Thanksgiving Crafts

A few weeks ago, I came across a craft when Lady Di and I were looking for soup recipes. So naturally, I enlisted someone more crafty than myself to help, Carly. So we had 26 mini turkeys to make to use for our name tags. And this funtivity includes: Candy Corn, Oreos, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Whoppers, and lots of frosting.

Here she is beginning to cut off the beaks for the noses (the candy corn).

This was our first attempt when we were making one complete turkey before moving on to the next. Obviously they were looking a little drunk. So we decided to regroup and start an assembly line.

Beginning with the Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Candy Corn for the arms, all lined up!

Slowly coming together but looking better since we had the assembly line.

The first completed turkey, decked out with eye balls and orange frosting feet. This one even had an attempt for a gobbler, but it was a little see through, so we decided to pass on that. But solid attempt.

All of the turkeys lined up to be placed on the table.

The finished product sitting on the table! By the end of the night, some turkeys were missing their candy corn (not because they fell off, but due to people needing a Candy Corn fix) and some were completely missing--a few people were a little hungry.

A Thanksgiving Treat

It's Thanksgiving and this week I randomly remembered a story that we had to write in 6th grade for the creative writing and was even a top 3 finalist. After tearing my room apart, I finally tracked it down and thought it would be fun to post, word for word (with the exception of a few grammatical updates) and include my sweet cover art. Without further ado...

Hi, I'm here to tell you about my "Great Escape or I'll be an Entree" story. First let me start from the top. My name is Glenn, the Turkey. I am going to be eaten for Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I can escape! I was born in a barn and I lived in a barn with my family. On every holiday, except Thanksgiving, the farmer goes to the corner store and buys a ham like normal people. But no, on Thanksgiving, they kill turkeys. My parents got killed, but this year the tradition stops--I'm going to escape!

So I made my plan; it goes as follows: get out of this barn as soon and as the door opens, I'm out of here. About an hour later, the door opens to feed us. Well, I have to make a choice, I can be free and starve or I can eat and then be free? I guess I'll take a few bites...then I'll be on my way to freedom. So I took a couple of bites, then I'll be on my way. I'm free!! Yeah Yeah Yeah! I'm free!! But I get as far as picket fence. The gate was closed. So I turned around and saw the farmer running so I ran behind the barn. What luck! An over-turned barrel saying, "Come in and hide." So I followed the talking barrel. The farmer looked around and said, "As soon as I find him, he is going to be my entree on the 26th!" and then he walked away.

My feathers were sticking up on the tips. Since I had so much time, I could use a good nap--to ease eagerness. For the next two hours, I napped. Let me remind you, it was the 24th, two days before the big feast, which was my date with death. As I am contemplating this awful thought, suddenly, a pig came into the barrel. I was so scared, I ran into the back of the barrel, shaking my white and dark meat away. "Oink, oink, oink," he said. "Get lost" I snapped, and he followed suit about 2 minutes later. My assertiveness took care of that pig! The clock is ticking, it is now, Wednesday the 25th, the day before Thanksgiving.

My last day of life! Let me tell you, it isn't easy. You have so much to do, in so little time; like plan your coffin in someone's stomach. I bet it isn't all that comfortable. As I was thinking about my friends and family who have been eaten before me, I spotted a hole in the wall. That was my ticket to the outside. So I ran as fast as my two webbed feet would take me. But just as I am tasting the sweet taste of freedom, my feathers get stuck. I was turned around and spotted the farmer, running towards me. I pushed as hard as I could. It was like God was telling me, "freedom has a price of losing feathers!" So I said to myself, "To be free with fewer feathers or not to be free? That is the question! I'll go...free!" What luck! I got out leaving just a few feathers behind.

"I'm free, I'm free! But my bottom hurts!" As I am waddling away as fast as I can, I hear a gun shot. Boom! "Yikes, he's shooting at me!" Hop! Hop! Hop! Hop! Boom! Then, like the angels were looking down on me, the farmer said, "Shoot, I'm out of bullets! I suppose I can use a hen and say it's a turkey."

Then and there I knew it wasn't my last day on earth. Not looking where I was going I ran into a tree log and did a flip in the air, and landed right on my face. Anyway, I now live with the wild turkeys. They al escaped like me and are all very nice indeed! Oh I am so happy now. Now, on every Thanksgiving, I remember the great escape from being the Thanksgiving feast!

Dated 11.22.98. Happy Thanksgiving!

