Friday, where have you been?

Pisces, 2/27/09
What will happen if you get what you want this weekend? How will you cope? Can't you set out, instead, to get something that you're not really so bothered about? That way, you can stay cool and calm and you avoid disappointment if, for any reason, your 'ideal' turns out to be less than perfect. Are you sure you want life to have an intense, rough, raw edge? Wouldn't you rather have safety and comfort? You can have more security or more excitement. Both together though, is not really very likely. But then, you know that!

Huh? I swear, my and the horoscope man have had some kind of cosmic falling out. My last few predictions sucked and what kind of crap du jour is this? So I either have to have a boring life or an exciting, yet disappointing one. Gee, that's awesome! Horoscope man, you are a gem.

So, the Great Sleep Experiment of 2009 has hit a rough patch. He is still going down to sleep with no help within 15 minutes, which is super rad, but the last two nights he has been VERY fussy pretty much all night long. He is slightly congested so maybe that has something to do with it, I don't know. Overall I think it's been pretty successful, but I'm hoping we can iron out these little wrinkles over the weekend when Daddy takes over. YES! Mommy gets to sleep finally. Sleeping in his room is not fun. At least before I would only wake up when he fussed loud enough for the monitor to pick up, but when I'm lying 3 feet away, I hear every little thing. EVERY LITTLE THING. Oh well, it will get better. Yeah sure.

We have our second post-placement visit this weekend, which means we are getting closer to finalizing the adoption. We have to give them pictures for the agency and the foster family so I thought I'd put some up so you can see how he's growing. They DO grow like weeds. Big, loud crying weeds.



He's giving you his Blue Steel.

After this picture was taken, the trunk MIGHT have fallen off and we MIGHT have put it back.

Again with the hats, lady? Really?

I'm cute AND avant garde!

He's imagining that's a wedge of cheese. And so am I.

He quits this bitch.

Awwww....daddy and his little man. It warms my heart to see those two together. For reals.

Lost Recap

HOLY FATHER CHRISTMAS!!!! That was quite an episode. I don't feel like it really went anywhere other than to give us a few HUGE clues and to give more info on the new plane crash. Now, we knew Locke got off the island and went to see our Losties. No shock. Also no shock that they all told him to go blow when he tried to get them back. I'm disappointed that Walt has been pushed to the side and I hope that they do more with him going forward but that's neither her nor there. I'm also glad they acknowledged the whacked out timeline issue, how they've been home for three years but Locke thinks it's been 4 days. I'm also glad Widmore brought up meeting John back at the camp. That was pretty awesome although I still think there is some funny business going on. So, what DID surprise us?

- Widmore watches the "exit point" in Tunisia. Does this mean he saw Ben when he turned the wheel? Why didn't he get him then? Is Widmore good or bad? When he explained the reason he was warring with Ben, that he exiled him, it seemed reasonable but then after I thought about it, I have some questions. How could Ben have exiled Widmore when Widmore is clearly a good 15-20 years older than him and if we are to believe Penny was born off the island, which we have no reason to believe otherwise, he would have been long gone by the purge. That timeline doesn't make sense, which I know is a ridiculous thing to say about this show but still. Also, if Widmore knows about Eloise and the mainland Dharma station, why doesn't he just go there himself? That doesn't make sense.

- John seemed to revert back to his old helpless, whiny self when he left the island. I felt sorry for him for most of the episode. I also think that Helen is perhaps not dead, but they told him that to make sure he stayed on track. I'm not sure I believe he is really all that special since both Widmore and Ben have been telling him that and clearly they have different agendas, but I do think the island has some kind of connection with him. I was SHOCKED when Ben talked him out of killing himself but then strangled him to death and wondered if he was going to do that all along, or if his mention of Eloise triggered the murder. Also, do you think Ben found the phone and took it? I also wonder if his mentioning of Christian to Jack is what started Jack's downward spiral and his obsessive flying to Sydney. I did love how John became Confident Island John as soon as he was back there. That has to mean something about something.

-Dead people become undead when they get to the island. So, that would have to mean that Christian really was alive, right? Do you get some kind of weird insight when you resurrect like Christian seems to have? This also begs the question, did Ben murder Locke because he thought he was backing out of returning to the island and wanted to make sure he made it back and knew he would become undead? If so, why did he say he would miss him? I think he really tried to kill him, but why? It had to be something to do with Eloise. Poor John is always being used, whether it's by the island, Richard, Ben or Widmore. Sad man. Speaking of which, how does Richard fit into all this nonsense? We need another Richard episode. He seems to answer to these people but then he seems more powerful since he is apparently ageless. Who the hell is he for real?

-Jack, Kate and Hurley vanished from the plane and ended up either back in time or on the other island. How the hell did this happen and why did it only happen to them? Where is Sayid? We still weren't told how Hurley and Sayid made it on the plane in the first place. Are the other survivors still there? You know, Rose, Bernard and the rest? Where the hell did they go?

