And the rain rain rain came down down down…

Holy guacamole. It’s raining not only dogs and cats, but I think lions and tigers and bears, too. And that ferocious rain is accompanied by such lovely up-to-60mph-winds.

And thank you, CalTrans, for informing me of this with your roadside signs saying ‘Caution: High Wind’. Because that didn’t occur to me while I was struggling to keep my car on the freeway this morning and running my windshield wipers at ludicrous speed in an attempt to see through the sheets of rain being thrown against my windshield. I’m so grateful that sign was there to give me the news.

I would have felt much more informed had I seen this sign instead. At least it would have been news.

Am I The Biggest Loser?

Every season we I seem to get addicted to a new reality show. A couple of years ago it wasJersey Shore (…which we’re still addicted to, I’m sad to say… we love celebrating T-shirt time on Thursday nights), at one point it was More to Love (the fat girls’ version of The Bachelor, for those millions of you who did not watch it – I don’t really feel bad calling it that either, since that was literally the entire premise of the show and the point they constantly drilled into you), last year it was Ocho Cinco’s Ultimate Catch (I still can’t get over how big of a b**** Tara was – how did she manage to make it so far?!?).

This season, it’s The Biggest Loser. And it’s pretty pathetic how excited I get every Tuesday knowing that a new episode will be on that night – and tonight’s the night, and oh my god, they might bring Arthur back! How exciting… he sooo needs this, everyone knows it… how did they kick him off in the first place?

Yes, I’m really that excited. Not so much about Arthur, which they keep hyping up on the previews without actually saying that’s who’s coming back but still making it really obvious to the point that it’s not even a question, but about a new episode. Nick was actually the one that suggested we start watching it, and I thought, ‘hmm, this might be good – maybe watching this will encourage us to eat healthier and exercise more, and maybe consider getting a gym membership again or at least go on walks in the park which is literally in our backyard.’ Alas, no. Instead, we usually end up opening up a package of oreos about ten minutes into the show and drinking an entire bottle of wine… which is totally reasonable when you think about the fact that we’re eating oreos during the show which is TWO HOURS every week (is that really necessary? I’m really not complaining though…) and that’s quite a long time to be eating cookies without having something to wash them down with. And if we’ve learned anything fromThe Biggest Loser, it’s that milk is fattening and packs a lot of calories, ergo, wine is clearly the healthier choice.

Sunday Morning in the Seevers House

A morning of relaxing before I start getting ready for church... watching some cartoons (Nora couldn't care less... so pretty much just me watching Spongebob), checking email... as well as:


Nora taking bites out of magazines - 

...and the dog drinking an entire cup of coffee while I change a diaper... my fault for leaving it sitting on the coffee table (what kind of dummie leaves a coffee cup on the coffee table?). 


At least it's a better start to the day than yesterday, when we woke up and realized we had no power and hadn't had power since the middle of the night... and wouldn't be getting power back until 2:00 in the afternoon. Not having power kind of sucks. I reminded myself every so often as I eagerly awaited the electricity to return that there are thousands and thousands of people in other parts of the world right now - Japan, New Zealand - that are in MUCH worse shape and would be thrilled to only have to worry about not having power for 12 hours. I, however, could only think about the fact that my head would be killing me by about 11am if I didn't find a way to make coffee. And that I had a 3lb tri tip in the refrigerator marinating for dinner that night with Nick's family, with a death sentence as it got less and less cold in there and I wondered about a plan B for Nana's birthday dinner. And that I really needed to vacuum the rugs and run the washing machine to wash the bathroom rugs and towels before they came over at 6pm. Obviously, these were very trivial concerns in the grand scheme of things, but when the power's out and you can't watch TV or use the internet, you have time to dwell on silly thoughts like this.  Of course, everything turned out fine - the power came back on suddenly a little after 2pm, and we had plenty of time to finish cleaning and get the food ready before everyone came over (...early, of course... I'm so used to my family that shows up about a half hour late to everything, so arriving early is quite a foreign idea). We had a great time visiting with Nick's mom, uncle, Nana, and Nana's best friend Bertha. Enjoyed some champagne, ate a good dinner, shared in some birthday cake. Happy 85th Birthday, Nana!

