The moment it was revealed that we had went to eat at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in London, Jamie’s Italian, He Chef started asking for details.

Why?  Because he’s awesome at his job, and wants to make sure everyone loves their Wolfgang Puck experience.

That being said, the only thing these two “brands” if you will have in common, is the name recognition.

First, I have mostly had Wolfgang Puck in Las Vegas.  Only had Jamie Oliver in London.  Vegas and London are two entirely different worlds.

Also,

when I go to Wolfgang Puck, they know I belong in some way, shape or form to He Chef.  Know that I am going to be informing on them.   My kids could play in the fountain and throw rocks at guests and it would be “all good”.

OK they weren’t that bad, but close.

First,  Jamie’s Italian.   The bruschetta was the best EVER.  I still dream of it, and will for awhile.  I regret not taking advantage of a free hour and going back for more.  It will be the first thing I do next time I’m in London.

We went on a Saturday over to the Canary Wharf location, only a couple of blocks from the Canary Wharf Tube.  It is located in an area where there are a lot of offices.  Despite the area being sleepy on a Saturday afternoon, Jamie’s was hopping busy.  The staff was wonderful.  After the bruschetta, the rest of the food was good, probably the best I had in London, but it wasn’t “omgoodness I’m going to die” like the bruschetta was.  Yes, I’m stuck on the bruschetta, it was that good.

as opposed to Wolfgang Puck.  Where everything that I put in my mouth makes me want to die immediately because nothing, ever will be as good as that moment.  Wasabi mashed potatoes.  Creamed corn.  I usually defer to whatever they bring me.  Last time I was in Vegas, I ate at Lupo’s in Mandalay Bay.  I had Kobe beef with a black truffle something, so yum.  They insisted on bringing dessert.  I don’t even know what it was, a ricotta/berry something.  Again, it was Vegas and I almost married it.

I would say you couldn’t go wrong with either choice.  I know that if I am ever near a restaurant operated by either Jamie Oliver or Wolfgang Puck, you’ll find me there.

Purple, I know.  Be shocked. I couldn’t decide between purple and T-Moro Brown (who comes up with these?).  The universe decided for me.  No, T-Moro Brown left.

You probably heard about it on Twitter.  Well, some of you anyway.

So excited I was to have saved $80 I had to tweet it.  Immediately I got asked by Mr. B that I know IRL (in real life) “Where?”, because he has been trained to jump when someone says Dooney.  Good job Renee!

Guess what I did?

I asked him which bag his ever lovely bride wanted. Because it was a good sale and there were slim pickins, and I wanted my friend, his wife, to get the right thing at a great price.

Um hello, she possesses the only uterus in that coupling.

He had no clue, which was a good thing for him.  Had he known the model of purse his wife wanted it would have required me to make Tech Support punch him in the face in order for him to keep his man card.  But still giving credit for his training to jump at the words “Dooney. Sale.”

Not like this information is new to me.  I got omom a Vera Bradley for Christmas.  When I told Tech Support that I had the perfect gift for his mother and then told him “Vera Bradley” he was all like “oh, I have no idea what that means.”  And when I gave it to her and she showed it to her Tech Support he had the same look of “oh, I guess, whatever.”

Men????

Anyway, after buying my bag, I went to the grocery store, where I saw a man polishing his Geo.  Yes, I know.  They DID stop making that brand back in 1900 something (or if ESPN gets their way 2K-4).  You don’t have to tell me.

Somewhere along the way I ran into a cat person.  My face is on fire.

I actually remembered to pay for daycare.  I made it a point, for two very important reasons.  The first was that I LOVE them for taking (the kids off my hands) care of my kids three days a week.   Second was that I was walking in with a NEW PURSE that cost as much as a month of daycare for one kid, it would be kind of lame to stand there with my new purse and explain “I can’t afford to pay you right now….”.

