Goodbye, Shiba Inu's

The owners of the six-litter Shiba Inu's are keeping only one of the pups. The last two are going to new families tomorrow...so sad.

Cutest Thing Ever

After hearing about this on the news, I finally had a chance to check it out. We were addicted to it all weekend. Sometimes they have the audio on - it's even better then. I really could be content watching this all day long. Further proof of just how badly I want a dog.

Thanksgiving Trip

We took the opportunity of a few days off to do some traveling over Thanksgiving - gotta knock off those last must-see locations in CA. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving at home and had dinner with my parents - I got sick eating obscene amounts of my mom's stuffing, as usual. 

Friday we took off for Hearst Castle. It was a beautiful place and a fun tour. Would you believe it's a safe place to be in an earthquake? Of course I asked the tour guide. There was a 6.1 centered just a few miles away a couple years ago and there wasn't any damage to the whole castle. Wonder if I could move into a wing?

Then Saturday we went to Paso Robles wine country. We had driven by on our way to Monterey once and thought it looked nice. Now, it's no Napa, but it was pretty scenic. The wineries were very pretty and the people were all nice. A couple of the wineries had resident dogs...love it. I have a pic of Ryan (a little intoxicated) hugging a basset hound - priceless. We came home with a good amount of wine and some pretty pics:

We went to an olive farm too - I'm a big olive oil fan. We tasted a few oils, tapenades and jams. I bought a lovely bottle of lemon olive oil, which I can't wait to use. 

So add another great weekend trip to the list. This state really is beautiful. Too bad it's all on top of massive fault lines.  

We Did It

We finally decided...the rebate won us over. It'll be here Wednesday. We can't wait!

The Best Night

It rained last night. I made a chai tea latte, curled under a blanket and enjoyed the smell and sound. It was so great to fall asleep to the pitter patter. It'd had been a really long time since we got a good rain. It's the simple things that make me happy!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving, everyone!

NKOTB recap

I realized I never blogged about my trip home for the New Kids concert. Let's just say it was a ton of fun. The concert was great. It was hysterical to see girls dressed in old New Kids apparel. Julie found her buttons so we each wore one. Oh and it was the loudest concert I've ever been to. Our ears were ringing the next day. Jordan was still dreamy. I took video on my camera, but it didn't come out very well. You can't see much and you can only hear me singing (badly). I didn't want that footage slipping into the wrong hands. Here's a pic:

The rest of the trip was fun seeing my friends. I wish I could have stayed longer. Julie - is Anna still listening to that "Where's the Nine" (or was it seven) song? I've tried to block it out.

And I have inside New Kids scoop. A co-workers roommate is a fashion designer assistant and flew to Salt Lake City this weekend to dress the New Kids for the American Music Awards. She said all of them were really nice except Donny, who was a diva. He demanded to wear a long fur coat. Keep in mind the AMA's are in LA...it's been in the 90s here. He also wanted them all to wear matching suits with "different colored arm bands". He must still think it's the early 90s.

Headers, Earthquakes, The Office and More

Love my new header? Yeah, me too. Thank you to our immensely talented friend!

Anyone see The Office? Was Michael Scott on a plane not one of the funniest things? I would have personally gone a little further with it (Michael Scott + airplanes = comedy gold), but it was still great.

Our new PlayStation is pretty fun. We only have a racing game at the moment, which is actually pretty cool (and I'm not that into racing games). I'm having a friend from work over tomorrow for Wii night.

On another random note, does anyone else find it crazy that it's already mid-November? We haven't made Thanksgiving plans yet. I assume we'll have dinner with my parents and take off for a little trip up north on Friday morning. We want to go to Hearst castle and Paso Robles wine country. Just a few more things we're crossing off our CA to-do list before we get the heck out.

Oh and I know this is like beating a dead horse, but did you know yesterday was a big earthquake drill out here? Take a look at this animation of what the "Big One" will look like (fast forward to 1:15 for the real impact to begin). Is that not terrifying? Oh and did I mention that they say we're 150 years over-due for a big one?

On that note, hope everyone has a nice weekend free of natural disasters!

Countdown

Most weekdays I count down the hours/minutes until 5:30. Today I'm even more excited because any moment now a package will be delivered to my work and I want to get home to try it out!

I can't wait for the new Beatles game. My Christmas 09 wishlist has officially begun.

Stalled

This election has been a nice distraction recently. It has almost made me forget that there are no new jobs. The past 3 weeks or so has been pretty discouraging, job wise. Since the economy started tanking, there's been a dramatic slow down in new postings. It makes sense, so many companies are laying off, not many are hiring. It seems the few that are new are IT, Finance or some equally non-related field. The end of the year is always a little slow. I hope after the new year things will pick up.

On the other hand, I'm a giant believer in timing and when it's meant to be it'll happen. When I've been on great job interviews that end up going nowhere, I'm ok with it. There's a reason I wasn't meant to get that job and go down that road. So I believe that even though there have been some really good openings that we haven't been called for, it's ok. It'll happen when it's right.

I also regret to say that we were right - just because we have good experience, it doesn't mean we'll have offers thrown our way. I wish we were wrong about that.

This election and the new incoming administration totally fuel my love of politics. I've mostly looked for TV jobs for myself and occasionally environmental and political jobs. I should really dive more into political/DEM party jobs.

We Did It

Thank you, Ohio! I'm so proud of my people. I choked up when they called the state.

What an amazing night. Anyone want to meet me in DC on 1-20-09?

Vote!

Seriously, I'm giddy with excitment. We have champagne chilling for tonight. I feel like a kid who hasn't celebrated Christmas in 8 years. I even woke up early this morning and tossed and turned because I was so excited for this day to start. I am beyond excited to get home and camp out on my couch and watch all the states get called. And counting on an Obama win, the victory speech in Chicago will surely be exciting.

Soon I'll be able to pull out my handy poll closing map to start checking off states that have been called. I wish I could go home early. We're ordering pizza and booking a coference room to watch tv for lunch today!

We're Almost There

I'm so excited for tomorrow - I can hardly stand it. Finally, we can vote. We can elect a new president. We can put this nasty 20 month election behind us.

Come January, we can start to change the mess created over the past 8 years. We can end these wars so no more of my family members and so many other families have to go over there and serve. And maybe we can finally start to step up and do some real work for the environment and global warming. The possibilities are exciting.

To Mac or not to Mac

As most of you know, we take a while to make decisions. At least after the lengthy debates, we end up making good choices.

Our latest debate: Do we totally indulge and get a laptop when we have a perfectly fine running PC? I think our answer is yes, toys are fun. The harder question is which Mac do we buy? You can get the old Pro for $1450, the new Macbook for $1550 or the new Pro for $1860. Keep in mind we'd still have to get the Apple Care on top of it and probably other accessories.

There are pros and cons to each. The newer, greener, cooler (literally), fun Mac doesn't have some hubs - it's been getting crappy reviews on Amazon. The newer Pro is probably more computer than we'll ever need (but one of us thinks the basic editing on the new Macbook isn't enough for him). The older Pro is surely the best bang for your buck, it's just not the newer model and doesn't have the fun, new features.

