You wish you were a Maghanoy...

2009-07-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Big News

Okay, well... I've been working on setting up a new site for awhile but what I haven't mentioned is that I created the site awhile ago because I've been blogging about a secret.... BIG SECRET! Something life changing... and not what you are all thinking :) So bookmark my new blog and head over there to find out what the HECK I'm talking about.

http://notoriousmle.com

P.S. Scroll down to the July 20th post for "BIG SECRET" reveal.

2009-07-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sweet Xinjiang...

Emily pointed out that we were at Karakul lake just last year. Sigh.

Can I point out that this lake was a million times more beautiful than this picture?

I think I might need some kebabs and hand-pulled noodles to soothe my "I wish I was on vacation at Karakul Lake angst."

2009-07-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

A-mazing.

NO words necessary.

2009-07-15T22:06:00.001-07:00

4 in the morning

Let's talk about TV for a change... you know because I never talk about TV. How I Met Your Mother is probably one of my favorite shows right now. Besides being hysterically funny it generally applies to my life right now. My friends are getting married, we're trying to settle into our careers and uh, we're getting old. Last season there was a great episode called the "Murtaugh list" when all the characters realize they are too old to enjoy some of the stuff form their early 20s. This title references Danny Glover as Murtaugh when he says "I"m too old for this shiz".

Anyways, was that set up lenghty enough?

I loved going to see Harry Potter at midnight with all the lightening bolt tattooed freaks. The movie was great. We laughed we cried etc. but I didn't get to sleep until 4 am. at night. We ended up stuck in some kind of weird parking structure traffic for an hour. Arnold was swearing a lot... and he almost never swears. It was not fun. I had to work today and it was exhausting. This morning was horrible. HORRIBLE.

When I saw Lisa today she said "Midnight movies are totally Murtaughed".

Agreed, Lisa. Agreed.

2009-07-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'm coming for you at midnight Harry.

2009-07-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Promises are Promises - NKOTB Round 2 Pt. 2

Everyone has a crazy friend. You know the one you have to talk out of bad ideas constantly. The one who instigates the streaking and cusses out random people on the street. The dirty joke friend, the drives like a maniac friend. Well... Renee is that friend to me. And if I am the wild one among my circle of friends, Renee always coaxes me into new heights of libertine decadence. I promised more New Kids dish and today I'm turning over the blog to her to tell the real story of our shennanigans at the Concord Pavillion last week. Take it away Renee...

It's Mac Tonight!
See what happens when a crazy hot Latina finds herself at the feet of her teenage heart-throb.

Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it karma.

I call it the happiest night of my life.

But let me back up. Things started out pretty normal (me running late to Em's, Em's well-intentioned but lackluster navigation skills, Em's mis-guided tour of Concord, a muy deli

taqueria pit-stop, undecipherable hand signals from Pavillion parking lot attendees...) You know, normal.

Soon enough, we three were bopping and singing along to our favorite NKOTB songs, proving no matter how old you are, girls just want to have fun. But then about half-way through the set, Em's spidey senses went off. Something was afoot.

She noticed that concert staff were bringing in tables into the lower level a few yards from where we sat. And when, the opening notes of "Single" rang out and spotlights showed the boys from Boston snaking their way up the stage right aisle toward the lower level, Em, in a rare moment of f-it-all impulse, took charge and lead us in a sprint towards them. (I swear, I never do stuff like that, it was some kind of out-of-body experience.) Soon she and I were standing a mere feet away from Donnie. I was like, "Where's Joey?!!" And Em pointed toward the center and screamed, "He's over there!"

I ran back like my feet were on fire avoiding the arms and elbows of other fans pressed against the guard rail separating Level 1 and Level 2. As I came dead center, lo, and behold, the seas parted revealing a three foot opening in the fangate. And in the middle of that parting, like an angel, stood my beloved Joey MacIntyre. Seeing my window quickly closing, I pulled myself pommel-horse style up onto the guard railing, reached out the Joey and screamed, "I love you!!!" Mid-verse, he pointed directly at me and smiled! (This is where it got dicey - Renee got the crazy eye, the look she gets right before I have to prevent her from doing something illegal. I was ready to restrain her at this point. Seriously, I grabbed her arm and braced my feet.)

