Saturday, July 31, 2010

Sark the Destroyer

So, Mute and Sark have their issues.


Issue #1: they are both terrorists. Amy has given them both new names, or rather new middle names... DOT. Destroyer Of Things. Sark DOT Benezra and Mute DOT Benezra, oh aren’t they cute!?

Sark.Benezra & Mute.Benezra...


Issue #1: they have their obsessions.

She looks so innocent (above), but Mute is obsessed with paper, as we may have mentioned previously. She seeks it out like a moth to a freakin’ flame. She’ll eat your coupons, paperwork, book, newspaper, whatever. You’ll be reading the paper at the counter, she’ll come chew it. You finish and push it away. She finds it when your back is turned and pulls it to the edge of the counter for easy chewing. You move it again, and she repeats the process until you get up off your lazy ass and put the paper in the recycle bin.

Sure, he gets his sleep on (above), but Sark is obsessed with water. He hops into the kitchen sink, his most common offense, and just likes being slightly damp or near slightly wet things. If you get water from the fridge, he runs over cuz he thinks you might be getting ice, and if you do ice might fall onto the floor, and he’ll spend the next while licking ice on the floor leaving a watery slug-slime-like trail as evidence. And when you mop up the water trail, he wants to roll around on the damp towel too. He loves his water, no matter the form.


Well as it turns out, Sark is also obsessed with bread. Sark is to bread as the Trix Rabbit is the Trix. Once Amy was eating a roll from a pack of Kings Hawaiian. It was a lazy Sunday and she was watching TV. Uncertain of whether it was a one-roll day, or maybe a two-roll day, she thought it wise to err on the side of caution and bring the whole pack to the couch. Within moments, Sark caught a whiff of the rolls and started harassing her. Finally, still being lazy, she resorted to burying the rolls under a blanket at which point Sark started digging into the blanket and frantically biting his way through to get to the rolls. She finally got up and put the damned rolls away, this kid was obsessed! Later that week, the rolls were left out on the counter for a short time and when the humans arrived back on the scene there were no less than 3 holes in the bag, chunks of roll missing and crumbs on the floor.


It should come as no surprise that we recently had another bread incident. Amy had forgotten about the bread obsession and was in hurry that day. She’d purchased 4 packs of her favorite Oroweat Jewish Rye at the outlet store - a rare find as they are usually out of her favorite bread product. She’d used her envirosax bag to carry home the bread, and when she got home with it and the loot from her other errands, she quickly brought everything in and set it all on the kitchen counter before running upstairs to get ready and then out the door to yoga. Upon her arrival what do you think she found?


Below is a short photo essay with Sark as the subject. Amy walked into the house and first thing she sees is Sark sleeping on top of the counter on top of Anthony’s briefcase. New note to selves, no briefcases on the counter. Sark finally got up to stretch and yawn, as evidenced here. We snapped a few more photos before kicking him out.



We take a look at the stuff on the counter to find evidence of mass destruction courtesy of Sark DOT. And what to our wondering eyes should appear? That’s right, one pack of bread with no less than 3 holes in it, still inside the envirosax bag, and crumbs on the floor. Not only that, but there are multiple holes IN the ENVIROSAX bag!! Amy’s favorite green tool, they nylon bag that rolls up nice and small but unrolls into a huge bag for carrying things, saving the planet by not using disposable bags while shopping.


So, while still useable the bag is much worse for wear. The bread is still edible, but damaged goods. And Sark... well, he’s still Sark. Good thing he’s so freakin’ cute... the bastard.


Silly Kitty, bread is for humans!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Rant or Rave...?

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the rant...


Every time I (Amy) see a GD “Baby on Board” sign, I loose it a little. I crumble on the inside. I start to spit when I talk. I go a bit, as they say, bat-crazy.