Anyone have an opinion?

My Newest Addiction

My newest addiction is out of the ordinary. I doubt you could even guess it. I'm not even quite sure how it started - like most addictions, I guess. At least it’s something that's good for me. My addiction, Soy Milk. Mmmmm, soy milk. It comes in a couple different flavors and it's yummy. I haven't had a glass of milk since I was a kid and my mom would make me drink it for dinner every night. Now, I'll just poor a glass of soy milk at any point and sit and enjoy.

We had a soy banana shake Sunday before we left the resort…it was so good. And on the subject, getting away for a night was a lot of fun. The pool was great - very relaxing (when the crazy, screaming children weren't running around). It reminded me why we prefer resorts with a 16 and older age policy. Good food + good pool = good weekend.

Oh, we stopped by some apple farms on the way to the desert. That was fun. We brought home some fresh cider, yum. I wonder if soy and cider mixed tastes good?

Fire on the 405

It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get to work yesterday. Now, this is not just another I hate LA blog, so keep reading.

A fire broke out in the early morning in the mountains along the 405. It burned a large section and the 405 was closed for hours (it was re-opened during my drive). While I was in stopped traffic, I saw some pretty cool stuff. Now I'm not a looky-loo, but this wasn't a car broken down or something equally stupid. Water dropping helicopters were doing drops one after the other literally 50 ft away from me. There were also lots of firemen all over the mountain clearing brush and putting out hot spots - some parts were still smoldering. Ash and burnt brush was falling all around. I've seen it on TV so many times, but it was really impressive to see the fire crews/water drops so close.

It's sad to drive by today and see all the dead trees. It reminds me of our Colorado trip where the beetles had killed thousands - millions of trees. It's sad to see the wide destruction. Wonder how long it'll take for life to start growing again there.

Have I Ever Mentioned I Don't Like Earthquakes?

Another one. Not the big one.

I wish I could do a re-enactment of looking up at the ceiling, skeptically, as it was creaking over my head. If it continued much longer, I was about to dive under my desk.

And still no calls from a job...

Happy Birthday Man!

Hope you have a great day, Man!

In other news, we have some Marriott certificates that are about to expire. Since it's hard to leave at a reasonable time on a Friday, we're just going to go overnight on Saturday. So we had to pick somewhere close, which actually isn't too hard to do - once you get out of LA there really are some nice places to visit. There's Coronado/San Diego, Orange county beach locations or the Palm Springs area. Our goal for this trip:
A) Get out of LA.
B) Sit by a big pool all day with attentive wait staff to bring us drinks/food.
C) Stay at a nice resort - no need to site see.

There is a very nice Renaissance in the Palm Springs area that meets our requirements. A couple years ago it made Condé Nast's Gold List, which is a good sign. And it's gonna be sunny and 90s this weekend in the desert - perfect pool weather.

A friend told me about this cool place to check out on our way to the desert - looks like fun. I can't wait for the weekend.

18 Days to Go

Everyone around here seems to be talking about the upcoming election. It's interesting to get different opinions. One girl who always makes fun of Bush and now McCain/Palin just told me today she's never voted. I kind of feel that if you don't vote then you have no room to talk about how bad things are, but I resisted the urge to say that. I felt a glimmer of hope that she's thinking about voting this time and I didn't want to impede on that. Instead, I gave her websites to read and offered different ways to look at voting.

She's one of those who thinks the president isn't going to do any of the things he talks about doing, so what's the use in voting. I commiserated with her thought and then pointed out a very clear example of one thing that has a 99.9% chance of happening in the next administration - the fate of Roe V. Wade. There will be one or more supreme court justice appointments in the next term. Depending on who the President will choose, the court will then have a very real opportunity to overturn the Roe V. Wade ruling. I explained all of this without putting in my own bias, but explained that if that's something she feels strongly about, one way or the other, then there is a good opportunity for her to vote on something that very well will be happening soon.

She's a pretty smart girl and she's going to look at some websites. She said if she did vote, it'd be for Obama. Hopefully she'll be one more vote for Obama on election day.

Random Stuff

Quick quiz - will an earthquake destroy this city or will a fire? It's kinda crazy to live in a city where there's always a fire. Are the fire Gods trying to burn down southern CA? I think it's a sign.

Job update: NC never called back, so it must not have been Speed. Ugh.

Check out this website. Margaret and Helen are pretty humorous. I've read the latest couple entries and I was laughing out loud. And did you hear that Obama is advertising within video games? Pretty cool plan.

UGH!

I was going to blog about resuming my beach Friday policy today. I was also going to tell everyone that the NKOTB concert was beyond fun. I guess I'll blog more next week when I get the pics off my camera. I was also going to mention how the blogs are slow going because I really am spending every free moment looking/applying for jobs for the two of us. So far the record is 14 applied, 0 calls. :-(

All my good blogging intensions where quickly changed when I called my husband this afternoon. First of all, let me say that there's a chance I could be partially psychic. I had a huge feeling he was going to get a call from a job yesterday. Didn't happen (that's why I said partially psychic). It may have happened today though. But it might not have. Confused? Yeah, so are we.

Ok, so Ryan didn't have his cell on him for like 5 minutes today and during that time he got a call. But they didn't leave a message. The number on his cell was from out of state. He looks it up online and it's a cell phone from an hour outside of Charlotte. Charlotte, where he's applied for two jobs at Speed Channel. One other item to note: he never gets random calls on his cell phone from telemarketers, so this is very rare. What are the chances it's from so close to the job, but it's just a wrong number? Why would a job call and not leave a message? Most importantly, how can we not drive ourselves crazy all weekend wondering if it was a call from Speed?

Felons

We have lots of felons living close to us (shocker). Do you?

Out of Office

Isn't setting your out of office message at work the best feeling? It's like saying, "Screw you people, I'm not gonna be at this crappy job today." I wish I could write more out of office messages, but with only 10 vacation days a year, it can't happen too often.

I checked the Continental movies this month and going to CLE is some movie I've never heard of and coming back is Get Smart. I'll probably try to sleep as much as I can anyway. If I can't sleep, I'll have our DVD player with a season of The Office. I decided on season 3, which has my favorite episode: Beach Games. Remember that season finale where Michael took everyone to Lake Scranton? A thing of beauty. I love when Jim and Dwight are sumo wrestling. I also have our IPOD and the latest issues of Conde Nast and Domino magazines to keep me occupied.

Have a good weekend everyone. You know I will!

So Close

I've just been tortured. Our lights flickered a couple times this morning and then at 1:45 everything went dark*. We all just sat around chatting as the poor office manager was on the phone with the power company. He was on his way to our president's office to tell him the power would be off for an unknown amount of time (and we'd be sent home) when what happened? Yep, the power came back on. Damn.

I was envisioning a nap, some packing for CLE, eating dinner before 8:00 at night, watching GH and beating the horrible Wednesday night traffic (not in that order). But no. Now I have to sit here and try to look busy for the next 3 hours. At least the cable is back on.