I about died! But then, imagine my utter awe when he locked eyes with me and proceeded to walk over tables, chairs and other fans towards ME! I pommelled the guard rail again but this time came to straddle it just as Joey grasped my hand and hoisted himself onto a guard rail alongside me!

And for what seemed like an eternity, Joey held my arm for balance and dear life as he continued to croon to the frenzied audience.

For the record, this is the closest I have ever gotten to a celebrity. I could have reached up and touched his face. When I was a girl I would spend HOURS rearranging my New Kids posters and then staring at them moonily while listening to Please don't go girl. Never, ever in my life could I have dreamed that I would get that close to one of my first crushes. It was surreal.

I wildly searched the crowd at his feet for Em, pleading that someone, anyone was getting this moment on film. Because I couldn't believe it myself! Was I dreaming? Was this really happening to me?

And then, above the throng, as a body guard helped Joe Mac down from the railing and back to safety, I heard Em's excited screams of "I got it! I got it!", I knew my life's mission as an NKOTB fan was complete.
So Joey, if you're out there, thank you for making this 35-year-old-going-on-13's mental book of memories a whole lot sweeter...

2009-07-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

Parents do the cutest things

Look at my sweet GAD showing off his big accomplishment!

2009-07-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Oops we did it again...

New Kids on the Block played the Concord Pavilion last night! I did not tire of telling the girls that I also have played the Concord Pavilion! Joey sang Popsicle in a topless hat! Someone tried to run Renee over! It was generally as much fun as the first time, with a little mayhem thrown in. We went with Renee so this time we really took it to another level of crazy... more on that to come. Until then, some general notes...

1) To stupid opening act Jesse McCartney. Yeah, you can sing and you have catchy songs but I am almost 3o now and not interested in your little boy antics. Cussing does not give you street cred and for the love of all things please DO NOT shout out to the crowd in Concord "What up San Fran." There is just so much wrong with that... CONCORD. YOU ARE IN CONCORD. Douche.

2) Jabawockeez dance crew was the 1st opening act. They were amazing. I heart them so much now and am inspired to start dancing again. They're from Sac too, that means I can also become an awesome B-girl, right?

2009-07-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

Last year...We were in Xinjiang at this time last year, it was incredibly calm and peaceful there. I've never visited a place that is predominately muslim and as you all know we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The Uighur people treated us very nicely, they were incredibly hospitable. The sad thing is how badly they are treated by the government, you do not need to speak Chinese to see that there was extreme discrimination and mistreatment of the Uighurs. It makes me so sad to see what's happening there now, but I can't say that I'm suprised. You can only beat people down for so long.

2009-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

Classic Little Brother

Anyone who knows my family knows that my little brothers are both very funny... and we watched a lot of TV as kids. My parents taped Disney movies for us on VHS which we would watch repeatedy. Re-peat-edly. Sometimes they didn't do a good job though... I didn't see the first 10 minutes of Star Wars till it was re-released in 1995. But I digress...Witness the following which I pulled off Kat's blog. Loves it!

So today I went to the zoo 10 minutes from Irvine with my friend Kristen
and one of the things they had there was a mini enclosure thing where you could
ride an elephant. And I was so sad watching this elephant, who walked in the
same circle ALL DAY practically with no breaks, with that hideous lei on its
head.

As I'm recapping to Wes about my day, I was telling him how sad it was
seeing this elephant and... count on Wes to make me feel better hahaa he was so
cute I had to post about it...

Wes: The elephant probably didn't care cause he gets paid anyway
Kat: wait... what? paid? uh.... it lives there, it's stuck there
Kat: --ALL DAY" -sad face-
Wes: um, duh, he gets paid
Kat: What are you talking about??
Wes: Elephants get paid in peanuts dummy
Kat: uh.. i.. what...
Wes: Peanuts are way better than money for elephants
Kat: hahahah I can't believe you just said that
Wes: I can't believe you didn't know elephants got paid in
peanuts
Kat: -laughing-
Wes: I mean... Haven't you watched Dumbo??

2009-07-06T10:11:00.001-07:00

While we were out...

Nutty went for an extended stay to Chez McCandless and Casa Comparini. They treated her well with trips to the river and extended play dates. She has been despondent and freakishly well behaved since we took her home yesterday. I knew she would have an emotional affair with Sade and Hernan behind our backs! Traicionera!