Not a typical Friday night

On Friday night, Marko had a bean up his nose and took Lady Di, Lisa and myself up to the city to see Turnadot. For all of you scratching your heads thinking what the heck is that, that's what I've been saying, and well it's an opera.

For months Marko has been mentioning that we will be doing this and at the time November just seemed so far away. And before we knew it, November had snuck up on us and off we went to the SF Opera House last Frida night. I'll be honest, 3/4 of the car hemmed and hawed all the way up to the city, mostly through dinner, the walk from the restaurant to the Opera, when we got a glass of wine, when we sat down, and up until the lights dimmed, when Lady Di and I let out a collected, Hmph. And for those who have never been to one before, it's in all Italian (no my semester in Florence didn't really help) and they sing at a pitch I only reach while sneezing. And you know, I don't think I could even tell you what they were saying if they were singing in English, but, they do have subtitles that are projected above the stage--this would have come in handy if I had remembered my glasses.(Oopsies and yes, I am officially contemplating contacts...emphasis on the contemplating).

The Bonino's reception of this opera was pretty much evenly divided. Marko was all about it, like a pig in mud and Lisa seemed to have enjoyed herself. She was sitting to my left and was being the good daughter and tried to do her best to have a positive outlook on this experience and she was listening to the music and reading the subtitles (quite the contrast to me). Then there was Lady Di and me. I was squinting to read the subtitles and yet actively trying to fall asleep and then my mom was out like a light within 5 minutes.I was so jealous, all I wanted to do was catch some z's and Lady Di beat me to it. In fact, she proceeded to nap during the other two acts! Only really being chatty during the 20 minute intermissions (that's right intermissions--one in between each act--not my definition of efficiency). I leaned over to Marko during one of the intermissions and told him that it was the most expensive nap he's paid for, that he didn't take!

Looking past the opera itself for a minute, the SF Opera House is absoltutely beautiful in architecture. Gold crown molding in the ceiling, marble floors, classy bathrooms (so Lisa says). And of course the mix of people was definitely interesting. I guess I was expecting a bunch of older couples to be in attendance, but the crowd was pretty much all over the board. There were some Jay-Gloria couples (older men with wife #2 or #3), men in Kilts, women dressed to the nines, a woman wearing Shape-ups, kids dressed up like they were going to weddings, and everything in between.

But we all powered through the 3.5 hours and got some culture. When Marko tried to make a point that next year when we go...Lady Di cut him off and told him she's good for the next 10 years. Well said, Mom, well said. In a nutshell, while the music is pretty, opera just ain't my cup of tea.

#Midispiacemanomipiaceopera

(imagine me singing that at an inaudiable pitch and you'll begin to understand my Friday night)

People helping people

Yesterday I ran into a nice surprise. When I got a pretty phenomenal coupon to Gap, courtesy of the Gap credit card, and skipped my way off to spend it. So when I read it, I misread the fine print...isn’t that always the case? I read it as, “you can use this at Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic as long as you use your Gap Credit Card” Well, that wasn’t the case because when I went to the cash register at Old Navy yesterday and was all stoked to pay so I could get a super good discount and surprise surprise, it was a Gap store coupon only. While bummed, I prepared to swipe my card anyhow (I snagged some pretty sweet deals) and the lady next to me threw a $20 off coupon at me. I tried to say no thanks, but she told me take it and that she didn’t spend enough to have it work and just as I get out a “No I can’t but thank you” she was gone in a flash.

That’s pretty much the long and short of it, but I thought it was a nice story. And I’m not saying that since I got to utilize that $20 discount.

#Ineedtopayattentiontothefineprint

Sleepy San Carlos

Seeing as this blog is paritally named after the City of Good Living, maybe I should cover something San Carlos once in a while. Well, about a month or maybe even a month and a half ago, San Carlos officially satisfied any citizen's caffine addiction when they opened a Peet's coffee. For most places, this really wouldn't matter, but for San Carlos, who's downtown consists of one street, this caused the perfect aroma of pandamonium and a shot of praise. (Get ready for coffee analogies)

Some background: Laurel Street Main Drag consists of three healthy blocks where there's a heavy concentration of shops, restaurants, town essentials (market, banks, post office) and of course coffee. On the three blocks, and I'm not even going into side streets, we have 2 Starbucks (yes, that did make the 5:00 news), two mom & pop coffee houses, two bakerys that do sell fancy coffee (as Nonni would call it, essentialy anything that's not black coffee from a Mr. Coffee) and now a Peet's. That's a whole lot of coffee for a 3 block stretch. And if you continue down beyond Laurel Main Drag, there's even more, although they are fewer and farther between. I get the jolts just thinking about all that caffine bouncing off the sidewalks.

