It Was Grandma Barbara's Birthday...

...but we got the present!

Ok, the plan was to leave at the butt crack of dawn on Friday to head to Clovis for Grandma Barbara's birthday with a minor detour through LA to go get Tenley's passport. However, Jeff's new server at work decided to have an identity crisis on Thursday afternoon, and on Friday at 6pm Tenley and I were still at home watching Dora waiting for Daddy to get home from his non-existent non-day off. I figured that we weren't going to go...but we were...we just decided to leave at 5am on Sat. Ugh. It actually turned out to be a great time for making the trip, and the Tenster politely slept most of the way there.

We arrived and visited with Jeff’s sister, Beth, and brother in law, Bill, got the recap on the previous nights party, feasted on leftover birthday cake and started making plans for the day. Then, while Tenley was distracted outside by Charlie the dog, Jeff and I made our escape. It was a serious escape attempt: Tenley would be staying overnight at her grandparent’s house, and Jeff and I would be a couple blocks away at the Hampton Inn, and we had no intention of being seen until after church on Sunday morning. If we hope to take an adults-only vacation this fall and leave Tenley with Grandma Barbara, it’s only fair to start getting her used to the idea well in advance.

So there we were with a whole afternoon and night to ourselves. We were giddy with excitement- it was hard to narrow down the list of possible Tenley-free activities to something do able.

We started with a proper English afternoon tea in Old Towne Clovis. It was in an old Victorian house with little round tables draped with Battenberg lace table cloths and mismatched sets of china. It was the sort of place I could just see Tenley dipping her fingers in lemon curd and finger-painting the table cloth, or examining the cream pitcher in minute detail (as she spilled it all over herself and the floor) for several minutes and then chucking it and hitting the bride-to-be at the next table right in the head. We immediately decided we were not taking her there until she could understand “sit and behave like a lady”.

Then we headed off to get Jeff a haircut and me a pedicure. An hour later Jeff’s hair was tidied up (although we agreed that she was a little timid and could have thinned the back and top more) and my pigs shimmered in OPI’s “Dress to Empress” with pretty daisies on the big toe.
With that we decided it was time for a nap, and went and checked into our room and got two hours of uninterrupted shut eye. When the alarm went off we could have gone right on sleeping, but we decided that a movie and dinner sounded better.

Well, we missed the showing of V for Vendetta but we did something even better: we spent an hour wandering around the Borders...just looking at magazines and books... listening to CD’s....and going nowhere near the children’s section. The words “Tenley, no! Put that down!” were not uttered once. We actually bought a couple magazines to read back at the hotel.

Then we were faced with an incredibly difficult decision: where to have a childless dinner. Eventually we settled on the Cheesecake Factory. There was a brief 30 minute wait which we passed sitting at the bar sipping cocktails. We sat at a table for 2, and we didn’t have to move the sugar caddy, silverware, butter and candle to the farthest side of the table or floor. We chatted with the nice couple next to us who were celebrating their 18th anniversary, lingered over our food, and had dessert.

We missed the next show of V for Vendetta, so we went back to our hotel read our magazines and enjoyed having “couple time”! Everything was great until about 2 am when I busted in on Jeff using the bathroom and began vomiting in the sink. Apparently dinner tasted good but actually wasn’t good. Jeff confessed that he didn’t feel so great either, and I started feeling much better after I reviewed my dinner.

By morning we were fine, and we joined the rest of the family at the Orbit Cafe for breakfast. After we arrived we discovered that it had been no picnic at the Park homestead either: Tenley was really well behaved but refused to take a nap and wouldn’t go to sleep until 11:00pm. She then decided to get up at 3:30 am...so Grandma & Grandpa got to get up too, and Aunty Beth and Uncle Bill were jarred awake by the screaming as well. Needless to say, Grandma & Tenley slept through church.

So, it was really fabulous to have 20 hours all to ourselves, and Grandma & Grandpa considered our first attempt at leaving Tenley alone overnight marginally successful! We won’t be able to repeat the experiment in May, because we’ll be on a cruise...but we’re looking forward to our next attempt in June!