Although, have you been to the local WIC office lately?  Yes, I know.  But I don’t qualify based on need, the kids qualify based on being in foster care.  Anyway, I drove the lamest car and people would openly mock my lame purse.

“Yeah, I can’t buy a Coach and a Navigator, I had to buy food.”

I know.  I am so going to hell.  Did I tell you I failed the compassion test at church?

Surprised aren’t you?

It’s not a lack of compassion universally, per se.  There was a time in my life when I needed help.  A short time, and instead of working the system, I worked.  It helped.  It was there when nothing else was. My car was a piece of crap and had no reason to get a purse of any kind.

Anyway, me and my heartless self need to fill out a BUNCH of paperwork to end the most boring portion of our life.  And pray that stupid attorney calls us back because they want us to do something that we aren’t required to do that will cost us money, and you know, I’ll pay the attorney 4x as much solely on principle.  I refuse to do ONE more thing than required by law to get these kids.  But will save that boring story for another day.

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as a way to suck up to me for, well for being fabulous and kicking her ass in this…

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Just kidding of course, I want to be like her when I grow up.  Paid to write. Anyway, to fulfill my duties as a fabulous blog I have to tell you five of my obsessions.

First, as you all have heard, I love me an Old Navy tank or twelve.

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The rest of my obsessions are in the picture below.  I know when you add the Old Navy tanks into the mix you get way more than five.  But one of the images is me, and I am not my own obsession.  Well, who are we kidding, I so totally am.  I also know that my headband does not match my annieology shirt.  I love them all.  If you want to see a bigger picture click on the image.  Tech support says it will work, if it doesn’t we’ll blame him.

My ring is totally more awesome than this picture would indicate.  And symbolic of my obsession of my man, married these 11 years.  That’s like half my life as far as you know.

The shirt, is a gift from my friends.  I love it almost as much as I love them.  Skip and Susie rock!

The glasses are really cheap Vera Wang’s from Kohl’s.  I tend to lose things, so $20 sunglasses totally rule.

My headband, a total necessity for the bangs transition.  I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep the bangs or not, they are cute, but I have to get them cut every two weeks or they look all lame.  The headband is great, and it matches my 50s housewife apron, AND is reversible, just like my apron.

My phone, is purple, and I can read blogs, and it has Facebook.  I’m set.  I hear it also can be used as a phone, but that has yet to be determined.

I think that pretty much covers my obsessions.  My next duty is to pass this award on to five fabulous blogs.  In keeping with the obsession theme, I decided to award the award to my five most obsessed blogger friends, according to the webalizer top referrers.

It was close, only two referrals difference between the top two finishers.

1. Suite Life of Lucy and Ethel
2. The Monster Wrangler
3. Miraculously My Own
4. The Accidental Mommy
5. Reptiles in the Icecream (top Facebook sharer)

If you look carefully, you will see many black spots on the sand.  Look towards where the guy with the camera is facing.

This is the up close and personal.  A Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle hatchling, making his way to the water.  We got up around 5:45 to drive out to the sea shore to see about 200 of them make their way from the beach to the water.

This is, probably, my fifth time to see a turtle release.  I’m still totally fascinated.

It fascinates me that something this tiny

Can go into something this big

and remember where it came from.

Thanks to Joy for this photo

It wasn’t by chance that we happened upon this little marvel of nature.  In 1979  humans got involved in gathering the eggs from turtle nests in Mexico and bringing them to Texas to incubate and release.  Nest were first noticed on the Texas seashore starting in 1996.

Kemp’s ridley nests documented on the Texas coast since 1996

Year	No. of Nests	No. of Eggs	Hatchlings Released
1996	6	590	369
1997	9	968	893
1998	13	1,270	800
1999	16	1,681	1,364
2000	12	1,160	1,000
2001	8	837	584
2002	38	3,771	2,536
2003	19	1,718	1,426
2004	42	3,928	3,298
2005	50	4,700	3,402
2006	102	9,717	7,475
2007	128	12,555	10,596
2008	195	17,958*	15,819**

*Of the 195 nests discovered, 185 of the nests kept in protected incubation contained 17,958

This year 197 nests were found and incubated at the Padre Island National Seashore, setting a new record.  The final clutches were released this morning.

