Ben’s great grandmother is in Los Angeles, visiting from the Philippines. She hasn’t seen Ben since he was about a week old, so Dave’s parents flew Ben out to LA to see her for several days. This is the second time in a month that I’ve been without my little puddin’ pop, and the house is uncomfortably silent without him stomping around the house. He’ll only be gone til Thursday, but it seems like forever!

*wahhhhh*

Badly cut bangs? Make a mohawk!

Remember long long ago, when I went away on vacation for 2 weeks and said I’d post up my pictures “real soon”? Well, that day is today - 4 months later. Though this is only some of the pictures - I think I have about 200 more to post in the next couple weeks.

During our stay in Los Angeles, we were going to meet up with Dave’s uncle. While we were waiting for him to finish up with work, we decided to head out to Santa Monica beach. I’d been there a couple times when we lived out there, but usually we were at the 3rd St. Promenade. We took Ben out to the promenade for some shopping (and dancing - he loved the street musicians), then later to the Santa Monica pier. He had a ball at the pier, first at the arcade that had a bunch of kid-rides. He had so much fun we didn’t even have to stick a quarter in to turn them on. A little bit down the pier we went to the Pacific Park. Since it was the middle of October, there weren’t too many people there, so Ben pretty much ran around the whole place on his own. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, and although I was nervous that Ben would freak, he actually loved it.

Since we had some time left over, we decided to let Ben hit the beach for the first time. At first, he was a little freaked by the feel of sand on his feet, but as you can see from the pictures, after a couple minutes the kid was having a ball! He was running around the beach as far as he could run, picking up sand and throwing it around, trying to bury his papa in it, and even tried eating it - which he soon found out was NOT a good idea.

That hour or so we spent at Santa Monica beach as a family was one of the highlights of my trip. When I think of Benjamin as a baby, I will always remember that day, my little boy running barefoot on the beach, not having a care in the world.

Here’s some of my pictures - more can be seen here.

For some reason, the photogallery has made my formatting all whack - i’m working on it!

Have you ever seen that commercial with the mom who doesn’t have the time to pay attention to her appearance? All of the sudden, she buys Suave (or something like that) and she’s revived, the goddess that she used to be before beauty (and probably general hygiene) had taken a lower priority in life.

I admit I’ve felt like that for a while. Keeping track of Ben, working long hours and just trying to exist have really taken a toll on my beauty regimen. There was a time, not too long ago, where I wouldn’t be caught outside the house without some lipgloss and eye liner. Now I’m going everywhere with my face unwashed and looking like death. I’ve seen enough Today show and InStyle segments and articles stating that moms should take some time off for themselves, and I haven’t really done that…til last week.

I used to have a makeup addiction, even during this black hole time of non-beauty I’d still buy some lipgloss if it caught my fancy. I love lipglosses, lipsticks and nail polish. It’s been a while since I’ve used any of the things I’ve bought. Any of you seasoned YWIM readers may recall the days when I used to regularly update the webcam on the sidebar and post pictures of myself. But as of late (A.B. - After Ben, as I call it) I can’t recall when the last good picture was taken of me. A picture where I actually look presentable and I would actually post it on the internet.

So the other day, I decided to treat myself and do a bit of shopping at the local beauty store. I bought some makeup, and even some perfume - Vera Wang’s Princess. I chose that one because I went to a stripclub with some coworkers (back in the days when I actually HAD coworkers I went out with) and the stripper I was tipping smelled really good. We had a conversation about her perfume and she mentioned she was wearing Princess. Really sweet and nice gal. So when I was at the store, I tried it out on myself (because you know, scents smell different on everyone) and although I didn’t smell as good as the stripper (is that a good thing?) I did like the scent.

Then yesterday, out of the blue, I decided I needed a hair cut. It had been more than six months since I’ve gotten a haircut (it could even be a year) and the last time my hair was cut I had gone to the woman who does Dave’s hair since I no longer work downtown (sorry Jack, I still love you). I didn’t like the cut at all, and her style of cutting hair (using a razor to create texture) is not something I liked. But now I’ve got this grown out shag of hair, and the only way I can make it look presentable is to curl the hell out of it (but which looks really good, though it takes a LOT of time to do).

I did some searching on the internets for a local shop with good ratings, and they fortunately had an opening. I headed out, asked for about 2 inches off and *gasp* bangs. Wasn’t sure if bangs were a right choice, but it’s just hair, right? It grows back. Luckily the guy who was doing my hair told me I had a cowlick on the side of my head and that I should get my bangs cut at the opposite side. You can’t really tell I have any bangs since I asked for long, sideswept bangs, but I think they still look nice.

So here’s the most current picture of me - in black and white since a) it looks nicer and b) there was a yellow cast on the original that I just can’t get rid off and I would rather not look like I have jaundice.