So, that's about where we are now. Next week it seems as though they all meet up and I for one, have no desire to see the whole love triangle play out. Hey Kate, pick one, the hillbilly or the hot doctor. That's a tough choice I know, but just do it so we can move on, mmkay? I also want to see John Locke go APESHIT on Benny boy. I'm sure we'll hear some Ben logic on why he just HAD to murder him and John will probably believe him and we will continue to not know who is good or bad.

It's a miracle!

So, for those of you following the saga of the Great Sleep Experiment of 2009, last night was night two. The only adjustment we were to make was an earlier bedtime and I was supposed to wait 1-2 hours after he went to sleep before I got into bed. Done and done. I did the same routine as last night and when I laid him down, fully 100% awake, he kind of cried, but it was kind of a faker cry and not really that intense. I gave him my spiel and left the room to go eat my dinner. Since he wasn't in crazysuperupset crying mode, I set the timer for 10 minutes so I could go in and interact. Less than 8 minutes after I put him down, HE WAS FREAKING ASLEEP. I am not kidding. We sat there staring at the monitor with our jaws on the table going "he's REALLY asleep?" I even went in again to check to make sure I wasn't being punked and sure enough, he was out like a light. I covered his little bum with his blankie and he stirred but made no sound. Unbelievable. The only issue we had was around 3am, when he woke up fussing but I just waited it out and he finally drifted back off. He woke up around 6am, which the doctor said was too early for him to get out of the crib, so I tried to get him back down to sleep, which sorta kinda worked for about 15 minutes but then he sat up and was pretty unhappy. "MAAAAAMAAAA." I held him out until 6:30, which was an acceptable time for him to wake according to the plan. I'm hoping he will start to go until 7am. All in all, it was a good night. Today we work on naps. Yesterday I cheated and gave him a bottle but he missed his morning nap and if he had gone all day with no nap, it would have been a disaster for everyone, mostly me. This morning however, he's going down with no help so cross your fingers it works. Yikes.

Sleepy, night, night

Pisces, 2/24/09
The ties that bind us to others are not always easy to explain or understand. Often, they have as much to do with time and circumstance as with some deep, emotional or intellectual affinity. We may have such a connection too, but it is one that has been developed over a period of years, through the weathering of storms and the tackling of challenges. You are now questioning your close involvement with someone who seemingly fails to respect your integrity. Don't give up just yet.

You know who you are. hahahaha. Just kidding, I have no idea what this means. Or do I?

So, last night was night one of the Great Sleep Experiment of 2009. We had our sleep doctor appt. for it last Friday. His sleeping had gotten slightly better, but it was still not good and I just refused to accept that it was just going to be that way. One of the most important things I've learned as a parent is that 97.3% of things that go awry with the kid have nothing to do with the kid and everything to do with how WE are handling a situation and I decided that the sleeping part was probably the same thing. He has been relatively healthy for the last few weeks so we decided to strike now. The sleep lady was awesome and she confirmed what I just said. She explained how lack of sleep in kids is a BIG problem and that it effects all other aspects of their lives. She asked how we would put him to sleep (with a bottle after he was almost asleep) and what we would do when he would have his issues at night (pick him up, try to comfort, etc) and then proceeded to tell me how we were doing it wrong. FAIL. She also explained that kids that had a rocky start, especially kids adopted internationally, tend to have these "confusional arousals," which are basically baby night terrors and disrupt their natural sleep pattern in a bad way. He can have up to 5 PER NIGHT, people. It sucked. Most of the time he wouldn't even be awake but he would be crying and having a fit and nothing we would do would fix the situation so we would be up for hours. This sucks. It really sucks. For serious. I have a low threshold for things that suck and I try pretty quickly to rectify the situation and this lady had been recommended to me by several different people, including my pediatrician, who confessed her own sleep problems in her child and how she kicked herself for not addressing them when her kid was young because she was 5 and still sleeping with the parents. Like I said, I nip it in the BUD. I have been amazed to hear stories from almost everyone with kids about how sleeping was such a difficult thing to figure out and even more amazed to hear them scoff at my going to a sleep doctor, which is RIDICULOUS because if help is there, why not take it? Durrr.