Red Letter Day Remembered

It was a year ago today that things got really exciting. A little after 9 in the morning, my cell phone rang and it was my agency calling to tell me the stork had been sighted, and our referral could come at any time. (Yazmine was giving me a clue, I was just too obtuse to get it at the time) I called Jeff at work to tell him the good news, and Meg and I trotted off to Monclair plaza for some shopping, and then to downtown Claremont for lunch. Having bought Tenley’s first pair of shoes and indulged in a little dessert at the ice cream shop, we were heading home when my cell rang. It was my agency again. In point of fact, it was the director of my agency calling to tell me I was a Mom. I veered across two lanes of traffic and whipped into the nearest parking lot so I could write down the details. I was glad Meg was there- it was so much more fun to share the moment with someone- I think I would have been very disappointed to have been alone...it also helped that she reminded me to put the car in park before I hit the building. We called Jeff- who was stunned- and then we sat there overwhelmed and weeping with surprise and joy. Neither my Mom nor Jeff’s parents could be reached, and for once it was my Dad who got to hear the good news first. Tina was still on maternity leave, delighted to be among the first to know, and happily got out her “What to Expect the First Year” book and converted Tenley’s height and weight from the metric and figured out which percentiles she was in. Jeff and I celebrated by buying the furniture for the nursery and dining at the Panda Inn which was where we had dinner after our first meeting with our agency.

So, a year later Meg and I got back in the CRV and headed for Montclair plaza again- this time with Tenley in tow. Our destination was the JC Penney portrait studio so we could have Ten’s 18 month pictures taken. Our appointment was at 11:10, and if we had been taken on time we might have gotten more than the 6 pictures we managed before the Tenster was done. She was so good during the long wait, but it was windy and her allergies were bugging her so by the time we actually took the pictures she was tired and clingy. Still 2 of the 6 were really good and a 3rd was ok.

Tenley fell asleep as we cruised down the freeway a couple off ramps to downtown Claremont. We got lucky and found a parking place within a block of Aruffo’s Italian Cafe, and they had a nice spot by the window where Ten could continue to slumber in her stroller while Meg and I relived last year’s yummy lunch at this spot. Then we strolled up to Tattle Tales where Meg had bought the shoes, and picked up some cute orange barrettes to complement Tenley’s summer wardrobe. The next stop was, of course the ice cream shop for a little dessert.

Then we left and went to THE parking space at the insurance office where I sat on the phone and got the details about my new daughter. We commandeered a nice lady to take a picture of the three of us to commemorate the occasion.

Meg summed the whole thing up perfectly while we were at lunch: it’s yesterday and forever. It feels like Tenley has always been here- we search old high school memories for where she was although we know she was not even a thought, and yet it feels like it was just yesterday that we walked these same paces and cried tears of joy as we found out about the new life that was becoming a part of our family....but it’s been a whole year.

...we close our eyes and the world has turned around again...we close our eyes and another year has come and gone...
~Oingo Boingo

TAGGED! Again!

Me, the brunette and Meg (as in Aunty Meg the Cleaning Natzi and Sky Waitress), having had one too many drinks and waay too good a time on New Year's Eve.

ACK! I got tagged again!! This time I only have to tell you 6 weird things about myself, and then I have to tag others.

So here it is: 6 things you probably never wanted to know about me!





1. I have 2 major pet peeves. The first is girls/women who wear chipping peeling cracked nail polish and don't either take it off or fix it. It just looks trashy & tacky. It says "I don't pay attention to detail, and I am lax in my grooming habits". If you can't be bothered with so trivial a detail, either don't wear it or stick to clear. This goes for both fingers and toes. The second one is a biggie: people who can't use the English language correctly. I'm not talking about the foreign tourist or immigrant that has made an effort and is doing the best that they can. I'm talking about people born and raised here who say things like "I don't got none." People using double negatives, incorrect prepositions, and improper tense just drives me up the wall. I have actually corrected complete strangers out in public.

2. I am a serious "mellow mouth". The red sauce at Del Taco is as far as I go. There are no red pepper flakes, chili peppers of any kind or bottles of Tabasco in my house. I think it started when I was 3: my dad was eating a quesadilla and I asked for a bite. He examined it closely, selected a spot, and told me to bite right there. Right there was a huge pool of Tabasco. I screamed in pain for 10 minutes. My father laughed his ass off. My mother almost killed him. Ever since then, no spicy food.

3. I am afraid of heights. I can climb up a ladder/sttep staircase/big rock, but I start getting nervous near the top and coming down is always a problem for me. I bought Jeff a hot air balloon ride for his birthdayone year, and I did go with him, but I had a death grip on the basket the whole time. You will never see me skydive or bungee jump.