And the people in my circuit were somewhat miffed that they were putting another large coffee chain on Laurel, almost directly across from Plantation (one of the mom & pops). As if having two Starbucks on one street were bad enough! But, Plantation always has a steady stream of customers (Lady Di has her spot staked out on Friday mornings), yummy coffee, and friendly atmostphere. Some say (I won't name names) "boo Peet's" when the subject is brought up and a few select have become regulars at the popular chain (and I mean popular, there's always a huge line). But only time will tell I suppose.

But this begs the question, with all of these shops, the corporate blended in with mom & pops, was San Carlos abnormally sleepy in the past? Are we all picky citizens when it comes to a cup of coffee? Or does everyone happen to feel the need for a coffee date at the same time which is a fire hazard so they thought it was necessary to open as many as possible? I have no idea. Maybe the corporations want to sneak in on our small town livin. Who knows! I think this is a bit of overkill though, why won't they open another post office so we don't spend 45 minutes in line, especially during the holiday? Now that would satisfy a fire-hazard. Seeing as our small city is brooooke, looks like that won't happen, so looks like coffee houses it is.

Now if they only opened up a Coffee Bean...

#Icouldgoforskinnyvanillalatterightaboutnow

I heart the Muppets

Well for about 10 hours, there was a subtle ray of hope. A ray of hope that the beloved Muppets would step in and host the Oscars in 2012. As soon as it was confirmed that Eddie Murphy was stepping down, the Muppets fan page on Facebook was burning up with "likes" and I am proud to call myself one of them! In these few hours where I was getting so excited for the very rare possibility, people were going around pooh-poohing the idea, saying "They're the muppets!" To which I still profoundly respond, "Exactly, They're the Muppets!" And...without further ado, my top 10 reasons why they should host the 2012 Oscars:

1. They're family friendly. While some may say they're solely for the kiddies, because let's face it, you get hooked when you're a kid, but they stick to you like glue! And no matter how old, you they're still entertaining!

2. They don’t have any enemies, because who outwardly hates the muppets? Well, except for Statler and Waldorf the two old men who hates everything.

3. Always put on an awesome musical number. Must I remind you of the sweet and beatiful Rainbow Connection, the downright funny and entertaing Cabin Fever, the artistically simple, yet satisfying , Mahnah Manah? They may be attached to humans, running around in black suits (making them almost invisible), but boy can they sing.

4. Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo. Nuff said

5. They appeal to masses with Sam the American (can’t place enough emphasis on that) Eagle to Pepe the Shrimp!

6. You'll get lots of punny jokes courtesy of Fozzie the Bear and the gang.

7. Seeing as it's a 3 hour broadcast, we wont get sick of one host, they'll all be rotating in and out and all be running around the stage instead of the same person all night.

8. They've never been to the Oscars before, even though they've starred in countless films--some that could have been Oscar contenders, Muppet Treasure Island, the Muppet Movie, A Muppet Christmas Carol...I could go on and on...

9. If movie stars can swoop in on their movies, then why can't they swoop in on movie star's nights?

10. After last year's, really, there's no where to go but up.

Well, that's it in a nutshell, but really, they're just awesome, so why the heck not? Although this was a short lived dream, they announced earlier today that Billy Crystal is going to host, which I have to say is a solid second choice. Maybe the Muppets could at least make an apperance?

#GodblessJasonSegelforbringingusanotherMuppetmovie

What's a Hashtag?

Recently, I have seen a lot of hype surrounding the hashtag. For a while, I had no idea what it was or what it meant. Finally, someone pointed out to me that it's that slanted pound sign thing that's all over Twitter, and recently infiltrating the book. Before long it will probably be in emails, text messages and possibly in everyday talk. My guess is mostly in the tween market, and slowly they would bring it to HS and then it would skip over college, because that's just not that cool, and go straight to the parental circuit who don't understand what it is but use it anyway.

From what I gather, you just tack a hashtag to a thought, like #thoughtyoushouldknow or #icantthinkofanymoreexamples. Actually, that last one I just made up because I've become so accustomed to ignoring them, but I assume that's something that you can do with them. I don't know though, I could be wrong. But what do they represent? Are there any rules to these things? Do they follow a specific formula? Do they have to have a page on twitter to give them credibility? Can anyone make them up? These are all questions that wikipedia does not answer for me. Ok. I just did another google search (I need to make sure I am an informed writer afterall) and according to Twitter, they're used for keywords or "trends" but that doesn't exactly tell me anything.

