We were having a super laid-back week last week… for a change . No school, no taxi runs, no hurry. So me and the teens decided to mosey on over to Tony Roma’s. Huge big lunch orders. This yummy onion loaf on the house.

Lots of laughs. Good service. Um, a little too good apparently. The maitre’d came over (surprise, surprise!) and asked about our meal. Good. Hmmm. Great. Hmmm. Yep. Hmmm. Those were my responses answered with my mouth closed. Well, almost.

On any other day, I would’ve flashed my big ol’ smile and rattled away. But not today. Even though the service was really quite good and deserved a big smile of satisfaction! Darn that parsley in my teeth !!

What would you do? Use it to scare away an over-zealous insurance marketing agent? I would !

If you need something nice and funky for baby and don’t want to spend a lot, be sure to check out the incredible $5 Baby Blowout Sale.

pink zany receiving blanket $20.00 – now only $5.00

There’s lots to choose from: kimono sets, hats, receiving blankets and more. What I really love about their stuff is their funky mismatched colors which will surely brighten up any day and bring a smile just to see the play of colors! Offer ends February 28, 2010.

As everyone is busy gobbling mandarin oranges (the homonym for ‘gold’ in Chinese), I guess we can expect more talk about the benefits of buying gold and how profitable it can be.

In these days of financial uncertainty, I’m told that it’s safer to hoard gold than money. That is, if you have the money to buy gold bullion in the first place.

I guess people are more comfortable with cash because they’re more familiar with it than with precious metals. But hey, like the saying goes, you can always learn, and I believe there are always people willing to teach you a few tricks.

Raine needs a new pair of glasses. She says one of her eyes is blurry and she can’t see the blackboard from where she’s seated in class. Although she’s secretly hoping to get contact lenses instead of eyeglasses, I’ve convinced her that eyeglasses are much more practical until she finishes high school this year.

Actually I’m also trying to save some money because I know that I can get quality eyeglasses at a really low cost at Zenni Optical. At first, I couldn’t believe the prices of their eyeglasses start at only $8. I had to read and reread the line I read on this review about them, “Cheap eyeglasses are a reality. Check out Eric’s review of Zenni Optical”, published on Examiner.com.

Raine’s fear is that the frames might be ‘lame’ and ‘old fashioned’ but after I showed her the designs on their website, she’s managed to pick out not one, or two but three frames that she’s sure her teen friends would go ga-ga over.

Okay, I guess that solves the problem for me. Teens these days are so fashion-conscious and everything they want seems to cost a small fortune. I’m just glad Raine’s glasses will be a fashion item that will cost me so little. Mom’s dream come true .

While it’s the same old, same old every house we visited this year, ours isn’t. We’ve got a star attraction to show off and he has, so far, got everyone we know going ga-ga…

… yep, that would be Tyson, our beauty king of a baby beagle. Isn’t he cute? He smiles too and yelps when he hears his name. Tyson’s been with us for only about 5 months now, so he wasn’t around last Chinese New Year. This year, our visitors were surprised to see happy little Tyson at their feet.

Hip2bDad’s best buddy dropped by with his family. Their 2 teen boys are around the same age as our 3, and as young families, we’ve spent many fun times together checking out new playgrounds, comparing toys, wondering which baby jogger city mini to buy and trading child-proofing stories.

We could easily tell that Hip2bDad’s buddy was quite taken with Tyson and was indicating to his boys that they too should probably get a pet when they return home. The only problem is they live in a condominium where space may be a constraint. We don’t think that’s going to stop him though .

Anyhow, back to Tyson. He’s getting all the attention from our festive visitors as well as from Raine and Skye. Since they have a week off from school, they have all the time in the world to pamper, sneak him forbidden snacks, spray him with water to cool him off in this heat, take him for walks and of course, Tyson is only too happy to pose for photos. We love you, Ty. You’re the cutest!