I’ve been forced to wonder, what is the purpose of this GD sign? Is it to warn other drivers that they should drive more safely around you because you have a baby on board? Is it to explain to passersby that you may actually be a good driver in real life, but that you are driving like a moron today because you have a baby on board? And do you really have a baby on board, or are you just trying to get attention? I mean, maybe you are using the sign to get you through the carpool lane, who am I to judge? I’ll tell you who I am ... i’m the freakin’ judge!!! WTF is wrong with you people and your idiotic signs!?! I’m freakin’ out!


And now, the rave.


Thank you, Wikipedia, for saving my sanity and the safety of the “Baby on Board” sign owners I may have purposely injured in the future as I continued to loose my mind and faculties. As I could no longer take the mystery of the sign, I did a google search, and blessed be wikipedia for showing me the light. Not only have I renewed my appreciation of Wikipedia, but with that search I have also become a fan of “Baby on Board” signs - Halle-freakin-lujah! Can I get an amen?


The following excerpt has been taken directly from Wikipedia for your reading pleasure and lingering curiosity:


Baby on Board is the message of a small (usually 5 inch) sign intended to be placed in the back window of an automobile to alert the emergency services to the presence of an infant in the event of a crash. Small children are known to sometimes become trapped in footwells or even thrown from the vehicle in the event of crashes. Given this purpose, drivers should remove the sign if driving without a child on board.”


So to all of you “Baby on Board” sign owners out there:
  1. My deepest apologies to you and for judging you and your stupid sign. Clearly these signs, like Transformers, are more than meets the eye.
  2. WARNING: If you don’t have a baby on board, take your sign down for the drive. Just keep it on your side window for easy removal. Let’s respect the wisdom that the Wikipedia Gods have bestowed onto us and not cause the emergency crews to search unnecessarily for a phantom infant while they should be administering care to those of us who may actually BE in our cars in the event of a crash. Always remember that a powerful tool such as the “Baby on Board” sign comes great responsibility.
  3. IMPORTANT: To those who have driven with their “Baby on Board” sign posted while not having a baby on board please, and with great malice, reverse point one above. Follow that up with a firm smack to your own mouth. That was from me. Don’t let it happen again.

Background Change

That's right - our background was expiring! I know, this is SO exciting, you can't wait to read allllll about it! We could keep our old background, but it looked a little different to us, and really, it was time for a change! Enjoy! But please let us know if anything is now too hard to read etc :) Thanks!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Shout Out

It’s that time again; time for a shout out. This time I want to give a shout out to the Black Eyed Peas. Thank you, Black Eyed Peas, for bringing laughter to the end of a frustrating experience.

You see, I had been working for hours with Verizon to get my Mom’s new prepaid cell phone set up with her old number (which we ported over from Virgin Mobile/The Devil). After hitting a number of bumps in the road along the way we ultimately had a phone with no battery life, no ability to receive calls, and no way to charge… oh and of course no working voicemail and a couple of prepaid minutes in the hole for nothing.

To make a long story short, by the time I was pulling out of the driveway, I was ready for a drink. It was about 12.30am and I still had kitties at home waiting for dinner (don't worry, they had eaten twice already that day, and when I finally got home they had clearly been sleeping thru dinner time anyway, lazy bums). I was calm, although most who know me would assume otherwise. As I was pulling away, I thought some music was in order – to keep me awake, to distract me, to whatever... just something…

And then it happened. As I switched from my all-too-mellow Eric Clapton/Pilgrim CD to the radio, the very first song I heard got my attention. It was partway thru already, the timing was spot on, and the very first lyric I heard made me laugh out loud...

I got a feelin… (woooo hoooo)
That tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good good night

Oh Black Eyed Peas! You really got me! Man! I was laughing so hard, “YES! You are right, tonight IS gonna be a good good night!!”

A sparkling end to a long but rewarding day.

Mad props, Black Eyed Peas. Keep up the good work.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Tool concert

So it was ridiculous, but Anthony had never seen a Tool concert. Some of his friends have gone 8 or 9 times but for whatever reason, it didn't work in the past. July 10th, he finally went. It was a very cool show and they played all of their most famous songs.

They have a very cool set with amazing lights, pictures, graphics and even a laser show that they put on in the ceiling of the Key Arena.