There were 200 turtles released this morning.  Of those 200, only a fraction will survive to maturity.  Released turtles have a 1/100 chance of surviving to maturity, their wild counterparts fair much worse with a survival rate of about 1/1,000.

The nest season starts in April and generally run until June.  The clutches released this morning were found in the beginning of July.  Padre Island National Seashore holds hatchling releases from late May until August every year.  The bulk of those releases held in June and July.

If you would like to learn more about attending a future sea turtle release in Texas go here.

Anyway, I hope they had fun.  I was about to say you, like my blog is so legendary that it piqued the interest of people in the tiny town I grew up in…..

But me, I had a blast.

I received news from afar, still processing.  I feel compelled to process it on the blog, but don’t know if it is an overshare of some one else’s life…..I really have no details, and really, it’s not shocking news or anything.  But something I must process.  I just don’t know if I’m going to be doing it here.

“What about your enjoyable weekend?” you ask.

Yes, Thursday or Friday we received news that the Chefs were coming for a visit and bringing their Love Sac.  You’ll remember the Love Sac from the wedding.  Well, finally it had burdened them to the point that they just brought it down to us.

So, the Sac and the Chefs arrived, and what’s a trip to the City by the Sea without a trip to the sea?  So, it was off to the beach.  Second time in as many weeks.  I think I have skin cancer, I’ll keep you posted.

Boog who had been without his preferred suit since our last trip to the beach was reunited with it when I unfurled the beach blankets.  Yay!  I cannot express my happiness.  We changed into it right there on the beach.  Under a blanket.

The kids played in the sand.  The kids played in the water.  The kids barely spoke to us.

Occasionally one would ask for a ride in the kayak.  That was it.  Fun times.

Then we trapsed our sandy selves back to the car.

We’ve lived in the City by the Sea for eight years, it is the first time I thought to bring a bucket of water to the car to rinse our feet off.  Yeah that 150 internet IQ is really working for me.

Back at home for the evening the Chefs cooked and we munched on bread that I’d made earlier in the day.

We are a wild bunch.

Feeling all giddy from our success at the beach, we scurried off to the pool after we got home from church this afternoon.  Where….

The kids played in the water.  And didn’t talk to us.

Wild bunch.  Fun times.

And right now they are asleep, in positions that are going to negatively affect their postures in years to come.  Because they are EXHAUSTED.

It was a good weekend.  And Love of My Life has agreed to be my bitch for awhile, so no more fretting over legal issues for me for awhile.  He’s taking it over.  I’m pressing forward on the psychologicals, which we are uncertain we’ll even need if we allow it to go to JMC.  Well, either way, they are getting their heads shrunk.  And HE is going to start bugging our agency to update our homestudy.

Luckily, it’s after midnight, I about ruined a perfectly good weekend by thinking.  But now it’s Monday, I’m thinking again.

(with a housekeeper)

Oxymoron I know, but I also have double the 2.5 kids so, really the housekeeper is for the extra kids.

And tattoos.  I don’t think that 50s housewives had tattoos.

But I found something very fabu for the 50s housewife in me.

I bought this. 

I know I’m a little crazy.

Now when I bake bread, I can totally look the part.

I should totally start drinking shortly before the kids come home from school too!

You should totally go to Heavenly Hostess and totally get something for that 50s housewife in you.   Wait, maybe I’m totally an 80s Valley Girl.  Totally.

For a business that doesn’t exist.

But I think it’s awesome!

I also got it in purple.

The Wall Street Journal says

Americans should know that those Members who vote for this climate bill are voting for what is likely to be the biggest tax in American history. Even Democrats can’t repeal that reality.