On a related topic, doesn't time go by so slowly when you're at work? I mean really. I'm sure you've noticed how the hours suspiciously fly by on nights and weekends. I blame the government.

*When the power went out, I thought for a split second that it was the Big One. I hate living in a place where at any moment the big one could come and we could be crushed under tons of concrete.

Header Fun

Love my new header? So do I. Thanks to my friend Sheila (a skilled artist) for creating it.

My Mission

As you can probably tell by the lack of new blogs, life is crazy. My mom was staying with us for 2 weeks before she could move in their apartment, I had layoffs at my work, Ryan’s been working 10-16 hour days, my work’s been busy and I’ve been stressed about it all. Ryan got home at 6:30 one night last week. It was the first time he’s been home in the 6:00 hour in probably a month.

I've also been increasingly motivated to get us the heck out of here. I'm devoting all my free time to making it happen. I know it'll probably take a while, but I'm tired of just talking about it.

However, this crappy economic situation is slowing my progress. Isn't it kinda scary out there right now? Fortunately, it hasn't directly effected us yet, but who knows how bad this could get.

On a happy note, the NKOTB concert is Friday! My friends and I are so excited. I bought their greatest hits CD this weekend to refresh myself on the songs. I have a good husband to put up with that! I owe him, perhaps this.

A Day Worth Noting

Today I did something that I’ve never done before. I bought my very own Coach handbag at Bloomingdales. It’s so pretty.

And because I’m my husband’s wife, I did not pay full price. You got a sale on Coach bags, you say? Yes. I got $100 off on sales plus a $30 gift card to Bloomingdales.

Step by Step

Julie got the tickets! I'm working on finding a flight home for the weekend. I'm gonna have to get some NKOTB tapes to refresh myself on the songs! I wonder if I still have an old NKOTB t-shirt I can wear to the concert?!

It's Official

Today my mom took her one-way flight from Cleveland to Burbank. My dad's driving out over the weekend.

There's Hope After All

I have another chance to see NKOTB with my friends! Julie's company has loge seats and they offer them to employees in a raffle. She put her name in to win them and she'll find out next month.

I already took a look at flights and it's insane, but it would be worth it for all the fun with my friends. I hope she gets them!

The Birds

Would you believe there's a rainforest and a waterfall just south of Ventura Blvd. near our apartment? You go to George Clooney's house (how LA) and to the right of his tennis courts is a path. Shortly after you make the turn around the rear of his property, there's actually a city park looking sign that says Rainforest and points to the left. A rainforest in LA? Just past George's Dish satellite and last security camera, the path narrows.

We followed the path for a while - it wasn't well maintained. They attempted to put some wood steps on the steep hills, but they were wobbly and falling apart. It was better to take our chances walking on the scree beside them. Periodically, small lizards startled us as they jetted off the trail ahead. At least we didn't see any snakes. Oh, did I mention no one else was on this so-called rainforest hike...curious.

We were around 3/4 of a mile in when Ryan (who was in front) passed under a large group of trees. Turns out there was a giant flock of birds nesting in those trees and Ryan disrupted them. All the sudden, it was birdie mayhem. We ran past and stopped in a clearing to cope with the bird trauma. Then we looked ahead and saw all these low hanging bushes and trees over the curving path. I think it lead to Freddie Kruger's home. It was nice and shady, a perfect snake home. At that moment, I wished one of those emergency helicopters could come and lower a rope and lift us out of there. Ryan kept asking, "Should we turn around?" I kept saying, "Yes." Repeat this dialogue five more times until I just turned around and started going - I knew Ryan would follow. I wasn't about to hang out in Freddie's bird lair debating for 10 minutes.

We practically jogged the whole way back. I was never so happy to see George's house again. So is there really some Brazilian rainforest or Niagara Falls waterfall? You can go through that freaky hike yourself and let me know.

I could work for the DNC!

I guess you have to be in the right frame of mind to come to some realizations. Even with my sister's move to DC and all the talk leading up to it, I never considered it an option for us. Not until my friend Julie brought it up. How had I never thought about it? I immediately began doing some research.

One of the best pros to DC is that there are actually job possibilities for us. Can't say that for most of our other options, except for local news (yuck). DC not only has the local markets, but every network has DC bureaus, cable news, National Geographic and Discovery in Maryland. Not to mention the government related tv jobs and who knows what else. Wow, we could actually work in tv still!

Next, I looked up the location. Close to most of our college friends, my cousin outside of NJ and of course my sister (for the time being). It's also almost equal distance between my hometown and Ryan's; about a 6 hr drive.

And as the city goes, it's got everything we want. A large city that has sports and concerts and fun things to do. I'm told it's a big outdoorsy place with the Potomac river and lots of parks. Also told that it's not too far from nice beaches on the coast. And it's the east coast so it's close enough for lots of traveling and to see lots of friends. Did I mention that we could live in the burbs and finally buy a house? Oh, and no earthquakes!

As for cons, it's not Boulder and it's no where near CO. We're also told the weather is bad: extreme humidity (bad hair days) in the summer and very cold and icy (scary driving) in the winter.

Of course, DC has just been added to the list of places to research - we're a long way off from making any sort of decision. If anyone has advice for what life is like in the DC area, I'd love to hear it. But thanks, Julie, for opening my eyes!

Name That Tune

What was the number one song the day you were born? Check here.

Mine was: "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by Rod Stewart!

Enjoying the Olympics

The Micheal Phelps relay win was a pretty big deal, but my favorite part so far is the little boy who marched with Yao Ming in the opening ceremony. How cute is this kid? And what an amazing story.

I Feel Like I'm 10 Again

We bought Mario Galaxy for the Wii. It's been pretty fun so far. I feel like a kid though - my parents would never let me have a nintendo so I could only play Mario Bros sporadically at some friend's houses. Which explains why I make Ryan do the parts that scare me. So far I've enjoyed the bee suit the most.

In other random news, we watched Knocked Up on Sunday. Decent movie - some very funny lines. It was a good no-brainer movie to watch on a Sunday night. We're going to see Wanted on Friday at the lot - I heard it's not the best, but it's with James McAvoy so who cares.

In tennis news, the city of Santa Monica requires community space be built in office parks. So my giant complex has tennis and basketball courts. Turns out the management company held a free tennis clinic for kids with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. Five and I went on our lunch break to check it out and it happened to be right when they were starting to autograph tennis balls. So we hopped in line and I got an autographed ball for my sister (she's a huge fan). At least it was something different to do at lunch.

CO Trip Report

By now, you've probably seen our CO pics. The trip was pretty amazing. It all started with the hot air balloon festival in Steamboat Springs. The pictures kinda say it all. We didn’t go up in a balloon, but I'm glad we didn’t because we wouldn't have been able to take most of the pictures. I kept saying when we live in CO we'll be able to come back every year and go up in a balloon. Then we had a great breakfast in SS before hitting the road to Boulder.