Anyway, she sent us home with a custom plan for us that I admit, was kind of complicated and she emphasized that following the instructions as closely as possible was the only way for it to really work so we needed to be committed. Seeing as the other night we were up with him 3 times, beginning only 4 hours after he went down and ending at 5:45am, when we finally gave up, there was no doubt we were committed. The basic plan was this. We put him to bed TOTALLY AWAKE, with no bottle or anything, and then we have to monitor his crying, which she categorized into stages. Each stage of crying required interacting with him in his crib in timed intervals, which would gradually get longer until he went to sleep. Then, I sleep in the room with him until he goes down with limited fussing and crying for at least 3 nights in a row. Once we got this to happen (oh sure), then we work on naps. I was very skeptical because it just didn't seem that different from what we were already doing minus the bottle and stuff but clearly I'm no expert so I just followed the instructions. I put his pajamas on him and he thought he was ready to play but instead he was plopped into the crib, given a lovely little speech about how awesome sleeping is, a kiss goodnight and that was it. I didn't even make it the 8 steps out of the room before the screaming started and it was LOUD. It was major league screaming. She had warned us of this so we were ready and I began to time things for my interactions. This all sounds so official, no? So, I went for my first interaction, gave him my speech again, patted him on the head and left again. Once again, screaming ensued but this time it wasn't as bad or as loud and I SWEAR TO GOD that within 15-20 minutes of putting him down wide-awake, he was asleep. Totally asleep. We didn't even believe it and risked everything to go in and check and sure enough, his butt was in the air and he was out. I went back in to go to sleep about an hour later and he stayed asleep pretty much all night. He stirred a few times, cried, fussed, and went right back to sleep without me doing anything. AMAZING! He finally woke up about 5am and saw me on the bed and I heard "mama" but I didn't acknowledge him and soon he started to really cry. I got up, went to him and changed his diaper in the crib, gave him my speech and a pat and went back to bed. He cried for about 30 seconds and then was out again and slept until 7AM!!!!! I am totally amazed. FOR REAL. Now, it may be a fluke and tonight may be just dreadful, but I'm so stoked about this plan that I'm confident that he can do it since he's a freaking genius. Of course he is. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Cake Alert!

So, as I stated before, this was a hectic week. There were doctor's appts., work to be done, a cake to be made and so on. No Lost recap, even. THE HORROR! Wait till next week because it looks FREAKING AWESOME. Anyway, I got my cake all done and it's up on the other blog. For those of you who are new, that's http://www.theatomiccakeco.blogspot.com/. I was given the suggestion to remove the blabbering I usually accompany my posts with so it's just cake pics now. No crazy yammering to week through. I also gave the site a face lift so I hope you like it. The cake turned out really well. It's a baby shower cake and the parents are a Cardinal's fan and a marathon runner, so I added a tiny medal and a baseball hat and pendant for them. It's en route to Chicago as we speak and I hope it makes it in one piece. ONE PIECE OF CAKE.

The Runaround

Pisces, 2/20/09
Instead of a prediction, I should give you a coupon. It can read, 'This entitles the bearer to a significant discount at the emporium of their choice and to the full sympathy and understanding of all around them.' You can cut it out and keep it in your wallet, next to the supermarket discount card. Whenever you need it, just produce it. The funny thing is, you don't really need to. The Sun is in your sign. A cosmic coupon now hovers invisibly above your head. It may not get you the discount - but it will bring you the rest, if you trust it.

I don't even know what this means and my brain isn't working enough to try to figure it out. I don't have a supermarket discount card. What the hell is that anyway? Is that a real thing because if so I WANT IT.

So, all of a sudden it's Friday. This week has been ridiculously hectic. We were in Chicago Monday and Tuesday, which went very well by the way. The kid was SO GOOD! He slept most of the way in the car and behaved himself when grandma watched him while I took my class. The class was good but I'll go more into that another day. Since I got home, I've had work to do plus a cake due today. I have a terrible habit of underestimating how much time and energy goes into a cake so as usual, I'm getting it done with no time to spare. It's getting picked up this afternoon, but in the meantime I have to take the kid to the sleep doctor, get some stuff printed for work at Kinkos and then go meet with a client. Then I have to come home to meet the guy getting the cake, box it all up and say a prayer it makes it to Chicago. I was supposed to make two more small cakes for my neighbor's kids but I may or may not accomplish them tonight. I am tired and I ran out of salt so I couldn't bake them yesterday and I don't know if I can squeeze them in today. Good grief. I am busier now working part time than I was working full time. Crikey!

Anyway, I'm off to change a poop diaper. Carry on with your day.

On the road again.......

So, I went to see Spring Awakening yesterday. It was me, Jeff, LM and MH. We had all been really looking forward to the show ever since we heard it had "explicit sexual content" and "is intended for mature audiences only." Yay, swearing and sex! I also knew these things would be my hook for Jeff because while he will go to a show with me, he isn't exactly Mr. Musical Theater. Anyway, the show. Yes, there were boobies and VERY realistic sex. The ladies next to us had apparently ignored all the warnings that it was racy and were not happy, which was funny to me because that was the whole point of the show. Spring Awakening = sex. Duh. There was also a song called "You're Fucked," which we sang the whole way home. Despite the boobs and the f-word, the show was just kind of "meh." The first act was good and the music was awesome, but the second act totally fell apart. They never really fleshed out any of the characters and tried to cram lots of stuff into the show without really explaining any of it. It was like they just said "yeah, we're bored writing this so let's just wrap this up, mmkay?" I'm not really sure how it won best musical at the Tony's but whatever. Despite the show not really living up to the hype, the day was lovely and we're looking forward to doing it again.