Feeling a little old… but not minding it so much.

I’m officially another year older, and I have to say, I’m okay with it. (How do you feel about it, Jon Hamm? Don’t worry, you’ll always be a young and dapper dreamboat in my eyes…) I know that I’m still by no means old… some of my older more distinguished friends and family members would not be very pleased with me if I said that 26 was old.

I think it’s the fact that 25 was such a nice round number… only a quarter of a century, still only halfway to 50, old enough to rent a car (…who really cares, right?), and by definition, in the “mid” twenties. Even though it’s only a year’s difference, 26 just seems like a big jump… it could even be argued that I’ve now entered “late” twenties. Arguably.

But to be honest, I don’t really care what my age is; I just really appreciate the fact that I have so many great friends and family to be incredibly grateful for – there’s nothing like a million 'Happy Birthdays!' on facebook to remind you how much you’re loved. Or at least to remind you how many people are on facebook often enough to see that it’s your birthday. Either way, it makes me happy.

Here’s to an even more fantastic year ahead - Cheers!

p.s.: that's my way of saying that I'm drinking a bottle of wine at my desk right now... just kidding. 

p.p.s.: am I kidding? I wish I wasn't. It would make the afternoon go by so much faster.

A Birthday Feast

Today is my husband's birthday... Happy Birthday, my dear - I do love you soooo much, and wish you many many happy birthday wishes. 


We went to Mehran with a discount gift certificate from restaurant.com (check this site out if you haven't... really great deals for only a few bucks...) for a delicious and extremely filling dinner of Indian food. The gift certificate we had was $25 off a bill of $35 or more, so we went a little overboard to ensure we got to the $35 minimum. We clearly weren't keeping track of the dollar amounts as we were ordering, and ended up just pretty much ordering everything that sounded good. We were still able to keep it under $30 out of pocket including the tip (which was happily handed over since the waiter/manager/possible owner let us use the gift certificate even though they apparently aren't valid there anymore, which we didn't know). For the three of us, we ordered vegetable samosas, a mixed grill special (with shrimp, lamb, and two different kinds of chicken), chicken tikka masala, rice, aloo palak, plain naan and garlic naan, and a mango lassi. And really all that was just for the two of us, since Nora had about two bird-sized bites of naan. She clearly needs to step up her game.

Business Time: Success!

Wow, I just realized how long it has actually been since my last post... much too long. Aside from my brief praising of Jon Hamm (Happy Almost-Birthday, by the way, Mr. Hamm... we have the same birthday, you know... I'm pretty sure that means we're soul-mates. I know you read my blog.)... my last real post was about re-designing our office/guest room to convert it into a more usable office. Well, we've done it, and it's been feeling quite successful lately. 

We've spent time every single day in our new office space, whether Nick is working, I'm crafting, checking email, paying bills, or feeding my new obsession of entering online logo design contests into the wee hours of the morning (...I've been having some vivid flashbacks of studio lately...), and we've been enjoying nearly every square inch of it. We can fit everything we need - I, all of my indoor craft supplies (the saws, tools, and messy stuff will stay in the garage...), and Nick, all of his files and paperwork, plus all of our miscellaneous computer/electronic/digital what-have-you and a good portion of our books. 

The only piece we can't fit now is the 'guest room' portion of the room... my hope was to have enough room to include a small futon in place of one or two of the smaller pieces of furniture we were first considering to remove and put somewhere else in the house. I wanted to have a futon so 90% of the time it would serve as a couch/seating, and then fold out into a bed when we occasionally needed it. Now..... everything just seems to fit so well the way that it is, that we don't know if we want to take anything out to make room for a futon. Which means when my sister comes to visit next weekend, she may be sleeping on a desk. Or sharing Nora's crib.