And we were on Amazon buying up all the Michael Jackson memorabilia we could get our hands on.  Call me a cynic, but you want to pass some bad legislation, do it at 3:00 a.m. the morning after the King dies.  It will go by unnoticed.  It’ll take years for the costs to trickle down.  By the year 2035 it will cost the average American family nearly $7,000 per year.  But who cares MJ is dead?

Unfortunately Farrah Fawcett had the misfortune of dieing on the same day.  Immediately relegated below the fold.

I’m putting my Representatives phone numbers in my speed dial.  I’m going to start bugging them incessantly.  Not that it will do any good.  My Representative has been there about 200 years, it sucks.  He could give a rats behind about what we think.  Not that my Senators are any better.  Both served with Moses I believe.  They are on the other side, couldn’t give a rats behind what we here at home want, but whatever the mighty leader says, we do.  Then we complain about it.  “Hey man, you voted for it.”

In happier news….

You can read me on you Kindle.  (I need to get me a Kindle – happy birthday to me?)  I already got my anniversary present.  Can you believe that next week will be our 11th anniversary?  Eleven years?  Who knew people stayed married that long any more.  Who knew I’d be so stinking happy?

I unknowingly “Poked” myself on Facebook.  I don’t know how that happened.  I got a notification that “You have been poked by Annie, would you like to return the poke?”  Now, one of the early Facebook rules established by me, was that I do not accept “pokes” by anyone other than Hubby.  I also, seems only fair, only “poke” him.  It’s worked well.  Then, I “poked” myself.  Of course I felt compelled to pose the question on Facebook, where my “friends” were nice enough to remind me that thing the nuns cautioned us about “poking” ourselves.   Luckily, I had a post LASIK eye exam already scheduled, and can assure you all that no permanent damage has been sustained by any poking.

Two weeks out, and I’m still not used to seeing.  Love it.  Not used to it.

BlogHer ads went up last Thursday.  What they don’t tell you is that most of the ad impressions are their own and they don’t pay for those.  Oh well, it’s definitely the cool kids table of the mommy blogging world, and seems to be generating some traffic.  I made the short list twice already.  Under each ad they list four blogs worth reading.  Mine has made it twice.

I’m revisiting the idea of the “Awesomeness Conference” won’t be anything swanky like the “New Kids On The Block Cruise” or anything.  But if any of you want to spend a week in Vegas with me lounging by the pool, let me know.  Also, please indicate if you might actually be able to go.  Of course, who wouldn’t want to spend a week lounging by the pool in Vegas with me, but I need numbers.  Sadie is coming.  Can’t wait to see Sadie, and catch up.  Although, due to blogging regulations imposed to my by BlogHer ads, I can no longer blog about getting VIP’d at Wolfgang Puck restaurants.  Not that I’m VIP’d because I’m a blogger that get’s 12 hits day from mostly family members;) but because Hubby’s brother is a Wolfgang Puck VP.  Anyway, Awesomeness Conference will be Awesome, let me know.

I got the most rocking purple shoes EVER.  I will be sure to post a picture of their sexiness if I can contort myself in such a way as to show you.  I also hope that Min’s creepy foot stalker is in prison…  (Need to investigate turning of the image availability.)  Although, I posted several of my tattoo pictures and they are the most searched for thing on the ol’ blog.  Of course people who search “boob tattoo” are going to show up here because I talk about boobs and I talk about tattoos, but sadly people, there are no “boob tattoos” here.

Anyway, allergy season is in full force.  Boog, the Princess an myself all have allergy induced asthma and I need to go to Target and get medication.  Let me just say that my next post will be a homage to Target Pharmacy and their packaging.  I love it.  Especially loved it when I had a housefull of kids on meds.  No, three people on maintenance meds do not count here.   Love it.

But, back to our regularly scheduled programming….

