Where the surf meets the turf...

Every year I declare "NEXT YEAR I will be at Opening Day..." and while that promise didn't come through this year for me, it did for over 43,000 of my fellow San Diegans. While work and parental obligations kept many of us away Wednesday, at least we have this Sunday's Family Fun Day. 

Thanks to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, a bunch of us parenting bloggy types are headed to the track this Sunday to see the Ponies, and place a few bets while the kids are entertained by magicians, bounce houses, face painters and more. 

Each child that walks through the gate will also get a free "Pony Boy" webkinz and the chance to meet the "real" Pony Boy (Del Mar's Mascot) during the infield activities. 

The fun begins at 1:00; remember that you can also bring a small cooler with a picnic lunch and snacks... just no booze. That, you have to buy there. 

If you end up going on Sunday and want to meet up with some of the coolest parents that the San Diego Blogosphere has to offer - use the hashtag #delmarfamilyfun to find us.

Tickets are $10 for adults and kids 17 and under are free. Parking is $8. First post time is 2:00 so be sure to get there with enough time to place your first bet. 

You can visit www.DMTC.com for any additional information.

Walking in Heels

When you talk to people about working from home, normally their eyes glaze over and they get this blissful expression and say something along the lines of "Oh, how nice to not have to get dressed everyday..." To which I normally reply, "Yea, but I miss shoes."

Seriously. I have missed shoes.

Even if you are one of those Type AA++ people who gets dressed to sit in your home office to work, I bet you still are not wearing shoes. At the very most I have on slippers in the winter, but besides that I slip on flip flops, running shoes or ballet flats before running out the door to do a lunch time errand. I would go to Nordstrom and stare at all the pretty shoes and dream about having a place to wear them {more than once}. High heel boots, bright wedges, a coveted pair of Christian Louboutin Simple Pumps, I could only dream! I mean really. I'm no Posh Spice traipsing around soccer fields in 5 inch stilettos.  

At my last office job I wore heels almost daily. I loved my heels. Kittens, pumps, wedges, I dressed my feet up. A nice pair of pointed pumps immediately turns jeans and sweater into a "work outfit". I always felt more put-together, taller and skinnier. Also, and while this sounds a bit odd in retrospect, ballet flats were not en Vogue in 2005. The Tory Burch "Reva Revolution" (Her signature ballet flat that launched that style shoe into a wardrobe must have) didn't hit until late 2006/early 2007. Which means flats were not even in my work ensemble vocabulary the last time I was office-bound.

Last week I started a new contract with a new PR agency, a contract that actually is IN an office. For the first time in four years I'm working out of the house on a regular basis. Luckily, the office I'm working in is a super cool and creative environment with a definite "San Diego Business" dress code, so clothes to wear to work are not really an issue (well, not any more of an issue than normal). It's exciting. The office is in one of the more "urban" parts of town; walking into the office, away from the kids and the house, has been a nice addition to my mainly suburban life. I get a little rush from the little walk from my car to the office and if I close my eyes and happen to pass a homeless person who smells like urine, I can pretend that I'm a big NYCity girl for 2 minutes. I worried that I would have a problem going back to an office, but in reality, the only thing I need to adjust to is walking in heels again.

Mommy Likes: The Chevy Traverse

If you follow me on Twitter you probably know that this week the nice PR people from Chevy have lent me a 2010 Traverse  to drive around town for a week. 

Now, I drive a little Audi A4. I love my Audi - I love the speed and the little sports car feel of it. And while it may have not made a lot of sense when I bought it after having a kid, at the time I was commuting daily and it was a good choice. And even though it's small, it's still our car of choice when going out with the family (Jason has a Nissan XTerra). But for the past year or so I've been wanting something bigger. The kids are getting bigger and we are going to need something able to haul around friends for carpools and soccer practice. And while I will admit to the occasional mini-van envy (ooohh, sliding doors...) I just can't bring myself to drive one.

Lucas, "just chillin' in the back, Mom"After a few days in the Traverse, I will say that I'm in love in a realistic way. It handles well and the room is amazing. We got the model with the captain seats in the 2nd row (see my rant about 3rd row seating here) and the space in this thing is amazing. Parked next to the Xterra it seems to be the same length, but HOT DAMN, the inside seems cavernous in comparison. 

After a trip to the library yesterday, Lucas climbed in the back to just hang out and read. DO YOU SEE THAT SPACE? This is with the 3rd row seats down flat. If the seats are up, there is still cargo area, but I went to the store yesterday, so I put the seats down for max. cargo area. 

The other feature that is super cool, is the reverse cam. This one is actually IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR. 

Lucas immediately dubbed it the "Spy Mirror" and it's really cool - a "picture in picture" pops up when you are in reverse. The Traverse also has rear sensors, so if you get too close to something while reversing it beeps a warning at you. While cool, it's also really scary when you are slowly and carefully backing up in the parking lot at Target and some jerk comes speeding by and all of a sudden it's screaming its beeps at you at a rapid pace. But hey, thats why it's there, to let you know before you reverse into things like trashcans, jerks speeding by and children running in the street. I would much rather be beeped at than in an accident. 

So far the poor car has only been driven to the park, Target, Trader Joe's, Islands and the library... but hopefully this weekend we can put it to the test on a mini road-trip to LA. I think a 2 hour car ride is where we are really going to love the built in DVD system...