SS was a really cool mountain town. Everyone was very laid back and outdoorsy - which is true for everywhere we visited. It was over an hour from the main interstate and I can't imagine trying to go there for a weekend in the middle of winter. Which reminds me of an interesting thing we saw: On interstate 70, they periodically have big railroad crossing gates that can come down over the entire highway. So that means the snow can get so heavy that they have to close the interstate. And this happens on such a regular basis that they've installed gates. That's a serious amount of snow.

Boulder was great, stayed in a nice Marriott. The city is very college townish in parts. The main downtown area was the Ithaca Commons just bigger and more cosmopolitan. We ate at a great tapas place. I imagine if we lived there I'd want to go all the time. The flatirons and the park around them were pretty. Lots of people walking their cute labs. I could totally see us living there, just don't know what we'd do for work. It's about 45-60 minutes to Denver. In the summer it would be doable, but I imagine the winter would be a tough commute.

Rocky Mountain National Park was a lot of fun too. I got altitude sickness - we were doing a lot of hiking and it was a pretty high elevation. The 14 mile drive up the one lane dirt road was a little scary. Hello to our friend Tex and his family - hope you're enjoying your throw blanket from the gift shop! Again, the pictures sum up the park - it was beyond beautiful.

Then we went to Colorado Springs - an even nicer Marriott with a great view of Pike's Peak. Garden of the Gods was cool and Ryan got lunch at Sonic. Then we drove up Pike's Peak - kinda scary. I have a fear of cliffs if there's no railing. I had a minor breakdown at one point - the picture of that (not uploaded onto Kodak) is kinda humorous. There was a ranger station a few miles down from the top where they check your breaks. Our crappy dodge was in a low gear the whole time and still almost 200 degrees hotter than it should've been. The ranger made us stop for a bit till the breaks cooled (hot breaks fail) - lots of other people had to stop too. Then we packed up our stuff and headed to Denver. BTW - when in CO Springs, be very careful what neighborhood you enter when you're trying to turn around.

Denver was quick - a very nice JW Marriott with great views of downtown and the mountains. We had a nice massage the morning of Ryan's bday. In the afternoon, we met our friends at the airport and headed to a brewery for dinner and saw a Rockies game. Then we headed toward Keystone for the weekend, making a quick stop near Buffalo Bill's grave where I had a little incident in the parking lot. Sorry, Bill.

Keystone was nice - a total ski resort town. It was very quiet in the summer. The condo we stayed at was really nice - lots of space for all of us. Had a fun little trip past a guy with a shot gun to pick up the DQ ice cream cake and load up on condiments for our upcoming BBQs. Word to the wise, sometimes I'm right and the GPS is wrong. The fireworks over the lake were cool. It was just nice to all be together and hang out.

The rafting was Sunday. It was a ton of fun for all of us - I'd love to do it again. I'll never forget the picture we never got of Greg flopping around in the front of the boat after one rapid! I also don't think I'll forget the fowl BO/wet dog smell of the wetsuits we were in for 5+ hours. Sparky - remember waddling around with our wetsuits half off trying to get to the bathroom?!

There was one very disappointing part of the weekend: the lovely barn puzzle some people were so diligently putting together every moment of every day was never finished. What a darn shame. It really broke me up to have to rip it to pieces Monday morning. Stupid puzzle.

So there you have it - some highlights of our trip. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend in Keystone - can't wait to see you for our 09 trip.

Get me out of here!

We're fine, everything in our apartment is fine, but I hope another one doesn't hit until after we've moved. When you can see through the windows that the other side of your building is swaying and you're bracing yourself in a doorway, it's not the best feeling.

Apparently there was a 5% chance that yesterday's earthquake was a precursor to a bigger one. After 24 hours the percentage drops to 1%. At least we've made it past the 24 hours. I don't care to ever feel one stronger than yesterdays 5.4.

It's Really Happening

My mom went apartment hunting this weekend in LA. She found a place close to us and is gonna take it. That's right - my parents will be LA residents* by the end of September - pretty wild. Kinda funny timing considering my sister just left.

She found a great 2 bed, 2 bath w/W&D in a newer, fairly smaller building that includes extreme amenities: 3 swimming pools, tennis courts, a gym and an 18 hole par 3 golf course. It's almost like a country club feel. Their website says they meet once a week to play bridge, which made me slightly worried it was a retirement type community, but it's not. When we went to visit, we saw many young families. They seem to be the kinda place that offers a little something for everyone.

And the best part is that they have several guest parking spaces for all the times we'll be over taking advantage of their tennis, golf and pool.

* For those concerned, my parents are keeping the house in OH so we can have a place to go back to. I'll still come back to visit!

D.C. Bound

The movers came yesterday and loaded up my sister's stuff. Her and my dad leave today to drive her car across the country. It's sad to think she won't be around to hang out and BBQ, which is what we seemed to do alot.

I'm so glad (and jealous) that she's getting out of LA though - she really hated it here. As far as she can tell, her job and new apartment are going to work out really well. And most importantly, she has a good gut feeling about it all. I'm a big believer in the gut.

Boulder = Ithaca of the west

We're back from our trip to Colorado. What a great 10 days. A full trip report to come after we upload our photos.

I'd have to say the rafting trip was the best part. Here's video of the last rapid we conquered that someone posted a month ago. We had the raft to ourselves with a great guide and no one fell out (although Greg did end up in Ryan's lap once)!

The balloon festival was a close second - the pictures are amazing and Steamboat Springs was a cool town.

In general, it's a beautiful state. Everyone's very active and nice. A place we might be able to live...

Colorado, Here We Come!

My out of office email and voicemail are ready to activate...just a few hours to go.

Begin radio silence...now.

Lost in Translation

I had a question about the additional driver policy on our rental for our week in Colorado. So I called the 800 number to get the details. I immediately get a guy with a thick Indian (as in India, the country) accent who puts me on hold to pull up the policy. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: I'd like to know your additional driver policy, please.
India: Additional drivers are $9.99 a day.
Me: Is the fee also for spouses?
India: Yes.
Me: Your website says an additional driver fee MAY apply, but it sounds like it's across the board.
India: (long pause, confused tone of voice) What border will you be crossing?
Me: (suppressing laughter) I'm not crossing a border. Thanks for the information. Goodbye.

Homecoming

My single girl week is ending in exactly one hour. Yay!

My Single Girl Weekend

I had a pretty nice weekend as a single girl (I've been calling it my single girl week). Friday I went out to dinner with my sister. I wanted to try the summer soup special at Panera - corn chowder. If you're a corn chowder fan, it actually wasn't too bad. My sister is so excited about DC. I actually took her to LAX Saturday morning - she's going to DC to apartment hunt.

Then Saturday afternoon I met a friend from work and we had a girls day out. We went shopping, saw Sex and The City and had dinner. It was a fun day out. S&TC was decent. I mean we're not talking Oscar winner - it is what it is. It was a little too long and the Samantha storyline was a dead-end. Overall though, it was fun fashion and if you were a fan of the show then it will be an enjoyable time. It made me remember how much I want this.