But besides the basic rules, does it link you to something Twitter related? Are the people at Twitter just making page after page after page of sayings that someone might consider to say after a hashtag? If that were true, can you imagine the Twitter offices? At that point just hire someone to rattle of random ideas that could one day, potentially become a keyword or trend. Get a kid to just start talking and have a team of fast typing hashtag enthusiasts to design at will. I doubt that's how it works though--again I don't know.

Even my fave USA show, Psych, understands what the heck it is since they have this thing on Facebook now called the "Hastag Killer" and I'll be honest, I don't really understand what exactly that is either (i'll put it on my list of things to investigate and report back later) but it's got this hashtag thing so I suppose it's trendy. Leave it to me to not know anything about it until way after the fact, but maybe I'll start signing off with these things and maybe I'll catch on.

#maybebingwillprovidebettersearchresultsforhashtags

Kudos and Boos

Here we go, here we go...

Kudos to the royal pregnancy rumors already hitting full force! That didn't take long, actually, it kind of did, with these tabloids, but when Kate Middleton declined a peanut butter food, not sure what, maybe it was a sandwich I don't know, but she declined AND shot Prince William a look of, no you fool. Now that look could have been a look of, no you fool I: don't eat peanut butter, I don't like peanut butter, or I can't eat peanut butter. Seeing as I wasn't there, I can't judge accurately of what kind of look it was, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was pregnant! Lady Di (Princess Di that is, not my mom) was pregnant within the first year, they recently passed a law saying that if the first born were a daughter, she could go on to be queen, and not to mention there's a lot of pressure on Will and Kate to pop out a kid. Well, I wouldn't be surprised.

Boos to the one and only Kardashian divorce drama! This week, the Kardashian enterprise was sent into a media whirlwind when Kim K announced her divorce. Within a few hours the whole family was all over twitter, the book, any news outlet that would take them, spewing how much Kim was distraught over her brief, yet spensy, wedding. Therefore, it didn't take long before I was over it all. Although, I will not be ashamed to say, I am interested to see how it will actually play out over the course of the next season of "Kim and Kourtney Take New York." Man, Khloe and Lamar (who met and married in under a month) are looking pretty damn good right now!

Kudos to Stanley Roberts for his investigative reporting for his segment "People behaving badly with Stanley Roberts" and also kudos out to Tom Repetto for fining us this hilarious video gem (click here)! Stanley just was at the right place at the right time to catch this bad-mouthed 20 something in a moment that no one should be on tape--getting a traffic ticket. Think of all the emotions that go into those few minutes, anger, regret, annoyance, to name a few, and to get it all on tape and broadcasted to the entire Bay, well that catastrohic cocktail does not make for a person's finest hour. And for this guy, it wasn't. But, I've decided that Stanley Roberts is the Bay's best kept secret, but I think I'll be a regular now.

Boos to the Bieber baby drama! This week a random teen is claiming that she had teen sensation's baby. In fact, he may have to comply with a DNA test next month. Now, this story is completely absurd, but part of me wishes it was true (because what a bombshell that would be) BUT where the craziness really comes out, is that JB's diehard fans (all under the age of 15) are actually sending death threats to the supposed baby mama. First of all, how do the diehards even know what a death threat is? And, what's to stop the next crazy fan from claiming that she had his other baby? We will just have to wait and see until next month when the results come out!

Kudos to Nonni! This week is her birthday--she has more plans to celebrate than anyone. Who said that your social schedule diminishes as you get older? In fact, the Norcal Bonino's are flying down to LA for the weekend this weekend to help her celebrate, but she's got the BBD (bigger, better deal) on Saturday so we're left on our own--although we're seeing Claire's play!!--but still, I hope I have a social schedule like her when I'm her age!

Boos to a new week of work! Can't it just be Friday already?!

Wow, a Kudos and Boos on an actual Sunday? When was the last time that happened?

Blog ADD

I'll keep this short. If you're keeping count, and it's pretty likely that I might be the only one who is, this marks the third time that I have given the blog an new look. The blue background was getting a little boring and they've advertised some new templates and I jumped on it. It's a new look. A Fall look. Who knows, maybe I'll start updating them on a seasonal basis. Keep you on your toes.