2009-07-03T17:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Portland,

I don't come visit you to experience weather in the 90s. Please stop it now!

2009-07-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Just cause...

This is a terribly blurry picture but they are both so adorably goofy I just couldn't resist.

2009-07-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

And the cow jumped over the moon...

Right now we're in Seattle visiting family and friends. Alanna is a friend of mine from our PDX year. Alanna is superloveable for many reasons, not the least of which are her foodie passions. She is very serious about food, but not snobby. The first day I met her she took me out to an all you can eat sushi bar. As we sat down she told me the following.

I want you to know that I am going to eat a lot. I am going to MAXIMIZE my food capacity so I don't want you to feel like you can't eat in front of me. I am probably
going to have to undo the top button on my pants after this meal.

Obviously, I have friend-loved Alanna ever since that first day. This week she's been taking us on a whirlwind culinary tour of Seattle. We have eaten pastries by someone who one the world baking contest in France, cuban sandwiches, gay cupcakes and the official white house candy. But if I have a clear food memory from this trip it will be Molly Moon ice cream. I know, I overuse this phrase, but truly it changed my gastronomic life.

2009-06-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

I love this...

All over Seattle's Capitol Hills District they have the basic step to numerous dances printed on to the sidewalk. This is the Rumba!

2009-06-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Butterfly, oh, oh that's old. Let me see you tootsie roll!

Okay, this song has little to do with the post but everytime I think Butterfly I hear it. Anyways, some of you might remember that during our last swim class experience I learned how to Butterfly... sort of. I mean, I can get myself across the pool (with great effort) but I'm not really sure if I'm doing it correctly. I fear that I look like one of those crazy people who do the crawl without putting their face in the water i.e. totally wrong. However, I'm getting really bored of doing freestyle laps in swim class so I decided to suck up my pride and try to do a lap of butterfly. And it went...

Well I got across the pool. Thanks to my newfound cardiovascular strength(thanks 1/2 marathon training!) I made it, but the whole time I was kind of tortured by the possibility that all the good swimmers were sniggering at my floppy butterfly. It's not really a subtle stroke. I was displacing A LOT of water. At the end of 25 looooooong meters I steadied myself for possible humiliation as I leaned up against the wall to re-catch my breath.

Then something wonderful happened.

The guy in the lane next to me opened his eyes wide and said "Ohmygosh. I was watching you under the water. That was hella cool." Charmed by his enthusiasm, flattery and impossibly adorable chicano accent I immediately went into girly 7th grader mode. "Ohmygosh, thank you so much, I'm not sure if I was doing it right." I think I might've even bit my thumb while I did gushed. I mean what else could I do? I'm a Bay Area girl and he said "Hella!"

Renewed by a strangers compliment I took a deep breath and butterflopped my way back to the other side.

2009-06-25T22:42:00.001-07:00

Wes called me today and said "Can you believe Michael Jackson died?"

And of course, no I can't. It's just too strange.

I went to SoCal today and saw that he died on the news in the Sacramento airport. Walking through the airport it seemed like everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at the screens. I of course did what any sensible person would do... I called my co-workers. Shauntay picked up the phone and said "I know we can't believe it either. We're totally on it right now." It's hard to get your head around the idea that someone so influential has died.

Thriller was one of the first music videos I remember seeing as a child. His influence on music and dance was just off the charts. Who in the world doesn't know a Michael Jackson song? Who hasn't tried to moonwalk? It seemed like he lived a crazy and tragic life. Hopefully he can find some peace and rest now.

2009-06-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Baby Boom

I kid you not, my aunt just sent me the following e-mail about my cousins.

Subject line: BABIESS!

Rommel & Mareavel due in Sept

Robert & Marissa due in Oct

RonRon & Jasmine due in Dec

Roderick & Veronica due in Jan

Whoa, that is 4 babies in 4 months. BABIESS! Indeed.

2009-06-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Misadventures in Tahoe

Every two years or so we get the pleasure of hanging out with our good friends Brie and Shelle. We met them when we lived in Portland and although they now live in Philly we still keep in touch. Even better... they come with perks! We see them when they come to their family house in Tahoe and we get invited too! But there's a catch... of course there is always a catch.