Today is a big day for us here at Kimchi Central. My mom and I are taking Max on his first road trip. We're heading to Chicago for the night so I can take a class tomorrow. I'm nervous about him making it in the car for 5 hours but I'm hoping he will sleep most of the way. Who knows how he'll do in the hotel. We're coming back tomorrow afternoon after my class is done. It's a short class but it's an important cake class that I can't take here so I'm stoked. I'm going to offer him $100 to be good. So far he doesn't seem interested. Hold me.

Squishy Face

So, while I've been fighting off the black plague, Jeff has been in charge of the kid. I'm not sure what's he's had for dinner the last two nights or whether he's had a bath but I've been too sick to really give a crap. I don't know if it's the flu or what, but whatever it is it's nasty and I can't seem to shake it. Anyway, last night Jeff called me out of bed to watch the kid eat a popsicle. It was worth it. The video is kinda long but quit complaining and watch it.

Lost Recap

So, I watched last night's episode under the influence of Tylenol Cold & Flu Nighttime Formula so I can't guarantee accuracy. I'm still currently battling the sickness of the week so if I abruptly stop this recap, it's because I passed out. Don't be alarmed.

-When we last left our Losties, Sayid, Jack, Ben and Kate were at the marina. Sun was there too but she was in her car with Aaron waiting to jump out and pop a cap in Ben. Before she can do that, her mom calls and she talks to her little daughter who misses her and Sun says she'll be home soon. Sure she will. You keep waiting by the door little girl. Anyway, Sun gets out and threatens to shoot Ben but he stops her by telling her that Jin is alive.

-Back on the island, Jin is still with Rousseau and the Frenchies and he's cornfused as to why he is with a young Danielle in the 80's. Clearly he has been experiencing the same flashes as the rest of them. They are trying to get a signal on their radio but have no luck. The radio just keeps playing the numbers over and over. Jin tells them he wants to find his camp and they make a deal that if he takes them to the radio tower, he can go find his camp. During their hike, one of the chicks, Nadine, suddenly disappears. Uh oh. They also hear a rumbling, which we all recognize as the smoke monster. UH OH. Jin is all "oh crap" and tries to get them to take off but they want to find this chick so they backtrack. They are looking around and all of a sudden they see the monster and dead Nadine falls from the sky. The smoke monster comes and grabs another of the Frenchies and drags him off, which wasn't so bad because he was a dick anyway, but they all try to save him but the smoke monster drags him down a hole but not before ripping off his arm. They all insist on going down to answer his cries for help and Jin convinces Danielle to stay out. Then a flash comes. Jin then wanders away from this area since they are all gone and finds himself back at the beach. He sees that two of the Frenchies are DEED from gunshots and are lying on the beach. He hears some shouting and sees Danielle aiming her gun at the Frenchie who is her baby daddy. She is saying that since they went down the hole, they are all sick and she is going to kill him like she killed the others. Well, that's news to us. She told our losties that they died from the sickness, not that she killed them. We know that they aren't very far in the future, maybe a week or two, because she's still pregnant. Anyway, the dude is pleading with her to spare his life and that he isn't sick and she finally believes him and drops her gun, he brings his up and fires. Click. Out of ammo but she's PISSED and blows him away. She looks over to see Jin and starts firing at him but he runs off. Another flash happens and soon Jin and the other losties make their sweet reunion. YAY!

-Jin explains to them that he was blown into the water in the explosion (oh sure, why not) and asks where Sun is. He finds out that they got off the island and that John was going to go bring them back to stop the flashes from happening. The best part is when Sawyer is trying to explain the flashes to Jin and he goes all Korean on them and goes to Miles and says "translate! translate!" and Sawyer's all "you heard the man" and Miles is all "he's Korean, I'm from Encino." ZING! Suddenly Charlotte reveals she speaks Korean and translates what he's saying and explains what John is trying to do. Jin doesn't seem to happy about his plan to bring Sun back.

-Back at the marina, Sun is still holind Ben at gunpoint and he's explaining that he has proof Jin is alive but they have to drive 30 minutes away to get it. She gets pissed for having believed he was dead for three years and she is about to blow him away but he basically says come with me and let me prove he's alive or kill me and never know. She takes door #1. Sayid is all "I quit this bitch" and takes off and Kate goes to get Aaron out of Sun's car and also takes off. They are both SUPER pissed. Jack feels totally duped by Ben at this point and he's also mad.