When I got the LASIK, one of my secondary concerns, following of course the loss of my corneal flap, was the long term affects that LASIK might have.  The reason I went ahead and did it, was because I heart geeks.  Laser vision correction has been around for 20 some years.  Which gives me a 20 year lead time should complications start to pop up.  Let’s say you were the first person ever to get LASIK.  The chances that you had some issues are more probable than I having issues.  Given the 20 years they have had to tweak the procedure.  Also, say that the first person ever to have it develops a problem related to the procedure today.  I could then, possibly expect that 20 years from now, I would develop something similar if the problem isn’t something they’ve already figured out.  It gives the geeks 20 years to figure out what the problem is and how they are going to correct it.

And I’m very confident that there are geeks out there wanting to do just that.  Eyeball geeks, if you will.  They eat, sleep, breathe eyeballs.  The eyeball geeks will fix it, before I even have a problem.

Also, the hundreds of thousands of people who have had the procedure done.  There is a huge financial incentive to keeping us all happy with our eyes.

There are even ear geeks.  As you all may or may not know, Hubby aka my Resident Geek, is as deaf as I was blind, a match made in Heaven.  He got new hearing aids last year that are life changing for him.   This year, the Hearing Aid Company offered to fit him with Blue Tooth.  Which is great for him, but kind of annoying for me, because he can talk on his phone using his hearing aids and a device worn around his neck.  So, I can’t tell when he’s on the phone or when he’s talking to me, but anyway….he enjoyed that so much he blogged about it, because that’s what we do around here. Oh,  a link might be nice, yes but it’s a 8 minute video, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.  It’s quite boring if you don’t have hearing aids, but I could listen to him talk all day.  For those of you finding me for the Blue Tooth Hearing Aid device it’s a Phonak, he’ll tell you about it on the vlog.  How come I don’t get a video promo on my own blog? Oh yeah, I hate the way I sound, he got over it being a DJ back in the day.  What day is that?  The day before he realized that DJ’s make jack.

Well, today the Hearing Aid Company hooked him up with a device that will hook up to the TV and go into his hearing aids.  Jealous, but we’ll save lots of $ on the surround sound:)

The lady at the Hearing Aid Company was telling Hubby about the degree her hearing aid geekiness goes.  She carries a noise detector around so she can log how loud places are, so she if someone says “Olive Garden” she can look up how loud it is on a Friday night.  Geeky!  But were it not for her and her type, I’d be writing on a white board to communicate with Hubby.

Now, what concerns me, is that there is medication to control obsessions now.  Little Johnny gets too intrigued by how the brain works that he can’t focus on colors and let’s medicate the poor thing.  My 16 year old can’t spell green, but was the world champion robot builder for three years running.  I could probably medicate him to get him more focused on spelling, but what parts of the brain would I be shutting down?  I don’t know, but really.  Have kids gotten that much worse in the last 30 years?  I think things have changed in the last thirty years.  Every thing but school.  My preschoolers are computer literate, used to constant electronic entertainment, in the next few years they are going to go to school and be taught in a very similar manner I was over 30 years ago.  I will not be surprised when I start getting the phone calls about how out of control they are. They are not out of control, they are BORED!  I will not be medicating them. at least not to help them focus.  I can’t focus and I’m doing just fine.

I cannot fudge it like some people.

I am blindish.

I was blindish before I learned to read.

Or write.

Or drive.

Or work.

I cannot see faces 10 feet away.

But I am blessed.

I saw well enough to learn to read and write.

I can see the faces of my babies and my friends.

I have the ability to see well enough to do the work that I need to do.

I can drive.

There are a billion people in this world who don’t have access to corrective lenses.

They cannot see the faces of their children.

They cannot see the faces of their friends.

They cannot see well enough to work and earn a living for their family.

In 23 days I will be healed, with the help of lasers, robots, doctors, medicines, and several thousand dollars.

Let’s hear it for the geeks!

It will be my miracle.

In 24 days, I will gather up my several pair of spectacles.

I will carefully package them up.

I will send them away.

And if the internet doesn’t lie.

Someone in this world will receive their miracle.

Sight.