4. I'm a movie person. I don't watch much TV, but I love movies. Especially musicals, comedies and B rated monster/sci-fi/horror flicks from the 50's-70's...you know...the MST3K kind. I'm the sort of annoying person who quotes lines from movies. Jeff is this way too, and it makes us a lethal team at Taboo. As I am falling asleep at night, I replay movies in my mind and it lulls me into dreamland. We have well over 300 DVD's in our house.

5. I grind my teeth when I sleep. I guess I'm getting better as I get older, but it's so loud that when I was younger I used to wake my Mom up in the next room. I had to wear a (very expensive) custom resin mouth piece to bed for years...and I actually ground so hard that I shattered 3 of them. Jeff has performed experiments on me in the night, and says that if I'm in "grinding mode" it's movement that triggers it- like if he rolls over or one of the cats jumps on the bed.

6. I was on "The Dating Game". Yep, it's true. I was 16. My friends Derek and Loren went in to audition and they listed me on a page of their application as a potential candidate. I auditioned and got on! I was Bachelorette #3...and I won! My date's name was Russ Selwyn and he was from Montana. Not my type, and I don't think I was his either. We went to NY City. Russ took off to go see some relatives on Long Island, and our chaperone, Lisa, gave me her friend's ID and we went club hopping.

Ok, now I have to brutalize 6 more of you out there...hmmmm...

Julie

Shanna

Elizabeth

Donna (aka Becca)

Anna

Donna

Here are the rules:
1) Now you list 6 weird facts about yourself and post them on your blog and in my comments section. Then tag 6 more people.
2) Leave a comment in their comments section telling them they are tagged and to go to your blog.
Have Fun!!

Happy Easter!

Tenley visits with the Easter Bunny!

How To Tye Dye Your Kid

Step 1: Decide that every kid, regardless of age, should get to dye Easter Eggs.
Step 2: Search vainly for "Shake an Egg", give up and just buy the plain old Paas dyes.
Step 3: Wisely decide to only hard boil 6 eggs and use 4 of the 9 colored dye tabs.
Step 4: Place vinyl mat on floor, wish it was bigger. Set bowl of eggs out along with dyes.
Step 5: Strip child to diaper. Briefly consider putting baggies on hands, but realize it will only cause a tantrum. Have Dad get video camera.
Step 6: Place child on mat, get egg dipper, and demonstrate how to dunk eggs.
Step 7: Watch as child throws dipper out of her way, and begins plunking her hands into the dye.
Step 8: Hand child an egg, and encourage her to plunk it into the dye.
Step 9: See the glee in child's eyes as she realizes that a) eggs break when dropped into the dye, and b) that the dye splashes out of the cups.
Step 10: Witness the child's shreiks of joy as she rubs her hands into the spilled dye and begins rubbing it all over her chest.
Step 11: Repeat steps 8-10.
Step 12: Look on in horror as child grabs one of the now broken, half dyed eggs and begins smashing it to bits and googing the yolk through her little blue & purple fingers.
Step 13: Spring into action with Clorox wipes as the multi colored kid takes her show on the road by first kneeling in the spilled purple, and then walking through the teal and running around on the mat and then the white kitchen floor.
Step 14: Call it a holiday and have Daddy dump "Rainbow Bright" in the bath while you begin damage control in the kitchen.
Step 15: Give up after 15 minutes of scrubbing.
Step 16: Admire the 5 remaining poor splotchy, ugly, cracked eggs with love and pride, the way only a Mother looking at her child's first art project can.

Check www. jeffandmichelle.net for more egg dying pix and the upcoming holiday!

Tub Time Tinging

After days of hearing Grandma Suzie complain about seeing nothing but bashed in cars, Tenley decided to help out by playing some bath time music so we could post about it. Michelle bought Tenley this xylophone that floats in the bath tub. Tenley seems to like anything musical so this was going to be a good toy. Sure enough, Tenley jumped right on that xylophone and started banging out ringing sounds. You can see from the pictures that she is enjoying herself! She didn't seem to like it floating in the tub since she had to chase it around to make music. She much preferred the side of the tub position where she could have maximum xylophone effectiveness.

So, if you are a very, very busy toddler with a new toy that you've been playing with for ten minutes, what do you do next? That's right...you rip it apart. It took Tenley ten seconds to have the metal pieces off and the foam pieces ripped apart and started banging other things with the mallets. It took even less time for Beeps (our youngest cat) to take off with one of the foam pieces and start chewing it up. Oh well, so much for new toys! Luckily the xylophone goes back together and Tenley can make music another day in another bath!