-On the island, they have resumed their trek to the Orchid and Jin wants to go with John but he says no, it's a one man job and he's kind of a jerk about it all. Chill out, John. At the back of the pack. Charlotte's not lookin' so good. Seriously. Girl is pale as a ghost. She stumbles again and then there is another flash. The flashes are now coming really fast and it's clear that they are all in danger if they don't stop. Charlotte is barely alive and we see that she is basically i the same state that the chick in England is in. She's now traveling in her mind or something and she's in and out of this time. Suddenly she gets crazy eyes and tells Jin in Korean NOT to let them bring Sun back because the island is DEATH. Aaack!

-Sun, Ben and Jack are driving and Jack takes this moment to apologize to her for not getting Jin off the freighter and she's mad because she thinks he's telling her this so she won't kill Ben if he's lying and Jack's all "after what he did to me, I'll kill him if you don't" and Ben has finally had ENOUGH and stops the van. He tells them that if they knew what he had to do this whole time to keep them and their friends alive they would be thanking him every day so just effing kill him already. Sheesh dude, chill. Sun tells him to keep driving.

-Back on the island, Charlotte is so bad that they have to leave her and Danny to get to the Orchid before they all get sicker. Sawyer's worried that if it flashes, they will end up at a time when the Orchid isn't even there and Charlotte tells them to look for the well. HUH? They get to the Orchid, Juliette's all "thank god it's here" and then FLASH, it's gone. Nice. They remember the well and go to it. Danny and Charlotte are back in the jungle alone and Charlotte fesses up that she had indeed been on the island before. In fact, she grew up there in the Dharma Initiative with her mother but they fled and her mother told her that they had never been there in the first place. She has spent her whole life trying to get back there. She also says that when she was a girl, a scary man told her never to return to the island and that man was FARADAY!!! Now, I really hope that her mother isn't Eloise because we know that is Daniel's mom and we don't want another Luke and Leia situation on our hands here. Keep it clean, people.

-Back at the well, John is getting ready to go down and Jin stops him. He tells him to promise not to bring Sun back and gives him his wedding ring and tells him to tell her he was found dead. John says fine and descends down the rope but then there is a flash and John drops to the bottom, breaking leg. Sawyer is holding the rope and after the flash, we see the well is gone, the rope goes into the dirt and John is long gone. How was that possible? Wouldn't the rope disappear as well? Does that mean if they are touching something during a flash it travels with them? Anyway, John is at the bottom and hears someone approaching. Who can it be now? Why it's Christian Shepherd!! Of course it is. Christian tells him that he screwed up by letting Ben move the island but that luckily he had another chance. He also says that listening to Ben is a BAD IDEA. Who's side are we on anymore? I don't even know. Anyway, all he had to do was drag his broken ass leg over to the giant wheel and give it a nudge to reset it. Oh yeah, and by doing that, he will also leave the island. He also tells him to go find Eloise when he gets back and she'll tell him how to fix things. As he turns the wheel and things go whackadoodle, Christian tells him to say hi to his son and we see that John has no clue that it's Jack's dad.

-Ben, Sun and Jack arrive at a church and Ben gives Sun the ring and tells her that Jin gave it to John when he left the island. PROOF! Sun agrees to go back so she can save Jin. As they go to walk into the church who comes strolling but our old friend Dezzie!! Dayum, he is so hot. He asks what they're doing there and Ben says the same thing he is and he's all "you're trying to find Faraday's mother, too?" and the look on Ben's face can only mean that he knows Daniel and perhaps did not know Eloise was his mom. That was a VERY interesting reaction from Ben. We'll have to see how that one plays out. They go into the church and she's there and she wants to know where everyone else is and when she hears this was all he could get, she's like "it'll have to do." What? I thought they ALL had to come, including zombie John Locke who is still in the van being dead. END SCENE!

Holy moley! Next week looks crazy and it looks like they do indeed get them all back together for their return. I wonder how long it will be before we see how John died. I feel that is very important. I also wonder if Dessie will go back with them since he wasn't one of the originals. I really don't know who to trust at this point. Richard? Ben? Christian? Eloise? Faraday? None of the above? Yikes. I need more medicine.

Aack, aack, aack!!

So, check out my new digs. Nice, right? We needed a change. This is easier on the eyes. Anyway...

We are sick here at Kimchi Central and by we, I mean me. It started yesterday afternoon on my way home from the mall. I had taken the kid there to return some stuff and when I was driving home, I suddenly got a massive headache and then my muscles all freaked out,which usually means I'm getting sick. Speaking of the mall, oh how I wish I had a child that would sit quietly in his stroller while mommy shopped. Instead, I get this:

He learned this half coughing, half laughing thing the other day and thinks it's HILARIOUS. He did it through the whole mall and he does it really loudly so it echoed. He also had a bottle so at some point, he was also spitting up and playing with it, which made the teenage girls at Old Navy laugh their heads off. HAHAHAHA, right ladies? RIGHT? To top it off, while we were crammed in the elevator with another mother/child combo, he decided to rip a big fart, which was also LOUDand which he also found to be ridiculously funny as did I, but the other mom was NOT amused. Not at all. I think she thought it was me at first, but I made a point to look at him and say "MAX?!" just to make sure the blame was properly placed. She gave me the stink eye (zing!)and bolted off the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Whatever lady, everybody farts.