Sunday was a productive day around the apartment. Nothing thrilling, but I totally cleaned out and rearranged my closet. I took a few bags of clothes and shoes to Goodwill. Next, I tackled our bathroom cabinet, which was way out of hand with crap. And to unwind, I caught half of Night at The Museum (it makes me want to brush up on my history) and American President (a real favorite of mine - it's politics, hmmm).

NKOTB

Are you going to see them on tour?



I watched them on the Today show last month and I still remembered most of the words to their hits: Step By Step, Hangin' Tough and of course The Right Stuff. What's crazy is that it was 15 years ago that they were big - I was only 14. I remember going to their concert at the Coliseum, my first concert. Jordan was my favorite. We were gonna get married - my cousin still calls me Mrs. Knight. I would buy Teen Beat and all those teeny bopper magazines and memorize Jordan fun facts. Then I would make my parents quiz me. What's worst is I used to tell my sister they were better than the Beatles. I may still be nostalgic about the New Kids, but outside of the ability to speak, they are nothing like the Beatles.

My friends back home are going to their Cleveland concert. I was really bummed when I heard they were all going - I wish I could go with them. I actually might have flown home for the weekend if I knew about it. Oh well. Next time!

BUR-ALB

Ryan left this morning to go to his parents house till next Tuesday and I'm left to live the dream by myself here for a few days. I'm sure it'll go by fast.

He's actually in the air as I write. Have you ever been on this flight tracking website? It calculates miles traveled and how many miles are to go. It also lists speed, elevation the latest arrival estimate and much more. The best part is that it has a nifty little map showing you where the plane is and its heading. I recommend it for your flight tracking needs.

For those that will see him within the next week, have fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do. And let's hope for no rain and a Mets win on Saturday!

**A special shout out to our friends S&S on their 2nd anniversary. Were the dogs embarrassed? Wait, I don't want to know. :-)

Oh Happy Day!

I don't think I ever said what the big surprise was from a few blogs ago - It was free Mets/Yankees field level tickets to the last subway series at Shea next weekend. I was pretty happy to pull it off. Hopefully the Mets will win.

In other news, my parents are in town this weekend. We're going to some outdoor concert in Pasadena and going on a hike with my Dad on Sunday. Should be a good time. Although we're having record breaking high temps right now and I guess we've broken a record for energy usage. Hope we don't lose power cause the temps aren't gonna break till next week.

Most importantly, today is very happy day for us. It's a week late, but hiatus time begins in just a few hours for a certain somebody. And not a moment too soon.

Broadway meets Legally Blonde

I have a new summer tv addiction. Actually, Planet Green is my real addiction, but I have a close runner-up. I'm embarrassed to admit this new one. It's so not me, as my husband keeps shaking his head and saying. He'll sit through GH, but this new show, no way. Ok, here goes: it's on MTV (I know, so embarrassing) and is called Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search For Elle Woods.

Before you think I've totally lost it, the show is all about finding the next broadway lead. And as silly as Legally Blonde is, there's no doubt that it's a legitimate broadway show no matter if you think it deserves to be or not. So they have lots of Broadway people and each episode is about who can sing, dance and act - it's not like they're eating bugs and playing tug of war. The downside is that it's a dozen annoying girls who constantly wear pink, squeal and backstab each other. I like to focus on the broadway part, but the real world aspect probably does get more air time. None the less, I'm hooked.

Moving, plus some...

My sister is leaving LA. She got a job with a private school just outside of DC. It seems like a great school - lots of diplomat's and politician's kids attend. They're actually expanding the school, which is a good sign that it's doing well. It seems a rare thing for a company these days to do anything other than downsize.

She doesn't know anyone in DC. It'll be tough for her to not have any family nearby. She's determined to make it work and even more thrilled to leave LA. I'm a big believer in a positive attitude, so hopefully that will carry her through.

It'll be fun to have a place to stay in DC. Some may not know, but I'm kinda a political junkie. At work I'm always flipping between MSNBC and CNN and the long hours of my commute are almost always spent listening to AM political talk radio. I often think that if I had a chance to do a totally different career it would have something to do with politics. Those living with me during Nov 2000 might remember that my TV never changed from MSNBC election coverage during the long, uncertain days while the presidency was being stolen. Sparky, remember the Lock Box?!

Now that I'm properly registered in the correct political party, maybe it's not too late...

My Favorite Week

Since Memorial Day weekend and the three days thereafter that I was out sick, work has been constantly busy. I've hardly had a minute to do anything for myself. Some days, eating lunch wasn't even a given. During those 2+ weeks, I had one goal in mind…make it to today.

Today is the first day of the best week at work. There's a weeklong conference in NYC that 90% of my department attends. I'm wearing jeans and flip-flops everyday. I'm actually going out to long lunches with co-workers. And most importantly, I'm taking advantage of the quiet week to do all the things I haven't had time to deal with: sending out LL Bean returns, finalizing CO plans, QCing DVDs of the Jeopardy shows my aunt attended, emailing my friends and visiting all my fav websites.

You can expect many more blogs this week.

Surprise!

I am so excited. In a totally random way, someone was helping me get something for my husband. We didn't know if it was possible, but I just found out this morning that it happened.

Now, when should I tell him? I think I'll resist temptation to call him right now and I'll tell him tonight. I like to do this kinda thing in person.

Ralphs

We stopped by Ralphs (our grocery store) on Sunday. I knew it was bad when there was a stretch limo in the parking lot and a couple of those white vans (like they were busing in a retirement community). Shortly after we got there, an announcement came over the loudspeaker for more people to come up front and that flash photography was not permitted. SOMEONE must have been there.

I've seen quite a few people there over the years and no one ever makes a big deal about them. So for people to take pics it must have been big. I was mildly intrigued to know who the fuss was about. Britney has been seen (not by us) many times in the same shopping plaza, but she's usually running over people with her SUV, not in a limo. So it was probably someone bigger than her. Maybe it was Clooney. He lives close by in the hills.

However, I really could care less. We were in a mission to get in and out of the store quickly and I wasn't about to let a celebrity get in my way. I hope it wasn't Clooney though. He's hot.

On a related topic, can you imagine having your picture taken when you're trying to buy a gallon of milk. It would really suck to be a celebrity.

Bill Nye Rocks

Did you check out the new cable channel Planet Green last night? It took the place of Discovery Home and debuted at 6pm. So if you had any of the Discovery channels then you'll have Planet Green.

Last night we watched Bill Nye's new show, Stuff Happens. How smart is Bill Nye? The best thing about him is that he makes complicated subjects easy and interesting to understand. I still don't know which came first, the chicken or the egg? But I do know to look for shade grown coffee beans. Did you know that certain coffee beans contribute to the Amazon rain forest being bulldozed - that's why you want to look for shade grown since trees = shade.

I am all about being more green. But organic is way more than double the price. And with prices of everything in the world increasing right now, I really don't want to quadruple my grocery bill. But the glory of the green movement is that there are lots of other ways you can make changes. It's not just energy efficient refrigerators, compact florescent lights and organic products. Bill Nye and the other shows will tell you other things you can do to help.