Beware of Vaccuums

Tenley has long been a participant in the toddler game of "What Common Household Object Am I Afraid of Today?" Her favorite object to be wary of is the Vaccuum Cleaner. She cries everytime we run it. We either have to hide her in the other room and distract her while we vaccuum or take her somewhere else entirely.

In an effort to make her less afraid and try to embrace the fabulous device known as the vaccuum, we purchased her a vaccuum of her own. It has eyes and a smiling mouth and talks to her while she pushes it around. It makes all the appropriate vaccuum sounds and Tenley seems to like it very much. Just look how nicely she cleaned the room up. Doesn't even look like our place anymore. We hope that this new toy will usher in a new era of mutual acceptance between Tenley and the vaccuum. Only time will tell us the answer.

Seriously Bad Car-ma

To the Rat Bastards who broke into my car and stole my stereo:

I realize that hoodlums such as yourselves probably do not regularly read the blog of a nice 30 something couple and their Chinese daughter, but in case you stumble across this in your search for porn on the internet...

It was damn inconvenient of you to ram a screwdriver through the passenger window of my car and then rifle through my glove box and steal my stereo. I’m fairly certain you were abusing some illegal substance at the time, or planning to use your ill gotten gains to purchase some illegal substance to fill your empty and meaningless lives. You’re clearly not the brightest crayons in the box, and I think you’re going to be disappointed with your spoils:


1. What about a 2000 CRV with dents and scratches, the old body style and lowest trim grade says “there’s something worth stealing in here”?

2. You left a greasy nose print on the drivers side window where you planted your face to look inside for booty... I would think the car seat and cheesy free-giveaway vinyl Enfamil diaper bag on the front seat would have told you you were barking up the wrong tree.

3.Clearly you are not up with technology. If you were, you would have known that the stereo was from 1999. You can buy the current model at Circuit City for less than $300, and that means that mine probably isn’t worth a Ben Franklin. Also, it was a Pioneer- better than a JVC, but hardly a Bose, Alpine or a Blaupunkt. You missed the boat: if you had pried up the speaker covers, you would have found the Sonys under the Honda factory covers. Not only that, you left the 12 disk changer located under the passenger seat which, by the way, nobody makes a deck that will run anymore.

4.You took my $7 Target sunglasses, all my change, the stereo, and the 12 pack of Coke Zero. But you left movie tickets and my insurance card, which I’m sure could have at least brought you the greenbacks for a dime bag (maybe an 8 ball) if you took it to East LA.

5. Do you realize I just had those windows tinted??? It took me 5 years of whining to get my husband to remember to set aside the $200 and make the appointment at the tint place whose name and location I think he guarded like the secret 11 herbs and spices found in KFC. I may have to wait for my 40th birthday to get the new window tinted to match. Thank God that Carolyn (who Jeff works with) and her husband John owned an auto glass place for years and will fix it for me tomorrow for an incredibly reasonable sum. I’m seriously grateful, because I don’t know how long I could drive around with the white trash window by Hefty.

6. Speaking of which....HELLO??? IT’S RAINING!!! Could you not have done this when it was dry???

7. I would, however, like to thank you for leaving my CDs, the almost $300 stroller in the back and the $500 car seat. I’d be really pissed if I had to replace those.

8.However, I am really pissed off that you tore up my dash getting the worthless thing out. It’s going to cost me more to fix the dash than the window, tint, and new stereo combined.

I would like to mention that you also hit my next door neighbor’s car last night too, and that while you broke his window, took his stereo (without ruining his dash), and all his CDs; you left his $60 sunglasses and didn’t check the trunk where he had over $1000 in tools. Oh, and if he ever finds out who you are, he’s gonna beat the snot out of you.

Never Leave 2 Women Alone...

Left to Our Own Devices...

It's a bad time of year for Jeff. The Heritage Festival is on at Disneyland, and that means he's working every weekend from March through May. The good news is the little bit of extra money, the bad news is that it leaves Ten and I to amuse ourselves 6 days a week...and that usually costs what Jeff makes at D-land and then some!!

Fortunately, this week has brought fair skies and balmy weather, and with Aunty Meg gone for most of the week it meant that Ten and I were cheap dates and spent most of our time at the local parks. As a result, Tenley has added the swings to her repertoire of park fun, and actually requests them frequently as opposed to her first 7 months at home when she began crying whenever we would put her in one. We also took bread and went to Fairmount Park to feed the ducks and geese. I tried to get pictures, but that's hard to do when the toddler you're trying to photograph is velcroed to you in fear because the geese are bigger than she is.