Most of the stuff was cool........

This picture is more scary then cool. But whateva....


Let me show you my " LASER "

SET LIST:



Third Eye
Jambi
Ions
Stinkfist
Vicarious
Eon Blue Apocalypse
The Patient
Intolerance
Schism
46 & 2
Lateralus
Aenema




Very worth while! Amy was up north that day shopping with Maureen at Tulalip so it worked out perfectly.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Cliff Lee got traded, we went to the game vs NYY




So, Cliff Lee got traded on 7/9 officially around 3pm PST. Sad, sad, sad day. Anthony had a major man crush going and Cliff was supposed to start vs the Yankees. Lavaris got tickets so Wil, Laura, Amy and Anthony were going to go watch the master pitch. That ended up not happening. We went to the game and lost, badly. We took a bunch of pictures outside of Safeco Field by Cliff Lee's picture, but Anthony somehow lost the pictures. Very sad.


"!@#$%^&*" is all Anthony could say when asked for a quote.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Utah trip summer 2010

So... it was the 4th of July recently, and you know what that means! Time to make our annual trek to Utah to visit the Aises! We always miss Heather, Jason and Jack, so we cherish our annual extravaganza!
So we got into Utah late on a Thursday night, hung out and went to sleep. The next day after getting all ready for the swimming pool 100 yards from the Acosta's unit, we found that the pool was closed. Apparently it needs a new pump and the homeowners association is too broke to fix it the right way, so it's closed every couple days for maintenance. Yeah, like that is saving money in the long run... notsomuch... So we hightailed it to a local pool. Now this place was awesome and their were a quadrillion kids everywhere. There was a pirate ship to play on, slides and a lazy river that we floated around and around in. That was hella cool btw!

Jack enjoyed the slides and the lazy river....that is until he ate a gallon of water and promptly said...."Mom, I barfed." Fortunately the lazy river had a strong current and the barf was gone before we could do anything about it.


We didn't take advantage of this cool feature, but check this out. It is like a Learn to surf machine. Maybe next time.

On the way back to the condo, we tried to tell Jack to smile. He sometimes did and sometimes scrunched up his face a ton like the above shot. That's his cheesy "CHEESE" face.

The Acostas had a small TV from their bedroom in the living room since their bigger normal TV broke.

Always nice having a friend who knows a guy who gets sweet deals on TV's. Check out the new flat screen and Blue Ray player. Woo Hoo! This helped us knock out 5 movies!

That same night, a babysitter came over to watch Jack and the 4 adults went to Sundance where we first enjoyed a great meal.

All the usual suspects..........


Anthony wanted Sarsaparilla and Amy didn't mind sharing, so we got 2 different kinds. It sure was yummy. Amy hearts sarsaparilla and takes every chance she can get to have some! YUM! Why is that ish so hard to find btw?


This was the special of the day, a Bass dish. The waiter described it in such a way that we wanted to hear it again because it sounded so delicous. The sauce was a mango butter and it was superb.


After dinner, we boarded a tractor carrying a trailer with benches and it hauled us up a big hill. Here is Jason holding on tight.


There it goes down the hill to fetch more people.

We noticed some cabins up in the hills, Robert Redford probably owns at least 1 of those. This picture doesn't do them justice, of course. They were gigantic!

We sat on blankets in the grass and got comfy for some live symphony music.




We got unique flavored lollipops. This one was Rootbeer I think.....


It got dark in a hurry and was very relaxing and pretty.

The next day we played more with Jack and learned and heard everything possible that characters say from Toy Story 3......Buzz Light Year dominated the conversation....."Not today Zurg." And now, of course, that's Amy's new favorite thing to say... all the time. To Anthony, to the cats, to strangers, it's awesome. Probably just for her tho...


For the 4th of July, the Acostas made a cake and Amy helped dress it up to look like an American flag.


We watched the neighbors set off some fireworks and went back to watching DVD's.


We tried to teach Jack how to kick a soccer ball with his left foot. Here he is scrunching his face again. He was really getting the hang of that left foot kick, nice job Jackers!

