Clairity

Distracted and derailed?

May 062012

I’ve been distracted over the past coupla weeks. Distracted by nothing in particular. Just finding it hard to sit down and crank up a post.

Today I read two distinctly opposite posts written by two distinctly different bloggers. A mommy blogger says she’s given up on her blog and that blogging is dead because everyone’s moved to Facebook. That so? *shrug* Those are her words, not mine.

Well, it depends on how you look at it. If you blog because you love to write, like moi, then blogging can never be dead for you. But if you’re constantly glued to FB and letting it take over your relationships, romance and dinner time, then you either have to strike a laboratory balance or you’re just never going to find time to blog.

So. Then I came across another post written by a daddy blogger who says, if you want to improve your writing, write every day, even if you have nothing to write about. Practice makes perfect, he says and he’s exactly right. So what if no one reads your blog. You’re writing because you love to write, not because you’re trying to please anyone.

I have a small collection of blogs that I love reading. I think they’re really well written – great style, great flair – but strangely, they’re not the most read or commented on. Can’t help it if folks don’t appreciate good writing. So now, I think I might just go join NaBloPoMo or some other pick-me-upper to jumpstart my keyboard again.

Our everyday dishes

Posted by Clairity 5 Responses »

May 022012

The most asked question in the Hip household is “what’s for dinner?”. But you already knew that… from all the food posts and less-than-glamorous food photos I’ve been posting. Brace yourself, here come more photos of (as my post title says) our everyday dishes.

Let’s start with what we ate today. Spaghetti olio e aglio with Bratwurst sausages and grilled zucchinis, carrots, onions and peppers. Best darned thing ever! Judging from all the rave reviews today, I predict this will become our new favorite pasta dish.

Our current favorite is Cajun-style spinach fettucine with greens and grilled salmon. If it’s pasta, we’ll basically eat it (with a few exceptions, of course!)

Potatoes are also a staple on our daily menu. Raine, my Chief of Russets, takes it upon herself to ensure we never run out of potatoes. If we ever move, it’d likely be to Idaho .

Roast chicken, any style, is always a yay on our menu.

Then there’s all those funky salads the girls love throwing together.

And Skye, our Chief of Fresh Fruit, personally picks out our fruit selection every weekend. She usually makes a beeline for the Dole bananas . She’s also been known to crack the whip on us if we forget to eat our fruits *shudder*.

What are your family’s everyday dishes?

Too big

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May 012012

The other day, I was rummaging through my closet full of old business suits looking for something that Raine could wear to her public speaking class. Back when I was a slave at Corporate Tower, I used to be 1.5 times the size that I am now.

My work days revolved mostly around meetings. I was juggling multiple projects and sitting on multiple steering committees, all of which involved long meetings and sometimes even web conferencing from ActConferencing.com with business associates in other parts of the world.

Oftentimes, our meetings would spill into lunch. Big heavy lunches at classy restaurants. At least they gave us something to look forward to after hours of being holed up in the conference room. Having a boss with a taste for fine cuisine is great but not for my waistline.

I never exercised because there just weren’t enough hours in a day. Weekends and those few precious hours after work were totally dedicated to my 3 kids. As a result, my suit sizes went up, up and away. I don’t think I was ever fat, just flabby in all the wrong places.

Well, I tried on some of my old business suits the other day and they’re all too big for me now. And that, I believe, is a good thing.

Weekly Schmooze #4

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Apr 302012

1. Either someone’s playing tricks with my eyelids or the weather is truly, madly, incredibly hot because in the afternoon, my eyelids just seem to go flooop.

2. Discovered a new Vietnamese restaurant and we’ve been there twice this past week. Vietnamese food reminds me of lazy college weekends in Cali. That’s where I first discovered beef ball noodle soup could taste so good.

3. Someone please remind me to avoid the mall on weekends. Weekends are rudeness magnified at the mall. Somehow one thing or another would make me head out there and then I end up kicking myself!

4. After a 2 weekend break from the kitchen, our bakery was back into action. We made 2 pound cakes for Skye’s recess. Just for fun, I decided to funky this one up with some strawberry puree. Actually it’s not half bad, just a little more cracked than usual but still very moist.

Hip to be Shopping – Evening clutches that Mom would love

Posted by Clairity 2 Responses »

Apr 292012

Carlo Fellini Celeste – Black/Gold

This long evening clutch with a flower beaded pattern spells class all on its own. I love the retro look and feel of the clasp and the unusual shape of the purse.

Nina Handbags MIKKI-M – Tangerine Multi

If you know me, you know I love funky colors and this floral sequin envelope-shaped bag would definitely light up my ~~day~~ night.

Carlo Fellini Eleanor – Silver

A very unusual pleated crossed pattern evening bag that I would have no problems being seen with .

Mother’s Day is just about 2 weeks away. Still stumped for a Mother’s Day gift idea? How ’bout one of these evening clutches?

A friend on the fly

Posted by Clairity 1 Response »

Apr 262012

I’m constantly amazed at the people I’ve met on my travels. I mean, you would think the nicest folks are the ones you would meet on a mom forum or somewhere within your realm but I’ve met some of the most interesting and nicest people while traveling alone.

Once I was in line behind a guy at the information counter at LAX. As you may know, LA Airport is massive and getting from one terminal to another is like trying to navigate a whole city and when you have a flight to catch, the last thing you want is to lose your way and miss your flight.

So happened the guy in front of me was asking directions to the same terminal I was. I overheard the lady at the desk giving him directions and when he turned around, I mentioned I was headed there too and he suggested we should try to find our way there together.

I had a crazy heavy backpack on me at the time. My check-in luggage was overweight on my earlier flight and I’d had to offload some of my stuff to my carry-on backpack.

As we walked, I could feel he was giving my backpack a boost from behind so it would be less heavy on me. And when we reached a point where we weren’t sure if we should keep going or take the escalator up, he made me wait while he went upstairs to scout around. What a nice guy!

He was headed to Peru for a 2-week trekking thingy that he’d been planning for months and I was flying to the opposite side of the planet. We parted ways soon afterwards. Strange how you meet someone for just a few minutes, talk like you’ve known each other your entire lives and then you go your separate ways and you never see each other again.

Has this ever happened to you?