Not only do I dream about the day when we'll buy a house, but I even more look forward to it so I can make it a green home. I actually drove to work yesterday thinking about one day getting solar lights for a front walkway. Store up the solar power during the day for when the lights turn on at night…how cool is that. Solar panels on the roof would be awesome.

Living with Ed has moved to Planet Green from HGTV, Adrian Grenier from Entourage has a show, as does Tom Bergeron from Dancing w/the Stars and many others. So check it out.

So Not Fun

This is the first day I've been out of my bed since Monday. I used up all my energy just getting dressed and driving to work. I've been going off of reserve energy since 9am. 4 full days of sneezing and coughing. My nose is rubbed raw.

The Big One

It's coming. A report just came out today that explains when the San Andreas Fault is going to do a jig and what it's gonna mean for all us Californians. Thousands will die and tens of thousands will be seriously injured. They say it's likely to happen in our lifetime, 50/50 chance in the next 30 years.

So what are we doing here? I thought I was afraid of tornadoes. Hah! At least you get warnings when a tornado, hurricane or blizzard come. Stupid earthquakes are totally unpredictable. Preparedness in those events can really keep you alive. Having slippers and a flashlight by your bed in an earthquake doesn't really ensure your survival.

So I'm done. It's pushed me over the edge. Why subject ourselves to this inevitability? Let's just say the Big One came and something happened to one of us. I can't imagine going on knowing that we could have listened to the warnings and left, but we didn't.

Besides, what's really keeping us here?

Hump Day

Is it the weekend yet??

Missing the Caribbean

Let me preface this blog by saying that I am thrilled about our upcoming week in Colorado. I'm so excited to extend our IC 08 weekend with 7 days touring the state. I'm sure CO is amazing and what we'll see and do will be memorable.

We're planning an adventurous schedule with lots of stops. The rental is gonna need an oil change and new tires by the time we return it. We're staying at four different hotels - 3 of them for 1 night only (One Night Only, that's a song from Dreamgirls. I know that only because a co-worker was obsessed with it). That's a lot of packing and unpacking of my bathroom stuff.

It's no week at the beach…at all. We kept saying we couldn't go to the beach every year, but now I'm craving sand and turquoise water. It's always about this time of year when I get antsy for a vacation. And every year I've had the Caribbean to look forward to. So right about now I'm dying for a week away from work, LA and life. And as much as I'd like to be prepping all my beach outfits, I'm instead buying hiking shoes and backpacks. I keep thinking about Biras Creek last summer. It was packed full of fun times and was 100% relaxing. No phone, tv or internet, just sand, water and good food. The closest connection we had to civilization was the 4 page abbreviated USA Today they'd give you at breakfast. I never got one - I enjoy being disconnected from the world whenever possible.

My CO fear is not getting that relaxation that the beach brings. It rejuvenates me. I'm sure CO will be great, but will I get that zen time? Will I go back to life all happy and ready for the long stretch till another vacation? I'm skeptical. And since relaxing isn't the word I'd use to describe the time off at Christmas, CO has to get me through till summer 09. Holy crap that seem a long way away.

Couture

I'm wearing a new dress today. Here's a pic. It's actually much cuter than this picture and mine is a cool dark green color. It's my favorite new thing.

It's from Macy's, of course. We've slowly become Macy's addicts. I don't know when it happened really. We'd always walk through and say it was too hoity toity, but now we're their biggest fans.

Double Standards

Don't you hate it when people are held to different standards? Some people can go to the gym in the middle of the day for an hour, but other people get crap if they're five minutes late. Or some people can take days off and not record it and others have to put down every minute they're not at work? Awesome if you're the people getting away with it, but kinda sucks for everyone else.

As my mother told me in high school when the football players were allowed to cheat on tests and were handed A's and the rest of us had to work hard - it'll catch up with them. She was right then and it's probably the same now. One of these days, they'll get caught. And the repercussion in the real world are much worse than having to sit out a football game.

The Cinco de Whatever margaritas in 4 hours will help ease the pain...

Catching Up

Well, well, well. How the heck is everyone doing? I'm currently tired. We went to a Mets game Monday night and we still haven't recovered from the lack of sleep. Lack of sleep meaning we only got 7 hours of sleep. I know, we're pathetic. Oh well, it was fun, even though the Mets lost.

In other news, our Michael Buble concert is Saturday night in Anaheim. We're gonna get a room down there and make a little get-a-way out of it. An added benefit is that we won't have to drive all the way home at midnight with all the drunks. We're really looking forward to the concert - he is amazing live.

In LL Bean news, this is the first time I am officially disappointed with a product. Don't get anything from the Ripstop collection. Or if you do, buy two sizes bigger than you wear. Now I know what you're thinking, but no, I have NOT gained weight. It's not me, it's the brand, I swear! Bean quickly redeemed itself with some of the other items I ordered though - I'm stocking up on some outdoor couture for our upcoming trips.

Speaking of trips, we're going kayaking in Monterey. I told a guy at work and he goes, "Hope you come back alive." I was like yeah, hope so too. What the heck. He then told me about a great white shark in San Diego that killed a surfer. He was like, "Hope a shark doesn't mistake the kayak for a sea lion." Yeah, me too. There are lots of seals and sea lions in the area. :-(

In other work news, we're having a Cinco de Mayo party on Friday. Yeah, not quite Cinco de Mayo. They're calling it Cinco de Nueve. My company can't seem to do anything normally. Oh well, free booze and we get out early. I'll celebrate that any day.

Hmmmmm

Wouldn't it be fun to actually work on a show?


What I actually went to school to do...

Coloardo, here we come

We've been doing a lot of planning for our Colorado trip. Not only is it a long weekend with our IC friends, but we decided to go the week before and make it our summer vacation. Luckily, the IC plans are coming along nicely, so I've been concentrating on our vacation plans.

Have I mentioned that CO looks awesome? I'm totally convinced I won't want to leave. Then again we're going in July. I should visit again in February. My impressions might be a tad different. I hate snow, I'm afraid to ski more than a bunny hill and I'm terrified of winter driving.

Anywho, we're going to a hot air balloon festival in Steamboat Springs. Balloons in the mountains - can you imagine the pictures? I'm trying to find a company that will take us up in a balloon. So fun. Then we're heading to Rocky Mountain National Park and spending some time there - it looks beyond beautiful. We'll be in Boulder for a couple nights and then down to Colorado Springs (Pike's Peak, maybe Sand Dunes National Park). Then our last night is in Denver and we meet up with our friends on Friday, also known as someone's 30th birthday!

We'll catch a Rockies game Friday night and then head to our awesome condo rental for the weekend in Keystone. White water rafting is on Sunday, yay! Monday we're leaving, but I have a feeling I'll quickly start planning our second CO trip when I get back.

How can you be so stupid as to not realize your car is rolling backward?

Picture being in a mile long line waiting on a freeway interchange. There's a black, beat up, pickup with gardening equipment and a guy wearing a bandanna driving. He puts on his right blinker. As he's starring at his right side mirror, he doesn't realize that his car is rolling backward. Backward, toward me. Not again (again, yes, see below). So I lay on my horn. He doesn't realize the horn is for him for a second and then finally, just as he's about to take off my bumper, he, um, puts his foot on that thing called a break peddle. He looks at me in the rear view mirror and I scream (not like he could hear it), "Your car was rolling backward". What's the international symbol for your car is rolling backward? So he moves up and soon cuts off a guy in the right lane.