So back to being sick. As I said, as we were driving home I started to feel like crap and by the time Jeff got home, I was really feeling bad. Strangely enough, a 10 month old baby does not care that it's mother is sick. Seriously, he totally went about his business. I went to bed early and hoped I would feel better in the morning but I woke up at 12:30 with severe muscle aches so I took my temp and it was almost 103. Fantastic. Max was also awake and crying so Jeff was so kind as to go tend to him, which ended up being an hour long ordeal and he finally just gave in and slept in the room with him, which was probably better because when my fever broke at about 3am, I was DRENCHED. My hair is still curly from all the gross sweating. After Jeff got up and went to work, the phone rang and it was my sister, informing me that she was ALSO sick. She had the exact same thing as I did and was also up with a fever and called in to work for the first time ever. FREAKY. Lucky for her, she was getting ready to swig some NyQuil and go back to bed while I was getting ready to go make a bottle for the beast. I'm really hoping he takes a nice long nap today because mommy needs one too. Naps are FUN.

Bizarro world

Pisces, Feb 7
Your Week Ahead: You have been nurturing a dream for some while. You have been playing with a fantasy, exploring an idea, entertaining a vision and telling yourself, all the while, that this is all you are really doing. Just whiling away a little time. Yet you have also been setting in motion a series of events which have the potential to make the whole thing happen. Telling yourself, as you do, that you are under no obligation to take your opportunity, even if you do manage to create it. That's true. You are not under any such obligation. But can you resist the chance that you now have?

I normally don't post on the weekends because I have better things to do but I had to share this morning's horoscope with you. Why? BECAUSE IT'S FREAKING ME OUT. You see, I got TWO unexpected cake orders yesterday for next weekend. Seriously. One of them is a big shower cake that is being transported to a function in Chicago. This is big time, people. I also spoke to someone just yesterday who told me that he forwarded my cake blog to some "high profile" friends of his and he's pretty sure they will want to order a cake at some point. HOLY CRAP!

That's all. Go about your day.

Lost Recap

So, this week's recap is gonna be sweet and to the point. My last few were novels and I don't have that kind of time. Let's go to the orchid, shall we?

-So, Charlotte's not deed. I figured. Her brain is just going haywire. No biggie. Locke thinks that if they take the zodiac to the orchid station, they might be able to switch of the time travel. I think it's more to do with him getting off the island because he needs to feel important. Whatever. As we see our island losties get to the boat a few things happen. First, Miles and Juliette also begin to have nosebleeds, which further confirms that Miles was on the island at some point earlier, probably as Candle's son as we have assumed, and since Juliette has been there for a long ass time, it means that exposure to the island or prolonged time travel equals bad brains.

-Next up is our favorite hillbilly, Sawyer. Now ladies, I just can't get on the Sawyer bandwagon. I'm a Jack girl. Something about Sawyer just makes me want to scrub him down with lye and smack him in the face, not bone him. Well, maybe bone him but only after I do the other things and then I would never call him again. Anyway, during one of the flashes, we see a beam of light, which we know is John banging on the hatch, which puts them about two months in the past. Sawyer also sees Kate and Claire while Claire is birthing Aaron. He's a saddy. Sawyer knows John knows when they are and when he asks why he doesn't go tell himself what's going to happen, John says it has to happen for him to be where he is. Good point. This leads me to a couple things. First, now that we know that there has been time travel the whole time, isn't it possible that during earlier parts of the season, we were seeing losties from the future and not the present? Second, if they did encounter themselves, would they really be there or what? Would there be two of them? I've long been intrigued by the fact that in the very first scene of the show, when Jack is laying in the jungle supposedly after the crash, it is totally quiet and there is no sound until he steps on to the beach and then WHAM, a wall of sound. Now, he wasn't far enough in the jungle for it to be THAT quiet so could there have been some kind of time travel witchcraftery going on there? It just came up very abruptly, like the flashes. Anyway.....