They only speak the truth!

This week, all tabloids are rejoycing. Yesterday they have finally been vindicated with the public. What started out as a slow news day (higlighting Prince William and Kate receiving 60,000 pieces of fan mail-no joke that was on people.com yesterday morning) turned into a frenzy at 10:30 PST. First, one story that they have been speculating about for the past 71 days was confirmed correct, Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her NBA "star" husband just a 72 days after they said I do in a somewhat over the top wedding. Then just hours later, Jessica Simpson confirms that she is in fact pregnant. After postponing her wedding a few months ago (I think we all know the reason why now!) and investing in baggy clothes, the paparazzi have been all over this like a cheap white suit.

With these two "bombshells" being dropped, I admit, they have gained a little more street cred in my book. How could they not? They've been fueling the fire of these two stories and speculating some pretty major stories in celebrity history, that most of the time end up being true. For example, Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian's affair scandal (although those two could have tried a little harder to not be SO obvious), John Gosslin (another easy peasy one), the list goes on and on. However, there was one HUGE story that slipped past him--Arnold and his mistress. That one seemed to come out of left field. But that's a whole other can of worms that we won't get into.

But 90 percent of these stories don't just come out of thin air. It's their day (and sometimes night) job to tail these people as they go out to get their milk, eat their lunch at some super trendy hole in the wall, drive in their tricked-out Land Rover. And it's just a bonus when they find them doing something that they're not supposed to be doing. Their livlihood depends on it. And they do it for people like me who love celebrities.

After this week, I think we all will take the next celebrity who yells from the top of their lungs that the tabliods make this stuff up with a grain of salt. Next thing you know, some of their stories about aliens obducting some people will turn out to be true. They can't just make this stuff up.

Out of this World

Now this post is long overdue, but not last saturday but the saturday before, Carly, Vanessa and I threw our good friend Julia and her fiance Jeremy, an engagement party. A space themed engagement party that is. And boy did we take that theme and run, or should I say sky rocket.

They've been engaged since February, so in true Carly-Vanessa-Julie fashion, we were behind and decided in September to throw a party. Then, in even more Carly-Vanessa-Julie fashion, the weekend before our party, we thought, gee, we should really get on the logistics. Of course it happened to be a crazy busy week for the three of us, and then to add this party on top, well we were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I was working with Carly on decor, games, etc, every night that week, and VK was smack dab in the middle of midterms. But apparently we do our best thinking and planning under the wire so in just 5 days, a few trips to the party store, 4 google docs, and 9 christmas ornaments-turned-to-planets later, we had the Bonino backyard turned into a gallactic outerspace experience - literally outer-space, we were outside since it was 80 that day.

Under our overhang, we had all nine planets-yes pluto is a planet for our party purposes-that carly pained on some Christmas ornaments-thank you K-Mart for reminding us Christmas is around the corner. We had delicious apps, some Martian margaritas, space toys spread throughout the space (no pun intended). It was an intimate crowd and group of people that we've known for years so it was the perfect opportunity for us to all catch up (even though we all pretty much live in a 15-minute (and that's pushing it) radius).

And what party of ours is complete without entertainment? We started out the crowd on a quick 9-question game with a questionarire that they complete with questions regarding Space and Julia & Jeremy. We then graded the test and gave them a glow-necklace with some planet pins that they got to keep on all night. And why stop the entertainment there? Since it was mostly our families and people who know us well, Carly, VK and I thought we would take this opportunity to show off our musical talents as a tribute to Julia. So we decided to take some space-y songs and mix them with one of Julia's favorites to create: Space Collaboration (copyright DJ Carly DeMarchena 2011). Imagine the opening sequence to 2001: A Space Oddessy and three girls walking (as if we were in space) with paper bags painted like space helmets on their heads. Still with me? Then add the beginning snippit to Space Jam (what we did for a talent show, back in the 4th or 5th day) with some sweet dance moves. Add the first verse to Men in Black (which Julia and VK were for halloween one year), with some lyrics specifically pertaining to Julia and Jeremy. And polish it up with a couple of verses (also new lyrics) from Backstreet Boy's, "The One". Nevermind the fact that out of the three of us, we couldn't even hit one note correctly, nevermind the fact that our dancing is somewhat elementary, nevermind the fact that it was dark out so people couldn't really see us (that was somewhat planned), we wowed the crowd.

Like I said it was great to catch up with everyone and it was a super fun night!