The Happily Ever After fallacy

Last weekend was the weekend I was least looking forward to because it was Mother’s Day weekend. But it turned out really well. On Saturday, I took Lana and the dogs to our local fire station for the annual LAFD open house. Later that day, we went to Orange County to see the in-laws. On Sunday, I took Lana to the Pasadena Kidspace Children’s Museum. She enjoyed it so much that I got us a membership so we can visit more often. Plus we didn’t get to explore the rest of the campus.

An Afternoon for handmaking Valentine’s Day cards

If we were having coffee, we would be at this popular brunch place. You may ask me why are we here so early?” Well, as I mentioned, it’s a popular brunch spot and the waitlist for a seat gets very long quickly (think 60+ minutes). If you are okay with long waits, maybe you can occupy your time with walks around the neighborhood or wandering around the aisles of the Michaels Craft Store next door.

The Umpteenth time is a charm

Happy July and it welcomed us with surprisingly cool weather. June was eventful in a tense way and it felt like it took a long time to complete the month BIL #2 moved out, Teddy had a lot of his teeth taken out, and it’s been incredibly hot. Then June ended with Lana getting croup. I had to ask BIL #1 to not smoke near the house to support Lana’s recovery. I’m not sure for how long he’ll have to do this, let’s just say it’s going to be for a while. I did weigh my options: I could have bought an air purifier or bought more indoor plants (to only be killed in a few weeks). But I thought asking BIL #1 to not smoke near the house was the most cost effective direction. Since then he’s been spending his days out of the house (side note: he could have just worked on quitting). I hate to admit this, but the house has been smelling better.

Currently sick…

I am currently taking care of a cold right now and I feel it is the longest I’ve been sick in a while. I’ve been sick since Wednesday and today is Saturday. I tested and it isn’t COVID surprisingly. I had to take Wednesday and Thursday off. On Friday, I returned to the office because I knew I would not have a lot of people coming in on that day. Also, I would have my own office that day so it lessens the spread. Today I canceled all my plans to take care of this cold. We’ll see about tomorrow’s plans…

Well this was unexpected…

First off, thank you all so much for the support and kind words about the incident at the park. It made my spirit crumble seeing that other family got to keep their dog at the playground and I was the “rulebreaker” asked to keep my dogs out of the park. I felt worse that my 1.5-year-old was part of this incident. I felt compelled to explain to her why world can be so unfair even though she won’t comprehend what I’m saying.

Just a grain of salt…

Happy weekend coffee share! Let’s have a light brunch at Huckleberry in Santa Monica. I’ve been hearing great things about this place for years. I even borrowed their cookbook from the library to try out some recipes even though I’ve never been at the time. The jam-filled brioche loaf on the cover page caught my eye and that’s why I borrowed it. I was ambitious to venture into brioche-making. When I was about to return the library book, my miniature Schnauzer, Teddy, ruined the cover. Maybe he thought eating the cover page was a delicious idea. The library did not want want the book back in that condition (obviously). I had to pay for a replacement and got to keep the wrecked version.

To be honest, the damage is not as bad you think. Thank god for hardcover. Plus the pages are in great condition.

I guess I never bothered going because there are many other great brunches between there and where I lived. This morning I decided to finally go because it’s hot where I live. I wanted to escape the heat of the Valley for a little bit and hang out at Santa Monica. I am happy to say I am glad I made the small trek. This quiche gruyere and mushroom quiche is amazing! I also had their fruit crisp. This place definitely lives up to the hype. I’ll definitely go back to re-read this cookbook and replicate these dishes.

Anyways, if we were having coffee, I want to share a thing that bothered me. Background: my daughter’s daycare is at my work in the hospital so I get to see her during my lunch breaks. The other day, I decided to have lunch at the daycare to watch Lana do waterplay because it was first time doing waterplay. I like to see her have fun and engage with the other kids. I asked the daycare supervisor if I could eat lunch at the daycare and he said it was ok but as long as I’m not eating chips or other junk food in front of the other kids. He was explaining the importance of modeling good eating habits for the kids at the daycare. Also, he did not want to have some kid say “hey I don’t want to eat this watermelon, I want to chips because she’s eating chips!” I understood where he was coming from and I am not against this policy. Funny thing was that I had a bag of chip with me. All I had to do was walk a few feet to the staff cafeteria and eat them away from the kid’s sight. No big deal.

But that is not the part that frustrated me. After work, I met up with my husband for dinner and his friend tagged along. I shared with my husband about their lunch policy because we don’t want Lana become a picky eater as she gets older. But his friend exploded saying “Oh my gosh…ugh…they’re social engineering your kid. This is why you should not put your kids through public school, blah blah blah. This is why homeschool is far superior blah blah” Side note: this friend does not have any kids. And if you think public health and teaching kids and anybody about healthy eating (and washing your hands, brushing your teeth, etc.) is social engineering, then sure… Then hope you have one or all the things as a result of not doing any of these healthy habits. Also daycare is not the same as public school because I pay for daycare. It’s completely ridiculous. As much as I am ok with hearing other perspectives, I prefer to keep them at arm’s length. I commend my husband for taking these comments with a tiny grain of salt, while I am a little bit more sensitive.