So yesterday was the last lunar eclipse until 2010, and fortunately for me, it wasn’t cloudy. But it WAS damn cold. And since I was too lazy to put on any socks, it didn’t help my frozen little feet. Another challenge? American Idol was on for two hours, one hour of it during the actual eclipse. Thank God for commercial breaks! I headed out onto my driveway with my trusty tripod, camera, zoom lens, camera hood and plastic bag. Why the plastic bag? To put my camera in before going back inside, preventing my camera lens from fogging up in the warm indoor air.

I remember seeing a lunar eclipse when I was a lot younger, with my low-tech telescope that my dad bought me perched on top of our family station wagon. I don’t remember if it was cold back then, just that me, my sisters and my father patiently waited for the moon to disappear. My spotty memory doesn’t recall how much of the eclipse we saw, or even if it was a total eclipse, but I do remember being happy.

Anyway, the last time I tried watching the lunar eclipse, I was in Buffalo and it got cloudy just as the eclipse was about to happen. So I was determined to watch this one, and with my new fancy schmancy technology, take pictures of it. My neighbors and the 7-11 workers across the street may have wondered about the weird lady coming out at weird intervals with her tripod and camera, taking pictures of the sky. But had they been watching American Idol, they would have realized that I was going out during the commercial breaks, which was just enough time to see the eclipse in different phases. Each time, my tripod was SOOOOOO cold as I was bringing it back in, since I didn’t have gloves on. I fought the temptation to lick the cold tripod to see if my tongue would stick, “Christmas Story” style.

Anyway, I took a lot of pics, and only a quarter turned out well. But there were some good ones, so here they are!

The total lunar eclipse - the moon is blood red and you can see a sliver of the moon on the right side

Zoomed out a little bit - the star Regulus is at the top and the planet Saturn is on the left

All the phases of the eclipse I saw
Didn’t finish the eclipse because it was damn cold outside!

It was incredible to witness. However, it was not fun going in and out of the house to take pictures. Since the moon was high in the sky, with the tripod I had to kneel on the ground to position my camera, so my knees were frozen. Also, during the total eclipse it was hard to focus my camera on the moon. It was also difficult to figure out the right settings for my camera, but I think I did OK this time around!

Last weekend I tried making some Puerto Rican empanadas. I had tried making them before, but I had a hard time draining all the fat off the ground beef so they were pretty oily. This time around, I browned the beef separately and then ran it in a strainer under hot water to rinse off the fat. Also, I was constantly tasting the meat stuffing and decided to add a lot of extra sazón (magic seasoning!). I had a hell of a time trying to find some pre-made empanada dough, but found some at the local Caputo’s. I’m to lazy to make my own! As a side sauce, I decided to make some Argentinian chimichurri sauce, which was well blended this time around next to my favorite infomercial appliance, my Magic Bullet.

Just wanted to take some pictures of the whole process.

The Meaty Filling

Piling meat on the dough

Ready for the deep fry

I love to plate!

Zoomed to accentuate the fatty goodness

Who’d have known 5 years ago that I’d love to cook so much? Now if I could only learn how to make Filipino food!!!

Yesterday I was in Milwaukee at a client site. We had our whole team there and some executives, which meant that we were going to have a nice dinner, rather than a dinner at the hotel diner. I was thinking we’d be going to our regular steakhouse (Mo’s Steakhouse, which is YUMMY!) but our client suggested a new place. So I was given the job of looking the place up and making reservations (only female on team = secretary…j/k. not!). So I was told to look for a restaurant called Carnivorous. The women I was working with were like, “Carnivorous? I’ve never heard of it! Is that seriously the name of the place?” I made some jokes that it was a dinosaur-themed restaurant with velociraptors serving your food. So I searched on the internet for it, and the only think I could find for “carnivorous milwaukee” were links to the local zoo. With three people searching (and whispering under our breath, “I don’t think this place exists!”) we finally found the restaurant - “Carnevor”, which is a pretty new restaurant in downtown Milwaukee. I went to their website and lo and behold - their logo is a velociraptor claw! No joke! I must have ESPN or sumtin’.

Anyway, the restaurant is one of your typical trendy restaurants with the super friendly and almost dramatic waiters - nice and dark so you don’t really have to see who you’re talking to. The food I would give four stars out of five. Very good, though I think the appetizers could have had more flavor to them. I’m a fan of escargot, and their escargot appetizer, while good, didn’t have enough flavor for me. My steak was awesome - I got it medium rare with herbed butter on top. By the time I got it, I was full of bread (the butter they server with it is yummy, though a little salty if you put on too much) and appetizers. But the 5 bites I had from my steak were delicious - the garlic butter added the right amount of flavor to it. I wasn’t a fan of the brussel sprout side we got, but I did like the exotic mushroom and mashed potato sides.

