I’m watching This Is It (that Michael Jackson concert documentary) on my streaming Netflix, and I’m finding it hard to not sit here and dance a little bit in my chair and sing along.  I have a sweet spot in my heart for Michael Jackson’s music, and I’m finding this documentary pretty great.  Not only is it really fascinating to see what goes into these concert productions, but it seems this show would have been particularly awesome.  He may have been a little weird, but excellent musician and entertainer he was.

I scrapped today for the first time in months and months.  Not super proud of the outcome, but I’m out of shape.

I’ve also been making a bunch of thank you cards since I ran out of store-bought ones.  Yes, I’m still that late in sending out some thank you cards from the wedding.

I’m going to get back to MJ now.  The Way You Make Me Feel is on – his 80’s stuff is the best.

I’ve been meaning to read Roberto Bolaño’s epic novel 2666 for the last year and a half.  I’ve started it a couple of times, but kept getting distracted by other novels.  Pure laziness has also halted me, as this book is a hard one to read (this paperback you see here is just one of three that complete the novel).  I’m determined though.  Tonight’s the night.  Take that 2666 – I will conquer you.

Also thinking about gardening.  I planted a bunch of beautiful plants in our bare yard last year.  Many did not make it.  My flower beds look like this.

Why did they not survive you ask?  Well, let me show you.

This little guy used our flower beds and any other new plant area as his own personal toilet.  Next step, buy new plants, re-plant, and surround them with pug-proof gates.  Our utilize Matt’s method – utilizing pokey pinecones as ground cover (it works, check out our thriving clematis).

I scrapped a little this weekend.  I must say, scrapping has lost it’s fun recently.  Sewing is much more interesting as of late.  I think my crafty pages are showing my loss of enthusiasm.

I will end by sharing Matt’s unique culinary creation.  Humalsa.

I’m not quite sold, myself, but Mateo loves it.  And you all must try this salsa.  Especially you, Jennie.  It is quite delish.

And like a good little house person, I brought some down to the boys on a little plate.

They were just a peanut butter cookie recipe that I added walnuts, chocolate chips, and toffee pieces to.  Delicious.  My company during this whole process?

Dad, I don’t know how I lived without this thing.

Also while left to my own devices, I made some thank you cards to give to my colleagues at work as I leave.  A sampling is below.

And some crafty pages.

Ta ta for now.

Yikes.  And I think I may have developed some sort of tolerance.  I’ve been waiting patiently for the last hour to be swept off into my NyQuil-induced coma, but apparently my stuffy nose and achey body have it in for me tonight.  So here I am, blogging away.

I had a pretty stressful day today.  To combat that stress, I scrapped.  Scrappy Anna – oh how I missed you so.

Last weekend we celebrated our niece’s 3rd birthday, and got some Marin time to boot.

I’m off to watch Ugly Betty until this medicine kicks in.  At least someone around here is getting some sleep.

I got to scrap a little this weekend!  And I worked on my dad’s wedding invitations a little (don’t worry Leigh, there’s still lots to do ).  That project is on hold as I broke my printer with the ingenious idea I had to print them.  Not so ingenious now is it.  Anyway, here are my latest creations:

I also got to finish a book this weekend.  There are few more awesome feelings to me than finishing a book.  It’s called The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.  It’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, and has references in it that are way smarter than I am (apparently Oscar’s name is intended to be similar to Oscar Wilde – totally wouldn’t have gotten that reference if I hadn’t read the New York Times review).  Excellent novel about a nerdy Dominican-American kid and his family history and the struggles they’ve lived through both domestically and abroad.  Learned some Dominican history.  Learned some new offensive language in Spanish.  Excellent read – I recommend it.

I’ll sign off by wishing my Mateo a very happy 26th birthday.  He’s in his man room playing with his birthday present to himself – a sweet new Specialized road bike.  He’ll be there for a while.