-Back in the future, Kate visits Sun, who watches Aaron while Kate goes to talk to the lawyer dude. Sun gets a package with surveillance photos of Ben and Jack, presumably from Widmore, as well as a gun. Yikes. Kate talks to the lawyer and tries to negotiate to find out who is trying to take Aaron but he's not buying it and says he's going to go meet his client. Meanwhile, Sayid is still in the hospital with Jack when an orderly comes in and tries to tranquilize him again but Sayid gives him the SMACKDOWN Iraqi style. They see he has Kate's address in his pocket, Jack goes to meet her to keep her safe but they end up following the lawyer dude to Claire's mom, who they decided knows they're lying and wants her grandson. Turns out she has no idea about Aaron, Jack flips out and realizes they're still in danger so they call Sun and have her bring Aaron to the marina. Kate doesn't know Ben and Sayid will also be there. Along the way we find out that the lawyer dude is working for Ben, not Widmore, and that the whole thing with Kate was just a ruse to get her to go with them. Sneaky. They all meet at the marina, Kate is pissed and we see Sun in the car watching them with Aaron and her gun. Uh oh.

-Back on the island, they find camp but no zodiac. They do however, find a catamaran with a bottle of water in it from A DIFFERENT AIRLINE. WHA? This is interesting. They take the boat to try to get around the island but while they're paddling away, a different boat starts shooting at them and just as they're all about to be swiss cheese, FLASH, and they're now in a downpour. They make land and try to figure out what the hell is going on. They spy some wreckage on the beach with french writing. ROUSSEAU!!! We see her as a young pregnant woman on a life raft with her crew, the ones that die of the "sickness" and as they are trying to get somewhere, they see a body floating on some debris and no, it wasn't the chick from Titanic, it was JIN!!!! They pull him in and when they get back to the beach we see he's alive. HOORAY! When she introduces herself to him, he's all "wha?" and then end scene.

So, what have we learned? The island losties are 16 years in the past now and we will finally get to see what happened to her crew. Maybe. If no flashes happen. Jin is alive so Sun can calm down. They are all ready to go back except for Hurley who is in LA County lockdown. I assume his bust out will happen next week because either next week or the week after will be the return to the island. Prolonged exposure to the island and it's wacky time problems causes your brain to go all wonky and you bleed from your nose. Not good. My sister and I watch this together and call during commercials and then when it's over, we call and go "WHAT THE HELL, DUDE?" and spend the next half hour dissecting things. One point I brought up to her was when they do return to the island, what will the time difference have been for them versus those on the island? The island losties think they left like a day ago but for the land losties, it's been 3 years. Will they be like "hey, whatcha been up to for 3 years?" and they'll be all "WHAT? You just left yesterday!" and then freak out when they realize that time has virtually stopped on the island. IS THAT THE KEY TO THIS MESS?

Pisces Thursday, 5 February 2009
Will there be a Day of Judgement? I love the way people ask this. What do they think every day that they have ever lived through has been? What, exactly, is it that human beings do besides judge each other? We judge the past according to the standards of the present. We judge the people around us by the moral codes we have been taught to uphold. Will there ever be a 'day of non-judgement'? Now, that really would be a great day for the Earth. Maybe you can help us all get to the golden tomorrow. Be less judgemental today.

Ah, judgement. I am certainly guilty of judging people as I think we all are to some degree. I try to not be all judgy and give someone the benefit but it doesn't always happen. For instance, yesterday I had to meet with a freelance client. The main person I deal with was not available so I was passed off to an employee, who felt it necessary to condescend me the entire time I spoke with her. She certainly had valid concerns and they were all very easily corrected, but she treated me like I was 8 and mentally challenged. I couldn't help but sit quietly and mentally judge her for being a total bitch. JUDGEMENT SERVED.

So the hair is done. I like it. I don't love it and for what it cost, I should want to marry it and bear its children. The color is great. I have been coloring it almost black for so long now that we had to lighten before we could change the color, so it's still dark but has streaks of red in it, which is cool. I don't like sensible things so I am happy with my fun color. The cut, however, isn't exactly what I was looking for. We had to cut more off than I had planned because it was kinda ragged so it's just above my shoulders. It's really cute and done with perfect precision because my hairdresser is GOOD but I was looking for something a bit more edgy and rock n roll because I spend my days with a drooling 10 month old and I needed to get back to myself. I wanted a severely asymmetrical bob but I got a perfectly cut, level bob. It's slightly longer in the front, but I was looking for dramatically longer, less anchorwoman, more eurotrash. It's my own fault because I wanted something that most people try to avoid and the pictures I showed him didn't have the asymmetry I wanted. Unfortunately, I can't tape the hair back on so it is what it is. Now that this is over, you can go back to your regular lives.

Babies DO grow before our eyes! Like magical unicorns.

Pisces, 2/4/09
Remember climate change? Before the credit crunch it was worrying everyone. Currently, it is only bothering Australians. Latest news from NASA is that it isn't just the Earth. Mars is showing every sign of global warming, too. As are the moons of Jupiter. It may have more to do with the Sun than with anything that humans are up to. Shame we can't say the same about the banking crisis. Watch, today, for false culprits and overblown concerns. If you are doing your best, you can do no more.