We had a great time together on our 5th annual trip to Utah (our 4th Annual 4th). Not depicted here is all the OTHER fun stuff we did and fun times we had. We also made it to the local pool a couple times, watched all those movies we mentioned, read a bunch, slept, had a TON of good food and feasts together. Amy and Heather also took a little girl time to hit the mall and a chocolate outlet together. Girl time is a good time!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end and on Monday we had to say our goodbyes. Jack seems to have learned how to fake being upset and fake cry, which he pulled out as we said farewell... and apparently he missed us the next morning when he got up and we weren't there, he's such a cutie!

Parting is such sweet sorrow... but this helped take the sting out a tiny bit...

On the way to the airport, we stopped to get some JJ's for the ride. Nothing like an old friend to help you in your time of need! Mad props to Jimmy John's Totally Tuna Sandwich!

Miss you Aises! Can't wait till August for the big trip with the Stewarts! YAY!!

Shout Out

Just wanted to give a shout out to that bird I saw today in Marysville at the Seattle Premium Outlets. Mad Props to you, Bird, for keeping it real.


As I ate my sandwich this afternoon, I felt the warm sun on my back and a fresh breeze coming along... ah, what a wonderful day to spend with a good friend... There I was just living life when I thought I felt something on my arm. I knew not to freak out because that tickle was probably just one of my quadridillion hairs that fell out of my dome and onto my arm. So I gave it a quick look.


Nope.


That feeling was definitely a spider. And do you know who has two thumbs and hates the living bejesus out of spiders? That’s right, THIS girl.


Ok, so I hate spiders, but I never kill them, at least not on purpose. So I spent the next while trying to get the spider off of me so I could eat my sandwich and he/she/it/Pat could go on living.


Attempt #1 - blow the spider off my arm. Strike 1. Attempt #2 - use my free hand to try to pull the little spider by it’s thread off my arm in time for the spider to be gently placed elsewhere. Strike 2. This spider is pitching like Cliff Lee, and I’m striking out at every turn. I just want to advance to first base, which in this metaphor is just getting the damned spider the eff off of my body. Attempt #3 - put the sandwich down and use all means necessary to get the spider to vacate.


Home Run.


The spider flew through the air, sailed over the entire length of the bench I was sitting on and approached the ground. As the spider descended, this beautiful little bird hopped over out of nowhere, and like freaking magic the spider sailed at the just the right height for the bird to open its beak and let that spider just flow on in. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.


Crazy Mad Props to you, Bird, for keeping it real. Hope to see you again next time.

Hey Mr. Gilbert! FYI!!

Attn: Dan Gilbert, Majority Owner, Cleveland Cavaliers


Mr. Gilbert,

Learn how to write.

And didn't your mama ever teach you that if you didn't have something nice to say you should just shut the eff up? I suppose she also left out the part about how whenever YOU, just you specifically, have something to say you sound like a crazy raving lunatic a$$hole.

Also, quotation marks are not used to emphasize the words which they are placed around. Look up Chapter 2: Bold, Italic and Underline in your copy of Microsoft Word for A$$holes.

In summation, you are a moron.

Sincerely,
Amy Benezra

Hey, Subway! FYI!!

The Subway location at the Seattle Premium Outlets in Marysville does not honor the five dollar footlong promotion. I found this ironic considering this is an outlet mall. The least this Subway could do is keep REGULAR prices since EVERYONE else in the joint is offering discounted goods. But whatever, Subway, I guess you are ABOVE all of that.


Hey, and if you want to enjoy your almost eight dollar footlong like you would anywhere else, except with less money to your name as you enjoy, I hope you don't usually get regular mayo on your sandwich. Oh no. Not available at the SPO.


Just so you know, if a Subway location does not honor Subway promotions and does not have REAL mayonnaise and only carries LITE or LIGHT mayo... they are NOT a REAL Subway... I mean, isn't this AMERICA??


At least this sandwich artist knew her stuff and ran a tight ship all things considered. Always a silver lining...