Monday I will officially be a "working girl" so...

I have decided this is my last weekend of freedom. Well, at least having the full weekend off. It appears that I'll only have to work one day on the weekend but I will not know for sure until Monday morning when I have my exciting new hire orientation @ Corporate. Which, by the way, is not more than a mere tiny office space above their warehouse in Costa Mesa but I figure the more I embellish it the more extravagant I will look in my new "position." See how I did that? Made it sound all important.

Ok so today (though as I write I notice it's after midnight, so yesterday), during the afternoon we headed out to Newport and Fashion Island for some delicious Gelato Paradiso and and some running around at the Big Koi Pond looking at the fish and snapping some pictures. It was a fun day, we started off in Tustin at the District. I love that place. Seems it has everything a person could need all in one spot. It was designed as a traffic mess but if you stay near the Costco side you can leave via the back side of Jamboree and get out of there in a hurray if need be. We went to Target to get some of the usual junk people and households need. Of course, like most every trip there one never just gets what is written on the list and I came home with the goods and some extra VERY cute T-Shirts for Marcelo. There was not much in the Big Boys department for Luciano. Of all people he starts school next week and he's in dire need of the "Big Day" outfit. Luckily for me he's still in the "I don't care" stage and I get to dress him cute and trendy like all young lads should be dressed. I did, however have to buy him some new shoelaces for his BRAND NEW shoes that Edgard decided to let him wear the other day to the zoo, of all places. Then quietly while I was still out, Mr. Manzi tried to HOSE DOWN the red dirt evidence on his new school shoes and let them dry in the patio. Let's just say I was not a happy camper having to wash red dirt and dust out of new shoes that were suppose to be for school. So @ Target today I purchased some new shoe laces so at the very least he will seem to have new shoes for school on Thursday. I made sure they were black in the hopes that I didn't make a TOTAL mistake buying white (with black trim) tennis shoes for school this year. Fingers crossed. I'm not sure why I care though, it's not like the GIANT sand pit that they call a playground doesn't grinf their shoes into oblivian in mere weeks.

Then it was off to Costco, we again needed the usual household goods like GIANT packages of paper towels because although I am a self professed eco-friendly mother I do have ONE vice and that would be paper towels. I go through them quite fast and although I attempt to control myself I seem to always be out of control when it comes to paper towel usage. We also bought a GIANT package of toilet paper and this is for an entirely other reason which is basically to make sure we don't run out, this mother knows better than to run out of TP with all boys in the house. AND of course the pièce de résistance: Costco has once again started carrying Veggie Straws and thus I tried to control myself but to no avail picked up two HUGE bags of them. I've been waiting for those to come back for weeks. My mom told me I should have waited because the coupon comes out on Monday but I am no dumby, had I waited those vultures that are Costco shoppers would have snatched them up before I could get my hands on them, so damn the $2 savings I was gonna buy my straws!!

Then it was off to Best Buy to look at some camera lenses. Had they had the one I wanted I was going to borrow it (with the receipt) for up to 30 days to make sure I liked it but they only had zooms and I was saved from comitting retail fraud. It got the wheels turning though. They had a sample Canon camera with a 28-135mm lens on it that would have made a fabulous addition to my camera but it only came with the body and well, I already have one of those. The lady said they had them online and the price was in the $600 range. So I pulled out my handy dandy iPhone, which by the way I have no idea how I possibly lived pre-iPhone, and did a quick bizrate search. I found it for around $400 bucks so if all pans out well with this new job I might have to sneak into owning this camera lens, credit card bills being the reason I'm getting a job notwithstanding.

So our last stop in the District in Tustin was to, of course, Whole Foods. This place is quite possibly my favorite place to shop. It is a holistic healthfood market on a grand scale where foodies of all levels are welcome. I wish our local Whole Foods had a Emeril cooking segment for Planet Green where I could watch the master in action but I'll stay content in just knowing such a wonderful store exists. I had to stock back up on Organic Baby Food and some unsweetened organic applesauce they have that is to die for in thier 365 brand. No sugar needed, and added to some walnuts and popped in the micro for like 30seconds becomes the topping to have on my homemade pancakes when I make them for the boys. I rarely use maple syrup for me anymore. Thank you Fat Belly Diet for helping me see the light. Don't get me wrong, organic real maple syrup is a wonderful addition to any pancake or waffle but this applesauce/walnut concoction just makes me smile. Plus, Whole Foods has some little French hermetically sealed squeezy applesauces I like to get for Marcelo. They're quick on the go and keep unopened in the diaper bag indefinitely without refridgeration. Gotta love the French. Trader Joe's has some good ones but the ones @ Whole Foods, although twice the price, have some unique flavors he likes. His palette seems to be forever changing and he gets bored with foods quickly. It's quite the feat keeping that child well fed.