Brie and I are somewhat disaster prone. You know, the kind of people who would both forget their wallets on the same day while trying to rent a video. And then if that's not humiliating at all maybe one of us would knock over a big display on the way out of Blockbuster. (Hint: It wasn't Brie) I think that together Brie and I create a forcefield of misadventures that is strong enough to affect people around us.

Last time we went to Tahoe it snowed crazy hard. It was astoundingly beautiful; the first time I've been in Tahoe during a really heavy snow like that. The whole weekend was a winter wonderland until we needed to go home. It only took 12 people 2 hours to push our car up the road. And our car was the easiest! Needless to say Brie missed her flight.

This time we tried to go for a picnic and a hike. We ended up choosing a hike with mosquito swarms so intense that we ended up eating in their rental Kia with our sweatshirt hoods up while the little monsters taunted us through the windshield. Did I mention that before that we tried to visit a farmers market that wasn't open? Or that we never even found the hike we originally intended to take?

If I sound like I'm whining don't be fooled. The best part of hanging with Brie and Shelle is that they are always down for an adventure. When we hang out things seem to go wrong in spades but the weird moments: the champagne spilled in the spa, the foodstamp lunches and the snowdrifts always turn into memories that are a million times better than the best laid plans.

2009-06-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Everybody to the Limit - Weekend Edition

1) I made mayonnaise from scratch this weekend. I've wanted to do that ever since I read Julie and Julia. I can't believe how delicious it was. Plus one point for me.

2) I watched High school musical. Thankfully I still think it's kind of lame. Two point for me!

3) Today Arnold said "What are you and Nutella planning to do for me for Mother's Day?". I said I didn't remember what they had done for Mother's Day. Aww.. snap.

4) I found out that my Dad mis-dialed my phone number and ended up calling some stranger honey on the phone repeatedly until she hung up on him. 10 points for my Dad!

2009-06-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day!
When are you taking me on a trip to Siquijor Daddy?

2009-06-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Mystery Leg

I love my puppy but she is weird. WEIRD!

2009-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Tia Cecilia

This morning Arnold's aunt Cecilita passed away in Bogota, Colombia. Last week Carmen and her three sisters had made the trip to Bogota to say their goodbyes and help Cecilita cross over to the other side. Although I met her only once, she is the kind of lady who makes a strong impression. The oldest of six children, she was like many people in Colombia, the epitomy of strength in the face of adversity. When she and Carmen were in there 20s they were in a horrible bus accident. Carmen escaped with just a a dislocated shoulder. Cecilia was not so fortunate. Thrown from the bus with serious injuries; she was paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life. Anyone whose been to Latin America knows that life there is not kind to the wheelchair bound. Despite her physical limitations she managed to leave a bad marriage and raise her two sons as a single mother. Somewhere along the way she also started what Arnold affectionately dubbed the "Charismatic Catholic Empire". Arnold met his two closest friends Bill and Hernando when he lived in Cecilia's boarding house his first year in Bogota and the three of them swap stories about that time in their life with wide eyes.

May you rest in peace Cecilita. Your family will miss you but we know you will enjoy your new life on the other side.

2009-06-18T15:01:00.001-07:00

Holy Crap. I finally got on board with using google reader. It has changed my internet existence. I now deeply apologize to everybody for not having an RSS feed on this site. I'll figure out how to do that soon. In the meantime... SYTYCD Thursday! This time it's contemporary with Lacey and Kameron from Season 3. I love when you she throws herself against him and then somehow bounces off... crazy!

2009-06-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Swimming Update

For the most part swimming is going well. Last week we did something called the Cooper test. Luckily since I trained with Sacfit, I've done this before. The Cooper test is when you basically try to run/swim as far as you can in 12 minutes. It's a cardiovascular endurance test. The instructions they gave us for running where something like "If you did it right by the end you should feel slightly nasesous." Yay! Sounds like a fun weekend activity.

Wisely, our swim instructor did not give us those instructions because you can die in a pool if you get too tired. If you run too hard, you'll probably just pass out or barf.

Anyways, because Emily (my friend Emily, this isn't some weird third person thing) and I are both kind of competitive we tore it up in the pool. Well, we tore it up as much as the fastest remedial int. level swimmers can. I swam 575 meters! This got me into the "Good Fitness" ranking. 2nd highest ranking! I couldn't believe how much easier swimming is now after having run for so long. I guess there is something to this whole "excercise makes you heart stronger" malarkey.