Seriously, how can automakers produce manual cars? We can't trust that people know how to drive them. You should at least have to pass a special manual driving test at the DMV first or something. Maybe just make them for high end sports cars. If you're gonna spend $100G's on your car then I trust you know how to drive it.

And yes, this happened to me once before on the 405. Girl stalled her jeep in front of me on a big hill and every time she tried to start it, it rolled back. I couldn't get out of my lane and I laid on my horn, but she didn't stop until she hit me. Then we get out and she tries to say I drove into the back of her. I was like, "You didn't feel your car going backward? Every time you tried to start it?"

How can people not realize their car is moving? How?

The Office is Back!

That's right, new Office tonight. Michael and Jan host a dinner party for some office peeps. They're also hiding a very pregnant (in real life) Angela. Should be funny.

Is it really you?

When I first went to Ithaca I felt like I kept seeing people that went to my high school. Of course, no one from good old CFHS went to Ithaca with me, but it happened a ton. I would see someone from a far and swear it was someone I knew, until I got a little closer and realized it wasn't. It doesn't happen much anymore.

Until today. I went to the beach at lunch, threw down my blanket and plopped on down to my unobstructed ocean view. Then I noticed the couple next to me. Oh my gosh, it was our friend, Steve. And he was laying next to a girl that totally could have been his wife, Sheila. Why would they not tell us they were out here? They've read on my blog about beach lunch Fridays - did they want me to catch them here? "Sheila" turned around and it wasn't Sheila. Ok, she's off the hook, but what was Steve doing in LA? And why was he with a Sheila look-a-like??

"Steve" said he was going to see how cold the water was and started walking away. Clearly they were tourists. Locals don’t dare put even their toes in the ocean here, especially just south of the Santa Monica pier. "Steve" had the same build as Steve and he dressed just like him too. He wore what he probably bought weeks ahead as his cool beach outfit (sunglasses, navy shorts and a plaid short sleeve button down shirt). He even had that same goofy (in a good way) "I like Battlestar Galactica" look about him. He glanced at me once and shot me a cry for help look.

So that's the story. As "Steve" packed up their gear I wanted to whisper to him, "Steve, is that you? Is this girl holding you against your will?". But I didn't. It would've been crazy. Cause Steve's in NY, right?

Crackers

I think I've mentioned before that we're on the first of a three floored office building. The middle area is an open aired courtyard with a little stream, trees, etc. Have I mentioned that there's a woman (let's call her Marj) who feeds the squirrels in the courtyard? It's a boy squirrel, named Crackers and a girl and baby. Crackers will eat out of Marj's hand. That's about all the back story you need...

Recently, a boy and girl duck appeared in the courtyard one morning. They'd flop around in the stream...pretty cute. One of the IT guys loved to run after them to make them fly around like mad - so mean. Shortly after they arrived, the office manager said the building didn't want the the ducks around because their droppings clog the drains in the stream and it's too expensive to clean. So bye-bye ducks.

This morning things started all normal. Marj fed Crackers at 8:30am, like usual. Then, a couple hours later, word spread. The office manager found a squirrel in the courtyard, dead. He covered the body with a plastic grocery bag. Then Marj identified the body...it was Crackers. I wonder if we'll have a memorial service?

Mexico?

It's no surprise that we love beach vacations. Something about the calming water and the fun snorkeling, etc. Oh, being secluded from the world is nice too. This year it doesn't look like we're planning a beach vacation. I thought I was ok with that. We can't spend a week at the beach every summer. And, there are other places in the world I'd like to visit that don't have sand. We have two long weekend friend trips this summer, but we don't have any plans to go anywhere alone. We've been thinking about 4th of July weekend since I get Friday off, but I really hadn't thought about it much.

Now I know this is gonna sound crazy, but I woke up this morning thinking about a 4 day trip to Mexico. Mexico? I know. Crazy talk. My husband is always mentioning it as a possibility but I quickly dispute it. We practically live in Mexico. But, today I started thinking that it's close, the water/snorkeling is great, there are some beautiful resorts and it wouldn't take a day/$800 pp to get there. Cabo is supposed to be really nice. And if it's good enough for all the celebs then it can't be all that bad.

Who knows, I wake up with crazy ideas all the time. I'm sure by tomorrow I'll be back to, "Mexico? Why would I want to go to Mexico?"

A scary moment

Last night we were playing Wii, of course. I'm trying to figure out how to spike the ball in tennis when my husband goes, "I can't wait to have baby." I stopped mid-swing and was like, "Oh dear God."

What he really said was, "I can't wait to have Baby Ruth ice cream tonight," but I didn't hear the last few words. Phew.

HIMYM

Are you watching How I Met Your Mother? If not, you should. Unless you are one of my friends reading this who has children. I get it: kids = no free time = no tv.

I digress. I feel like I've blogged about HIMYM before, but even if I did, it's worth saying again, post strike. You should watch this show. As long as you enjoy laughter in your life that is. If you don't enjoy laughing then fine, don't watch it. But you'll be missing out. It's like Friends, except better.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Is so much fun. Except for the Matt character - he's so annoying.

*For those of you who have bowled with me, I'm a much better Wii bowler. I think it's cause I can do it in my own footwear.

Comfort Food

Some nights I just need comfort food for dinner. I haven't been feeling 100% the past couple days - not sick, just overly stressed about some issues. I actually stayed home from work yesterday. I attempted to go in, but when I almost passed out on the 101 I decided it was my body telling me to take a day to relax.

Anyway - I'm better today. On the way home, knowing my husband wouldn't be home till God knows when because of a last minute show change, I started to think about dinner. I needed something nutritious to keep my body on the path back to health, but I wanted something comforting. Mac & Cheese is usually my go-to comfort food, but tonight I thought I better stick with something with a little more nutrition. So I jumped off the freeway at the last minute, headed toward Ventura Blvd and went to...Panera.

A You Pick Two tuna sandwich (hold the onion) and broccoli cheddar soup with a baguette on the side is exactly what I needed. I even bought us a couple yummy pastries for tomorrow morning.

Wii

Anyone see the Best Buy ad yesterday? Guarantee of 15 Wiis in stock. It's been on our minds since Christmas, but since it's so impossible to find, we really didn't imagine getting one for a while. So my husband sees the ad and tries to forget about it, knowing they'd be gone already. A few hours later he mentions it to me. So I call the store to see if they have any left. "We have about 10 left and no one's in line for them." Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. When it's finally decided that we'll get one, we go to the store and what do you know...they're all sold out. It's probably for the best. We had too much other stuff going on - maybe next weekend.

Beach Bums

Spent another lunch break at the beach today. Surf wasn't as big this week, but there were still a couple surfers. There was a group of guys who stood in a line in the sand, looking like they were about to race each other into the water. Finally, right before I left, they just turned around, picked up their shoes and walked to the parking lot. Weird. One of them left a Fritos bag behind and it attracted every seagull in a five mile radius. When I saw the first gull peck at the bag, I took it as my cue to take a little walk so I wasn't in the fray.