After our day long jaunt through the District we headed south to Fashion Island for some koi watching and gelato enjoying fun in the late afternoon. I reallythink it's great that for August we've been having some mild weather. We can go out without sweating to death in the boiling sun and come home to a house that is not so hot it's impossible to cool down before midnight. So that's why all these people FLOCK to Southern California?

We arrived at Fashion Island without incident. We walked through the shops and saw all the crazy people walking their various sized dogs through the shopping center. Some huge poodles, to tiny little chiahuahuas. That place is definitely dog friendly, me...not so much. So as Marcelo reaches out the sides of his stroller to grab each dog we pass I have to become fighter pilot mama and manuveur between crowds of people with tiny kids everywhere and dogs abound. Now don't get me wrong animal lovers out there in blogland, I have no distain for dogs I have just come to the conclusion I am not a pet person. I admire those that can live with dogs snuggled up all hairy in bed with them or cat people who let he Mr. Jingles roam neighborhoods in search of rodent snacks and give kisses to him as he comes back in at night, I personally am just not that person.

We finally get downstairs in the food court, wash our hands and have a 8 year old potty break in time to grab two cups of Gelato and head back up the elevator to the koi pond for some R & R. Only one problem, as we near the elevator I see a large group of Asian people maybe 8 or 9 sitting near the restrooms chatting. They looked like a family out for a nice day @ the Island just like us, maybe a little shopping and good times. We push the button for the elevator and wait for it to open up and we start to get in. Mind you this elevator is maybe 4 feet deep by 6 feet long. We move to the back in case another person or TWO might care to ride up with us. Just then the ENTIRE family decides they'd like to ride the elevator too. Now, at first I didn't think they were all going to attempt to get on. An elderly man from the group and his wife came on first, I was with the stroller and tried to get as close to the wall as I could hoping Marcelo didn't try to reach from the stroller and grab anything from them. As the man shoved me back and squeezed in I noticed 2 more women from the group jumped in and a young man did the same. Then I see the motherly looking woman in the front catch the door as it was closing and they all started pushing back as if others were going to squeeze in. Now, if you read the last paragraph about my feelings on pets you'll probably eventually come to the conclusion that I am not only a bit of a control freak but I have anxious tendencies and I could not take it anymore. So out of my mouth (at a close to yelling tone) I ask, "wait wait wait, are more people trying to get onto this elevator? Because if they are I'm going to need to get off." Just then the 2 more young men trying to push their way in to the elevator from the family stop and look at me and the mother turns around with a snide look and asks, "do you want to get off?" To which I reply, "not really but if you think you're going to let 2 more people in this elevator you're ALL going to have to get out because I am not riding with you." Finally they said something, in I believe Japanese, and the two boys backed out and the doors closed. Now this was a single level elevator and well although it only took less than a minute to rise back up to our level it was a LONG ride up. The elderly couple who shoved themselves into me and the baby in the first place were now turned towards me speaking to each other in Japanese and giving me stink eye, to which I can only conclude it was something against me, which is fine. They can think what they want I was not about to ride in an elevator meant for maybe 5 people cramped in, with us 4 AND a stroller and a family of 8 or 9. Call me crazy but I just had to speak up. You see in my younger years I would have just grinned and beared the smashed people in the elevator and chalked it up to just one floor, no big deal, but as I age I find myself having more and more of a voice about how I choose to live. Not all people find that appropriate or prudent but I'm beginning to like this voice and hey it works. Although there were still quite a few people in that elevator, at the very least there were not 13.

We finally make it out the doors of the elevator and on our way back outside to the koi pond and they were still ratling off stink eyed accompanied comments as they headed the other way but I continued on my way and we had a wonderful time out enjoying the fresh ocean air of Newport Beach, some tasty gelato and good times with the boys. I've included some pictures of our afternoon at the pond I hope you enjoy!

One day down of my freedom ending weekend, one to go. Tomorrow we're heading to the new Bob's Big Boy for breakfast to relive our childhood memories and I'm making my famous slow roasted ribs for dinner it should be another lovely day at the Manzi house.