We are off tomorrow for Thanksgiving in San Francisco. We are super excited to have the weekend exploring the city and will take a scenic drive back along the coast on Sunday, stopping in at a winery for lunch. Stay tuned for details and of course pictures.

Jeremy just called to say that the RFP they submitted for Cathay Pacific is a hit, so he is off to Hong Kong on Wednesday to present their concepts in person and meet the potential client. First Singapore Airlines, now Cathay Pacific. I think my husband is planning a hostile take over of the Asian airline business.
Anyways, once again I am very proud as the RFP was more than impressive. It should have been, the damn thing cost $1200 to print at Kinko’s !!! Yet another example of how your hard work and dedication payed off. I think you may be on to something.

We are puppy sitting Lola for the weekend. She is very well behaved for the most part, but is a little orally fixated on chewing at the moment. She is like a toddler, the minute you turn your back, she has something else in her mouth. I didn’t realize that she had snuck downstairs and chewed up one of my slippers shortly before Jeremy arrived home last night. I had been with her all day and was very proud of the diligent eye I had been keeping and her general level of care. They don’t call me “Eagle Eye Lax” for nothing. We were in the office when Jeremy notices that she is dry heaving in the corner. Jeremy announces that the dog is obviously about to puke. My first reaction was to feel upset that she had gotten into something without me knowing about it. While I sat there analyzing whether or not I could have been more attentive, Jeremy jumps into action without missing a beat. He whips off his wedding band, places it carefully on the desk and cups his hand beneath the dogs mouth so that she can vomit into them. I mean c’mon that’s dedication. I didn’t even make it half way to the kitchen to grab paper towel.
In case anyone is curious, she basically threw up a big hair ball of all the thread from the slipper.

So, I’m at Target yesterday on my weekly visit to my favorite place on earth.
I frequent the same location and have become freakishly familiar with it’s layout.
As I enter, it becomes apparent that the store has been “chrismafied” since my last visit and the merchandise has been updated for the holidays.
I peruse over to the accessories section and immediately spot the first of my “must haves” for this week. There in front of me are the most adorable hat and mitten sets that I have ever seen. I am giddy with excitement and start narrowing down my favorite combinations. Then it dawns on me, like a quick but swift punch to the gut, the reality of the truth leaves me gasping for air.
I live in California god dammit, it’s never going to be cold enough to sport a toque.
In fact, I think the car temperature gauge would self implode if it ever recorded an outside reading lower than 63 degrees.
Damn you Tar-jay and your deceitful ways for actually tricking me into believing that one day, someday, we may experience a deep freeze warranting the wearing of mittens. Oh I know better. And don’t even get me started on the faux fur wraps. Where am I sporting those? People are still wearing shorts and flip flops and the heart of winter is less than a month away!
What’s next?
Are you going to trick me into believing that if I pray hard enough we might actually have a white Christmas?
Guess what, it ain’t going to happen.
Well, maybe up in Mammoth but not here, that’s for sure.

Leaving the accessories behind feeling foolish and ashamed, I glance over at the women’s section just in time for a pair of pants to catch my attention. I inspect the cargo style little numbers and determine that they are very cute and cargo-ee* indeed.
As I am ruffling through trying to find my size I glance at the hangtag and am a little shocked to find that I am apparently shopping in the Juniors section.
Now I have a moral dilemma.
Is it appropriate for a 27 year old women to be sporting a pair of pants designed for tweens?
I decide to let the pants make that decision and after going up a few sizes (since most ten year olds don’t have hips), I head back to the change room pants in tow.

Needless to say I am the proud new owner of a pair of Mossimo labeled Junior Cargo pants and the love affair with Target continues.

*cargo-ee: to be adorned with numerous pockets, buttons, snaps and other accouterment to schlep any cargo my heart so desires.

““:http://jeremybell.com/photos/album/san-diego/

Jess and I headed down to San Diego this past weekend to catch Metric in concert and to explore the area a bit. We’d been itching to get into a city again… living in Orange County is much different than Toronto and we both admittedly miss the urban life. We were down there briefly once before to visit the Zoo, but hadn’t actually explored the city yet. San Diego is actually quite large, so we didn’t even scratch the surface - but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We stayed the night at the W Hotel, which was a major disappointment in my opinion. Sure, the hotel was cool and trendy, our sheets were color coordinated to match the towels, the bed was super comfortable, and the lobby became a party scene at night - but in the end, I was definitely underwhelmed with the experience. Our hotel room felt more like an IKEA showroom than a hotel room - the best description I can muster is “Cheap and Cheerful” - only it wasn’t. It was expensive. I don’t think I’ll be staying there again. Sorry P.

Luckily we didn’t spend much time in our room and instead ventured out to explore the surrounding area. We spent the majority of Saturday night down in the Gaslamp District, which seems like the place to be in San Diego. The streets are lined with trendy shops and restaurants and there was a great vibe in the air. It actually felt more like a borough straight out of New York… with about 1/3 fewer people of course.

Metric went on at 11:30 that night, and put on a pretty good show. I didn’t realize this until we got there, but the show had been sold out for weeks. It looks like the little band from Toronto has a bit of a following in Southern California - the LA show was sold out as well. They played at a tiny venue called The Casbah which is, as far as I can tell, someone’s house with a bar and stage in the basement. It’s right next to the San Diego airport, so I’m guessing the owners attempted to drown out the sound of airplanes landing with some live music in their basement.

The next morning we went for brunch and then headed out to Coronado for the rest of the day. Coronado is a small “island” town that is connected to San Diego by a ridiculously tall bridge. Coronado is awesome - Jess and I both loved it. It felt like a small cozy cottage town… except there’s a huge Navy base protruding from its side. Yesterday was “homecoming” day, so everyone was out to welcome the Navy Sailors home. Jess wanted me to drive onto the Navy base so we could snap some photos of the homecoming, but the guards with guns thought otherwise.

Turned away at the gates, we headed to the beach. I managed to grab a bunch of photos there… apparently Sunday afternoon is “Bring Your Dog To The Beach Day”, which is to say there were more than a few dogs running along the beach and in the water. Big dogs, little dogs, cute dogs and ugly dogs - they were all there, getting wet and sandy.

All in all, San Diego was a blast and I can’t wait to go back and explore the rest of it.

Last night Jeremy and I saw the U2 concert in LA at the Staples Center.
I’m not the worlds most die-hard fan (I mean I like them as much as the next guy/gal), but I do have to give them credit for putting on a solid show.
During the encore we headed down to the floor to see if a security guard would let us watch the show from an alcove. As we were standing there, the guard asks if we want to see a celebrity and tells us to look straight above our heads at the box directly behind us and there she was…Paris Hilton.
For those who care, her latest boy toy (greek billionaire take 2) was nowhere to be seen and in fact she had some chick hanging off of her. Random. The longer I stared, the dirtier I felt.
The best part of the concert for me was Saint Bono and his continual quest to make the world a better place.
His latest humanitarian project aimed at combating poverty, launched as a web based campaign last year with the goal of having a million people sign-up over 12 months and so far, two million have stepped up.
Because of the overwhelming support, the organization has provided anti-viral medicine to a quarter million HIV infected Africans in the past year.
If you haven’t done so already, I urge people to take 1 minute out of their day and sign up at:

www.one.org

Makin’ the world a better place, one web based campaign at a time.