there.

~Shoshanah

The Happiest Place on Earth

When we were in California over the holidays there was one thing I wanted to be sure we did, and that was stop at Disneyland. It also helped that the boy's birthday was December 23, which meant as long as we went on his birthday he got in free.

We made it to the park around 9:30, where I snapped a quick picture of Sleeping Beauty castle.
Speaking of Sleeping Beauty castle, Disneyland has recently reopened the castle walk through for the first time since I was little.
It was exciting to be able to see the displays I hadn't seen in at least over 10 years.

Since we arrived at the park relatively early we were able ride a good amount of lines before any major lines formed. And while we had a few rides with multiple hour wait, we still made it through quite a lot. (I tend not to use fast passes, mainly because I never did growing up since they didn't exist back then.) Out of the big roller coaster type rides we rode: Big Thunder Railroad, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (which was A Nightmare Before Christmas themed since it was in December), Matterhorn, Roger Rabbit, Go-Gadget Coaster and Space Mountain.
The only "big" ride we didn't ride was Splash Mountain, only because the boy was adamant that he didn't want to get wet.

We even went a quite a few of the more family friendly rides, which were: The Tiki Room (more of a show than a ride really), Peter Pan, Dumbo (which I haven't ridden since I was really little), the Disney Railroad (another one I haven't ridden in probably 20 years), Finding Nemo Submarines (first time riding since they've reopened), Winnie-The-Pooh, the Jungle Cruise, Tarzan Tree House, and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.
Yes, the boy did completely crush me on this ride.

Speaking of the boy, he even agreed to take a picture or two, at least as long as he was wearing a silly hat. (If you remember this post you know how much as an ordeal this can be!)
We even got a picture wearing the bride and groom Minnie and Micky hat because he wanted a picture wearing a top hat.

This was also my first time at Disneyland since I've been living in Louisiana, which means I saw New Orleans square in bit of a different light.
Its funny because every time I've been to New Orleans it feels a bit like I'm in Disneyland! I mean is there anyone else whose been to New Orleans who thinks the French Market looks suspiciously like Cafe Du Monde?

And while we're on the topic of restaurants, for lunch the boy and I went to the BBQ place. This is something else that used to be there when I was little, but has been gone for a while and just brought back. They've redone the way it works a little, its now served family style and all you can eat, but it was just as good as I remembered.
And since you can't go to Disneyland without having at least something sweet, I made sure to have a churro by the end of the day.

While we weren't there till closing, we did stay till almost 11. Which meant we got to watch part of Fantasmic as well as the fireworks, and of course got to see the park all lit up. Here's one of Its a Small World covered in lights.
And ending this post the way it started, with a picture of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Overall, it was a great day. But at the happiest place on earth how could it not be? I've been to Disneyland so many times growing up, you might think I'd eventually grow out of it. But every time I go I seem to love it even more than the last!

~Shoshanah