Sushi Sadness

There is a sushi place in town that has had half-price Wednesdays and Thursdays. Every week I have to resist the urge to go there and pig out like a mad woman. Well, yesterday we had no food in the house, and instead of going to the grocery store, we decided to go out to eat. I was so excited to eat all that half-priced sushi.

We get to the restaurant, sit down, and the waitress come over to get our drink order. I kindly say, "It appears as though we didn't get the menu with the specials on it. Could we get that, please?" Then I was informed they no long have their specials.

What!!

So now what were we supposed to do? We were already seated and she was getting our drinks. This place is not that cheap without the specials. I was so sad but too chicken to get up and walk out. So we ordered 2 over-priced sushi rolls and then a whole lot of appetizers. It was all good, but it was such a bummer to not get to stuff my face with roll after roll of sushi.

We need to move back to Monterey where the Benihanas had sushi happy hour once a week with half-price sushi. So good.

After our sushi disappointment we took the kids bowling. We went to a bowling alley we hadn't been to before, and it was the cleanest one I have ever seen. It must have been fairly new. They had the bumper that pop up only on the kids turn, which is nice. Ella bowled almost as well as me. Though I did have Alex helping me. We only played one game then let the kids wander at will in the arcade. I love that they haven't yet figured out that they aren't really playing the game when we haven't put money in.

We dragged them out of there in time to come home and watch Idol. We are sadly obsessed. I think the girls did terribly last night. I think David Archuletta is going to win. I'm sure I spelled his name wrong and I'm too lazy to look it up.

But that's about it. No pictures again. I think Anton took a bunch yesterday, but I haven't put them on the computer. Deal with it.

I'm a dork.

So today I spent so much time on the computer scrolling through all sorts of text which I was reading that I actually got motion sick. Can you believe that? Motion sick because of the computer? I feel like such a dork. Then right after I started feeling sick we hopped in the car to go for a drive. Not the best idea. I spent a lot of the time covering my eyes and doing some deep breathing. Ugh.

It also doesn't help that all of us except Ella are sick. Nasty hacking coughs. I'm going to try and take Alex to the doctor tomorrow because he's been coughing for 2 weeks now and not getting better. I hope he doesn't have strep.

Otherwise, things are a big punctuation and grammar blur. That's all I've been doing, studying, studying, studying. I haven't taken a single picture in weeks. And when I'm not studying I'm trying to spend more time with Ella and Alex to make up for all the studying. So you will all have to forgive me for being such an absentee blogger. Hopefully it will all settle down once I finish my class and start working. Which, by the way, I still don't have a name for my business. My sister thinks "The Scopinator" is perfect, but I think it might be a little cavalier. Oh well. I don't have to have a name to work.

But enough rambling. Off to make myself even more sick!

Help me name my business!

So it does no good to be in the scoping business if my business doesn't have a name! But I can't think of anything good. I need your help! I was going to make it a contest, but I have nothing cool to give away. So you're just going to have to do this out of the kindness of your hearts and your desire to help me.

So here we go. I want the name to reflect the qualities that court reporters look for when hiring a scopist; namely, accuracy, excellent knowledge of grammar and punctuation, attention to detail, quick turn-around, etc. (How was that for a nicely punctuated, fancy grammatical sentence?) However, there are already a lot of businesses out there with names like: Precision Scoping, Professional Scoping Services, and so on. All the names sound the same. I want my name to stand out from the crowd. I don't want it to have my name in it. Who would want my mouth-full of a name in any business title? So do you think you guys can help me out? Think memorable yet professional. I'm pulling a blank. I've been studying too much punctuation. It flows out of my ears. If you don't know what a scopist is you can read about it in my last post. And if any of you know of a court reporter looking for some help feel free to send them my way! Thanks!

Not much going on.

It's been a slow week here for us. Just a bunch of the usual goings on. I've been spending my time studying, and Anton has been taking up the slack in my parental and wifal roles.

For those who care to know what scoping (the stuff I've been studying) is all about I will give you a quick run-down. Court reporters sit in on cases, depositions, etc., writing everything down in a shorthand called stenography. They then run this shorthand through a computer that translates it into English. However, the court reporter and the computer are not perfect so the resulting transcript can be quite a mess. The scopist's job is to take the messy transcript and edit it to turn it into a nice one without changing what was said, which is the tricky part. So you have to be able to read stenography and know all sorts of legal and medical terms and anything else that make come up in court. There's lots of grammar and punctuation involved too.