All in all, I would recommend the place - if you can pay the $30 - $160 price for a steak (which doesn’t count any of the other stuff). “$160?” you say? Why yes - they’ve got Kobe beef that is actually from Kobe, Japan, the best 1% of steaks, so rich and tender you could cut it with a butter knife. Or at least that’s what our waiter said!

Crab cake, escargot and rock shrimp

Mmmmm….steak!

Hmm…Muffins!, originally uploaded by Yano.

It’s been a challenge lately to get Ben to eat. He had croup a couple weeks ago, and he’s still got a pretty bad cough. Even before he was sick, he was a very picky eater. One day he’d like chicken nuggets, the next day he hated them. One day he loves apples, the next they’re being thrown across the room. I’ve finally opened my Deceptively Delicious that I got for Christmas and this weekend will try some recipes. If you haven’t heard of the book yet, it basically shows you how to hide vegetables in “regular”, tasty food. I’ll let you know how the recipes go, but the dishes seem pretty tasty. Friday I’ll try out the spinach/carrot brownies!

I’m paranoid that even though he’s been having his daily gummy vitamin, he isn’t getting enough nourishment. Sometimes I feel like a baby skeleton is walking around my house. Fine, not that bad, but he’s almost 2 years old and he still needs to hit the 24lb mark. The doctor has said it’s nothing to be alarmed about, that even though he’s in the 15% percentile it’s still in the OK range. But as a mom, I can’t help but worry. I’ve broke a little and bought some cookies and ice cream, just to get some food in him (and I admit, I like it too!) but hopefully he gets some of what little appetite he had back.

Ben in BW, originally uploaded by Yano.

croup (kroop): A pathological condition of the larynx, especially in infants and children, that is characterized by respiratory difficulty and a hoarse, brassy cough.

Ben was supposed to leave on vacation this morning with Dave and his parents - I, of course, would get left behind because of work, of course. Whether it was the dramatic change in weather or maybe my “please don’t take my baby away” vibes, he started coughing yesterday.

It got a little more dramatic once he went to sleep. He started coughing and the sound was a little scary. The only way I could describe it was it sounded like an angry duck. Donald Duck after getting cut off on the highway kinda angry. Ben would wake up and start whimpering, only to fall into another spell of angry-duck-coughing.

Ironically, we got a call from the doctor’s office confirming an appointment for today, which I had no recollection of making. Considering Dave was on vacation and today is Ben’s 21 month birthday, I could very well have scheduled something. So Dave decided to call off their trip and stay at home for his vacation, and we went to the doctor’s office.

Turns out, there was a glitch in their phone/scheduling system, so a TON of people got a call that there was an appointment for today. We were the only fools who actually came into the doctor’s office. Ben’s at the age now where he KNOWS that he’s the in the place of pain and prickly needles, so he freaked once he saw the doctor. No shots were done, but he was still pretty hysterical when she checked his lungs, mouth and ears.

She told us it was probably a mild form of croup, and the best thing we could do is let it run it’s course. Ben didn’t lose his appetite and he wasn’t moody, so there was nothing to worry about.

So my poor little boy has the croup, or as I like to call it, “Angry Duck Syndrome”.

Posted up this picture of him, because I like it a lot. One of my favorites from our little photoshoot at Santa Monica beach. I’ll post up the original sometime and tell you more about it some other time.

Illini Cupcakes, originally uploaded by Yano.

My Illini cupcakes weren’t strong enough to ensure a win at the Rosebowl. (BTW, they’re orange flavored cupcakes with lemon buttercream icing)

What a painful game. Almost as painful as Hawaii’s playing in the Sugar Bowl. Two teams I was rooting for, two teams that sucked ass.

The tree has been decorarted, 98% of the presents have been bought, 99% of the Christmas cards have been sent out (which is a record for me). But even with that done, I still feel majorly unprepared for Christmas. I still have cookies to bake, TONS of presents to wrap and food to prepare. I know that I still have a weekend to get all of it done, but I know it’s going to be a pretty busy weekend. Well, at least I have Christmas Eve Day off!

Even with all of that said, I’m feeling the Christmas spirit. It gives me something to concentrate on other than work stress. Having Ben around has made it all the more wonderful. Every night we have our own little tree lighting ceremony (too lazy to find the timers in storage) and there’s a dramatic countdown, the tree lights are plugged in, and Ben says, “Wooooow! Tree!” When we drive around at night, whenever he sees a house lit up with Christmas lights, he points and says, “Ohhhhhh!” and then babbles for minutes after that, no doubt telling me about how cool the house is. Moments like that I realize how wonderful and precious life is, and how much I adore my little boy.

So even though I’m not prepared for Christmas coming, I can’t wait til it gets here. Things will be a little different this year - don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing, but I guess life changes and you just gotta go with the flow. Another positive thing with Christmas - no one does crap the week of Christmas, so I should be able to breathe easy and get a little R & R next week.