Um yeah, horoscope man, could you go ahead and focus on ME here? This scope is crap. There are overblown concerns every day of my life. It's called anxiety.

So, we've had some advancements here at Kimchi Central. The kid has started saying "mama!" Okay, MAYBE he says "ma-ruh" or "yuh-rah" but it's closer than "da-da" which he has NO problem saying so I'm taking it. When we say "mama," he looks at me so I think he is making the connection since he's a freaking GENIUS. Nah, but it does seem like he knows. He also learned to stand on his own for up to 23 seconds (yes I timed it) and he took TWO STEPS IN A ROW. We have to kind of encourage it because he prefers to just fall forward like it's a game, which is cute unless I'm not right there and then he falls on his face but progress is progress, right? We're up to FIVE teeth and I think another is coming in since he gnaws on more stuff then the dogs. We were at the grocery store yesterday (OF COURSE WE WERE) and I looked down to see him hunched over chewing on the cart. It's like he's feral. He also tried to use my wedge of Gorgonzola as a teething toy, which didn't taste so great, I'm sure. I think he's almost ready for steak. I keed, I keed, of course not. But I might have given him some. I can't believe his first birthday is in 6 weeks! In Korea, the first birthday is a big deal and there are all these rituals that come along with it and we plan on honoring them. He has a fancy outfit that his foster mom gave him that he will wear and we have to pray to some mountain god and then put out these objects for him to choose from which will predict his future. Freaky deaky!

On another note, before my client meeting today is my hair appointment. I know this is RIVETING information so you'll be relieved to know I decided what to do. It's gonna be red and it's gonna be short(er). It's already kinda red compliments of Revlon Colorist hair color but it's just not red enough so I'm going to get it jacked up. LOOK OUT WORLD!

Who knew it would have such force?

Pisces, 2/2/09
It is all getting very interesting. You are fascinated by a recent development. You want to know as much as you can about a certain person or a particular opportunity. To what extent, though, are you like a fish, following a baited hook? Is it really possible just to take a small nibble without getting caught? And might you be better advised to focus on something which is a little less immediately attractive yet a lot more likely to keep you safe and secure? Look more carefully at what your object of obsession is attached to!

Oh great, so if something good comes my way I'm supposed to be skeptical of it?? How is that awesome? I have enough paranoia and anxiety horoscope man, I don't need any more. However, I AM intrigued and fascinated by this shiny prospect. Uh oh. Hook, line and sinker.

So, yesterday was the Superbowl. I couldn't give a crap about sports but I was pulling for the Cardinals for my friend LM. That and the Steelers just seems like jerks. Anyway, sorry for the Cards, it was SO CLOSE and we were on the edge of our seat (er, couch) but alas, it was not to be. I really just watch for the commercials but I didn't think they were anything special so for me overall, Superbowl=FAIL. I liked the MacGruber/Pepsuber one but I had already seen that on the SNL sports special on Friday night. We spent the day at my sisters eating delicious BBQ. I love BBQ, especially ribs and pulled pork. Jeff makes a mean BBQ sauce and I'm already working on him to make up a big giant batch once it's warm enough to grill. Mmmm....oh, where was I?

Oh yeah, after we got home, which was early because Max was slightly crabby and by slightly, I mean VERY and I figured I had subjected his aunt and uncle to enough of that crap, we were getting the car unloaded and suddenly there was a smell. It was bad. REALLY BAD. It was coming from the kid, of course. I had already put him in his jammies before we came home because I knew he'd be tired so I laid him down to change him, which he was not happy about and it took every toy nearby to keep him occupied and when I went to pull his pants down, I felt something wet at the waistband. That is never good. NEVER. I took the pants down and saw that the source of the smell had squished out THE TOP of the diaper. If it's coming out the top, you need to beware because this shit means business. Off came the jammies and I got the supplies ready for the excavation and Jeff walked by the bedroom and was like "ew, what's going on?" and I was like "come and help me. It's coming out the top." He came in and held his legs up while I got the diaper off and the poop wiped up and as I went to put the sick diaper in the pail, he yelled "OH GOD, MORE IS COMING OUT, MORE IS COMING OUT!" and I turned to see more poop SHOOTING out of his behind. Imagine a full bottle of ketchup on it's side and then you take the cap off and stomp on the bottle. THAT'S WHAT IT WAS LIKE. It shot out about a foot on to the carpet (of course) and we were both in shock and paralyzed from the hilarity. Now I had poop on the carpet, poop on his foot where he had put it down in the carpet and a naked baby rolling around on the floor with some poop still on him and the propensity to pee AT ANY MOMENT. Jeff got the stain and I corralled the kid and eventually we got him in some new jammies, poop free. We have now seen every type of fluid at every level of viscosity project itself from this child. We can handle anything, now.