Today, however, Jeff was going to be gone for a good 12 hours and the park just wasn't going to cut it. So I was given some "mad money" and Tenley and I decided to follow Daddy behind "The Orange Curtain". Our first destination was the OC Swap Meet at the fair grounds, where for the paltry $2 admission fee I got lots of exercise and loaded up on locally grown fruits, veggies and flowers for a fraction of what I pay at Vons.
Then we detoured into the actual fairgrounds themselves to visit Centennial Farm, which is a working 4 acre farm for educational purposes open to the public 7 days a week. I knew Tenley would love it, and she did. The first thing we ran into was a Jersey cow and her calf. I lifted Ten up to pet the cow and feel her nose, and she giggled with delight. Then the calf toddled over and since he was Ten's height I set her down so she could reach into the corral herself. Apparently the calf thought she was pretty nifty too, because he started licking her hands, and then stuck his head through the bars and started licking her head. My kid now had cow snot in her hair, and she couldn't have been happier. It was bloody murder to get her to leave that pen and see the other animals. The llamas were uninterested in everyone, and the oxen were interested, but unable to get near the public.(Tenley was unhappy about this: those were cows, and better yet, cows with big horns. Why couldn't she crawl under the barricade and go play with them??)

Tenley didn't like the way the sheep and swine felt, but she was facinated with the litter of piglets. She also loved the calf corral where there were 6 little Holsteins who were also happy to lick her to death. Eventually I coaxed her to the sink and got her washed up and steralized, and almost made it out of the farm when the moo-ing began. Tenley ran back to the cows and every time they would moo she would stare in wide eyed wonder and then shreik with joy while clapping her hands and bouncing up and down until they would moo again. This went on for a good 10 minutes before I forced her into the stroller and we headed for the car and the more civilized destination of South Coast Plaza.

We started on the "Crystal Court" side of the Plaza where Tenley found the baby carousel in the picture. While I picked out a new watch band in the Fossil store, she pointed and grunted at the carousel. As soon as I was finished I took her over so she could go for a spin on one of the toddler sized horses. She picked the white one and we revolved very slowly to "A Whole New World" as Tenley's steed bobbed up and down about 6-8 inches in each direction. She sat there completely stoic, but when the ride was over and I told her it was time to go; she gripped the pole shook her head and started to whimper. I asked the nice attendant if we could just go again as I fished another dollar out of my pocket. She got down willingly after the second ride and we crossed the sky bridge to the main part of the mall for lunch and to run a couple quick errands. No trip to the mall is complete without a visit to the balloon purveyor, and today Tenley selected a large clear one with a green flower in it.

We left the mall and went to the center across the street to get Mommy some new Birkenstocks which Grandma Suzie bought me for my birthday (thanks Mom!! I really needed 'em!), and then began our long drive home, aka nap time for Tenley. A long and exciting day for the Tenster finally at an end.

Home Stinky Home

So we got home and I was in the kitchen putting the fruit in the fridge thinking "Why does the house smell like crap? We emptied the cat box this morning!" As soon as I finished I checked the likely culprit, Tenley, and discovered that there was indeed a gift in her diaper. It was bath time anyway. So I went in and began running her bath, and then went to her room to turn the heat on. When I opened the door the smell hit me, and I found the source: poor Beeps had apparently snuck into Ten's room this morning and had been locked in there for a good 8 hours!! Poor kitty!! No food, no water, no box. She had vomited at least once, and there were 2 quite stinky puddles o' poop on the floor. I felt so bad. Usually we keep Ten's door closed for this very reason, and neither of us had counted heads before we left. Fortunately, Beeps is no worse for the wear and was back to her usual self after a snack and a long drink followed by a bath from the Smudge. Air freshener, Resolve, and Nature's Miracle fixed Tenley's room right up.

Be Careful What You Wish For...

What was it? 2 Posts ago that I was lamenting Tenley's cranky attitude & lack of teeth?? Well, we thought she was getting another one, but we were wrong: she's cutting four. Yep, 4 big swollen spots with little white dots where 2 Canines, an Insisor and 1 Bi-cuspid are working their way in. We've actually found 2 more spots that feel hard and swollen, but no visible sign of the tooth yet. I guess that explains the sudden loss of appetite, cranky attitude and extra long naps!! Sorry Ten- my fault!! I wished it on you!!

