After an amazing meal of Afghan food last night, my husband pulls out a giant gift bag from the trunk of the car. It is no other than a Nikon D5000! The next camera up from the one that was stolen! I was so happy I cried. He done good.

I realize how sad I was in losing my camera after having it such a short time, and after finally admitting how much I needed creativity in my life. Now I’m back to snapping photos of plants and kids. Will post soon.

Happy Mother’s Day to me and to you!!

So I almost missed this year’s Ultimate Blog Party. If it hadn’t been for Marly, who found my site (probably from last year’s event) I wouldn’t have even known! Susan and Janet of 5 Minutes for Mom are the lovely hosts of this 4th year event. (Ladies, my sincere apologies for showing up late. At least I brought wine)

Um, Susan, what is a Blog Party?

It’s a way for people to get to know each other in the blogosphere. If you visit this page you will be inundated with great blogs to check out and explore. Swing by just like you would a new neighbor’s house (although not in the way those two lovely thieves swung by my house). Stop by, have a virtual bite and cocktail and make friends.

When you spend a lot of time online, it can feel disconnected, not seeing the people you know so much about. There are a lot of you who have been loyally reading my blog for a while and know more about me than some of my friends. That’s how it works. This Ultimate Blog Party is about engaging and having some conversation.

If you haven’t already, go make some friends at the Ultimate Blog Party!

So you’re not truly indoctrinated into being a Southern Californian until you’ve experienced your first earthquake, at least in my mind.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I was painting my nails on the bed, watching a show about Soul Train with the hub. The bed shakes, annoying me, since I’m about to get Hot Fuschia all over my fingers.

“Honey, are you shaking the bed?”

Nothing. If you have a five year old who loves [insert favorite ugly monster/robot show here]  show and can completely be engrossed, this is my husband watching anything about Soul Train.

“Quit shaking the bed!”

“I’m not shaking the bed.”

I look on the other side to see if Max is trying to sneak up on me. Nothing. Puzzled, as bed is still shaking.

“It’s an earthquake,” says husband, calmly as if telling me the laundry is done.

EARTHQUAKE! OH GOD! WHAT DO WE DO? STOP, DROP AND ROLL? WAIT, NO. UM. OH GOD THIS IS CRAZY.

That, needless to say is me.

It was weird. We were upstairs and you could feel the house sway back and forth. The pictures didn’t even move on the wall. Nothing broke. It was kinda like a theme park ride.

And after a minute, it was over.

I, doing what any red blooded Tweeter would do, jumped on Twitter to see what the hell that was. It was indeed an earthquake, originating in Baja California. Or was it Mexico? Anyway, it was a 7.3 on the Richter scale. Out of 9. So pretty damn big.

It was kinda cool to talk to people I didn’t know in San Diego on Twitter about it. Everyone told their story of what they were doing at the time (a la 9/11 only on a smaller scale). I even found a few bloggers I didn’t know lived here, like Sugar Jones. So now I look forward to meeting my new Twitter pals.

I realized I really didn’t know what you’re supposed to do in case of an earthquake. I did my homework for next time:

• If you’re inside get on the ground and under something if you can
• Or go outside away from things that can fall
• Don’t panic (oops)

After I was sure we weren’t going to have an aftershock, I went to the grocery store, where more people were talking about it. They said this was the biggest earthquake since the 1970s, so that makes me feel good. If I can withstand a 7.3, I can withstand anything!