So that's the idea. And that's what I'm studying to do. This week I've been doing stenography. I'll be getting more into grammar next week and more fun after that. Then in a few weeks, if I can do this all fast, I'll be able to start working. My idea is to do this while Anton is going to school so he doesn't have to work. I can do it at home on my own time so it should work out nicely.

In other news, we took Ella to the doctor yesterday because she's been complaining about her stomach hurting everytime she eats. I'm pretty sure she has reflux, and the doctor took me at my word and prescribed her some Zantac. I've already forgotten to give her a dose. I'm terrible at remembering medication. It's why I could never use the pill. I'd be having babies left and right. :)

Also yesterday, Alex woke up in the middle of his nap crying and squirming and acting really not well. Then all of a sudden he threw up everywhere, except on me thankfully. Poor kid. It was nasty. He doesn't chew his food well.

Could all of this be any more random and full of stuff most of you probably don't care about? But I can't think of anything else worth rambling about. Maybe next week we can find something more exciting to entertain you all with. Take care!

Friday Fun

On Friday we decided to go find some fun. Anton remembered seeing a fishing museum once when we were driving around so we figured that was as good a place as any. It was a little over an hour away. Can you tell we are getting more and more desperate for things to do? We keep driving farther and farther.

So we get to the fishing museum. It's pretty small. Just one room with a bunch of fish down the middle and on the walls. Alex was really enthralled by them:

You can practically hear this guy yelling for help:

"They've got me pinned up on this wall and I can't get down!"

Ella and Alex had a fun time saying all the silly fish names. I had to video it for posterity:



Aren't they cute? Ella really loved that Mola Mola. She posed with Daddy with it:

I learned that the fish we all know as a mahi-mahi (and is super tasty to eat) is actually called a Dolphin fish. Not to be confused with the dolphin mammal. It has a blunt head and is an iridescent green blue color. Very pretty. But not so pretty that I won't be eating it again.

After getting bored with the dead fish we headed up the street to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Anton has to eat at them all. He collects the glasses. I think I've said that before. So here we are at the Hard Rock:

The restaurant was in a really cool shopping center. And since it has been ages since we have been anywhere near a really cool shopping center we decided to wander around. First we went to Bass Pro Shop so the kids could see some live fish.

We probably could've skipped the museum all together and just gone there and the kids would have been happy.

We found the coolest play area in the shopping center. All the toys, slides, the ground, everything, was squishy. So if you fell you wouldn't get hurt. Very cool.

They had a little train that drove around there too, but it cost $3 per person to ride. We are cheap. Therefore, we hopped on the free trolley that also drives around the shopping center. I like free and the kids didn't know the difference.

Then we found what made the whole trip worth while. A Cold Stone. It had been over a year since we had eaten there and even though it was a bit cold outside we didn't let that stop us. I had a Ghirardelli chocolate with Ghirardelli carmel squares with Ghirardelli chocolate chips. Yummm. But since it was cold we also had to go to the Starbucks next door so Anton could get a Carmel Apple Cider. So much yummy goodness.

Then we were all worn out and it was time to head home.

Saturday Ella went to a really fun bug themed birthday party. Sunday everyone started to get sick. Today it has hit me. Yuck. Stuffy nose. But it was such a nice day we decided to take a picnic to the park and have fun. The kids really needed to get out.

And that about does it. The only other news is that I've signed up to begin training to be a scopist. I'm sure you have never heard of it, but I can do it from home and make good money while Anton goes to school. If he goes to school. If we ever get out of the military.

Who needs the Girl Scouts?

It's Girl Scout Cookie season. In case you hadn't noticed. I actually haven't had the opportunity yet this year to buy any, but when I ran across someone's blog that talked about Samoa's I knew I had to have some. I wouldn't let not knowing a single Girl Scout deter me from achieving what I sought. So I hunted down a recipe for homemade Samoa's and I was on my way. They actually weren't too hard to make, there were just a lot of steps. You have to make the cookie, then mix up a batch of carmel and coconut, then spread that onto the cookies. Then melt yourself some chocolate and somehow manage to get it on the bottom of the cookie (I used my finger) and drizzle some across the top to make them look pretty. I made a HUGE mess in my kitchen which Anton so kindly cleaned up for me (he didn't have a choice) and I was left to eat a whole lot of these:

Don't they look fabulous? Now I don't think they taste quite like the mass produced so not good for you version that comes in the little purple box, but they do taste good. Who can resist something that looks so divine:

Plus the longer they sit the softer it all gets and everything melds together. I think I ate half the batch the day after making them. Shame on me.

So long story short, if you have spare time and a hankering for GS Cookies you might try this route. However, with my now perfect hindsight, I might say hunting down a Girl Scout would have been easier.