Mommy Gets an Upgrade

Every so often the time comes that no matter how comfortable you think you are in life, you just need to shake things up- and hopefully for the better. The last upgade in my life was a group project and answers to the name of Tenley. But recently I got several smaller upgrades (read: not dramatically life changing, but still exciting) that made me feel better.

Upgrade #1: Notice the tinted windows on my car. When Jeff got his Accord in the spring of 2000, the first thing he did was run out and get the windows tinted. He said we'd do mine in a couple of months. So, "a couple of months" turned out to be Feb. of 2006 (about 70 months) but hey! I really wanted to do it before Ten came home so it would shade her and keep the car cooler, but that didn't quite happen- however it did make it by my deadlines of "before the car has 100,000 miles (-4,000) and "before Tenley goes to college" (-14 years). I have to say I love it. It does keep the car really cool (not so good at this time of year) and it made it look so...new. It also shades Ten's little face, but lets her see the passing world way better than the Babies R Us roll up shades did.

Upgrade #2: The cell phone. I had the old Nokia that you could change the face plate on for 6 years (actually I had 2 5165s in a row), and I traded it in for the 3rd generation of that phone 2 years ago when the network went digital & my phone was still analog. They were the non-flip, practically free with contract, bottom of the line phones...and I loved them. Yes, I was mocked by others with their itty bitty silver flips with color screens & polyphonic ringtones as they played video games and assigned everyone their own ringback tone; but I liked the simplicity, sturdiness and the normal keypad layout of my Nokias. The truth is that I don't like those tiny flips- I always feel like I'm going to snap them in half when I answer them, so I was fine with the current Nokia, but I wasn't sure it was going to survive another 2 years of Tenley pitching it down the aisle at Target when she got bored playing with it or the call she was attempting to Sweden could not be completed as dialed. So Jeff trotted me over to the Verizon store to see if there was anything I deemed acceptable. I did find a nice industrial-like-non-flip Kyocera that has the walkie talkie feature (which would be great if anyone else I knew had it...). But the only other phone I liked shocked me: the Razor. It's a micro-thin flip, but it still felt sturdy in my hand and the keys weren't laid out all funky. As a bonus, it has voice activated calling and a wireless headset. I was stunned. It even came in pink!! Then I saw the price tag and said "NO". But my technology loving hubby decided that for once, I instead of him, should have the really expensive fancy phone. We made the mistake of waiting to purchase it until after Valentine's day, and by then the pink ones were really gone. However, we were heading to Clovis to see Jeff's parents, and there were still a few left in the middle of the state...so I got one!! Bonus: it was $200 cheaper there too!!! So now I have a really fancy pink Razor phone that I don't use half the features on and I still downloaded the midi version of Hava Nagila for my ringtone. (Note: not 2 weeks ago Jeff upgraded himself from his low line Nokia to the way high end Treo, so he once again has the much fancier more expensive cell phone.)

Upgrade#3: the bag. It's a genuine Louis Vuitton Papillon 26, and I've been lusting for one for a good 5 years now. It was a (way way over the top) birthday gift from my awsome hubby. It's true that I am a purse whore, but I am not a purse snob- I like cheap denim purses from Target too. But I just loved the mini-duffel look of the Papillion, and the fact that it comes in the traditional LV brown monogram means that it will never be out of style. I've been trying to carry it a little bit, but I think it will get more wear when Ten is out of diapers. I know alot of people think the brown momogram is ugly, and that all LV's are overpriced (they are. But so are Dooneys, Kate Spades, Diors, YSLs, Guccis, & Fendis to name a few)...but I really like that's it's a classic and I can carry it forever.

3 tiny little upgrades, and suddenly I feel hip & trendy again as opposed to old & frumpy. Soon my Razor will be passe and I'll be annoyed that it's so dark in my car at night...but for right now I feel like a million bucks.

PS: If you live in So Cal & need your windows tinted, the guys at Tint Works Plus in Diamond Bar 909-598-8468 are fast, affordable, and they do a great job which they guarantee! They did Jeff's car and have done 4 cars for Uncle Kev- no peeling or bubbling ever! Also, if you're a purse whore like me (but also on my budget) check out www.bagborroworsteal.com you can rent designer bags for as long as you like!! It's a great way to get that Juicy Couture diaper bag without schucking out the $275!