I saw a guy who was doing Brian Boitano triple salcows in the sand. Then he started doing handstands and kickboxing moves. He kept getting mad when his hat would fall off. If you're gonna walk on your hands then you're gonna lose your hat - just leave it off.

My new Friday ritual sure beats eating at my desk, playing with my zen beach and watching Everyday Italian.

On a separate, but related topic - I think someone is stealing squirts of my antibacterial hand sanitizer when I step away from my desk. I have a list of suspects. Investigation to follow.

I blame Fleetwood Mac for making this song

Yesterday's blog may not have been about traffic, but today's sure is. Can anyone guess how long it took me to get to work today? Maybe after you see this picture you'll have a good guess:

There was a landslide on Sepulveda Blvd. (which runs parallel to the 405 and many people take) and it was completely shut down.

2 hours and 15 minutes to get to work. And remember, I'm only driving 16 miles. I'm one notch closer today to throwing my hands in the air and calling this whole crazy LA thing quits.

Cops & Robbers

I was driving home last night and when I got close to our area the traffic came to a stand still. Now, I know what you're thinking, but this is not another blog about how much I hate LA and traffic. Up ahead I could see police helicopters flying around with their spotlight. Great.

I took a couple shortcuts to get home. My husband gets home shortly after me. At the same time, a friend of ours calls (let's call him Stalker because he calls so much). He lives close to us, right around the block from my sister's apartment. Apparently Stalker tried to get home and the police blocked off all the roads around his house and weren't letting anyone in or out. So he calls us to see if he can hang at our place till he's allowed back in his neighborhood.

I guess in the late afternoon two guys attempted to rob an auto parts store in a Ralph's plaza. As it was in progress, a US martial just happened to walk in the store. He was able to shoot one of the robbers, but the other one got away. So there was a big manhunt. We stopped hearing the helicopters in the 9:00 hour. I still don't know if they caught the guy or not. We kept hearing some noises in the alley outside our bedroom as we went to sleep. I'm sure it was just a cat, right?

Better start planning for the holidays while I'm at it

I think I was a travel agent in a previous life. We have so many vacations (big and small) that we're planning. Now don't get me wrong: I love trip planning and I even more love traveling. I'm glad we scrapped the idea of a European vacation though. Actually, we never were officially planning that, I was just planning it in my head for the one day when I'll actually get to go. I hope I won't forget one of the trips when the time comes.

Here's how the next couple months look:

MARCH:
My parents are here this weekend.
We're thinking of a Napa/Sonoma or a Hearst Castle trip over Easter weekend.
APRIL:
Julie is coming out for almost a week. YAY!!
My parents are coming again the following weekend.
MAY:
We bought tickets to see Michael Buble' in Anaheim over the weekend.
Yosemite with Sheila & Steve over Memorial Day weekend!
JUNE:
Yep - my parents again for a weekend.
Possible long weekend trip, just the two of us. Too many possible locations to even list - need to narrow it down.
JULY:
Might go somewhere over 4th of July. Or might take the long weekend to not get out of bed.
The husband might go home or could go in June.
Colorado for IC trip 2008, Ryan's 30th bday.
No plans for my parents yet, but I'm sure they'll be coming.
AUGUST:
Trip to Chicago to bury my grandparents (probably in August).

And over the summer my mom and aunt want to come visit my sister and I for a long weekend - need to fit that in somewhere. Better do it before my sister moves. Can we move too?

I Love The Ocean

I went to the beach for lunch today. It's really only a 5 minute drive from my office. So I sat there for a half hour and just watched the waves. There were a couple surfers to watch too.

I've decided that as much as my commute sucks/LA sucks, I should take the advice I gave my sister - enjoy the time you have out here and try to take advantage of the things that are fun to do here before you leave.

I sit in an office 5 minutes from the ocean and I know of a very easy parking area (unheard of near the beach). How many people could sit on the beach during their lunch? I'm gonna try to go down there at least once a week.

If You Haven't Seen This Yet

Have you guys heard about the Jimmy Kimmel/Matt Damon fake feud? Apparently Matt has been on Jimmy's show a few times but Jimmy talks too much and Matt never comes on because they run out of time. Whatever. I don't watch Kimmel because my bedtime is a good 3 hours earlier.

So to poke fun at Jimmy, Sarah Silverman, his girlfriend, and Matt make a funny video. Here’s the link, but be warned if you're at work.

Jimmy responded. He does by using Ben Affleck and many other celebs.

I had a discussion at work with a co-worker (in his 50s) who's been in the business for a while. He was saying how LA sucks and it's such a low quality of life that's just getting worse and worse and we should get out of here. More and more I've been thinking about what to do next. A house would be nice. A less stressful job would be good. Not being gone 11 hours a day between work/traffic would be great. Are these things too much to ask for?

I occasionally go to realtor.com and look up houses back home. Do I really want to move back home, probably not. The house we could afford there would be awesome though and of course many of my friends are there. Outside of local news, there's not much TV and the state is really going downhill. My parents claim to be moving to LA this year. It would be weird to move to OH after they leave.

So I went on findyourspot.com to do their survey. Here's the top 10 cities it came up with: Norfolk, VA, Chesapeake-Virginia Beach, VA, Chapel Hill, NC, Charlotte, NC, Cincinnati, OH, Springfield, MS, Hampton, VA, Asheville, NC, Raleigh, NC and Charleston, SC. I said that I hated snow, so I think that's why it's mostly places in the south. I don't really think I want to live in the south. Although they say there are a lot of cable channels in Atlanta.

Our friend LFL says the greater Philly, PA area is great and we should move by him. Relatively close to NY and it has a couple tv options. He's in a nice area and really is kinda central, but I don't know. All we would know is him, but then again unless we wanted to move to our hometowns, we're not really gonna have a lot of people we know in any other city. It's hard to think about settling down in a place where you don't know anyone. If I'm gonna have that chinese baby from Russia one day, I'm gonna need some people around who can tell me what the heck I should be doing.

Who Knew...

So as many of you may know, I have a couple digestive issues. Basically, I get chest pains that feel like I'm being stabbed in the heart - lots of fun. No heart problems, it’s been checked, just digestive. So I started a new med to get my system back into peak digestive form. I'm sure I'll be able to tackle mexican again soon, but right now the thought of a burrito makes my stomach churn.

So my doc told me that the med had one major side effect - dry mouth. Dry mouth? No problem. He said to drink lots of water. Hah - I drink way more than the average person anyway. I bet I won't even notice it since I'm always so nicely hydrated.

Boy did I underestimate the power of dry mouth. It feels like a barren desert, a pack of XXL cotton t-shirts or about twenty spoonfuls of peanut butter all crammed in there. I drink water and 10 seconds later it feels like I haven't had liquids since I crimped my hair and pegged my pants. I now have to make sure I have a water bottle with me when I go to and from work. I had a dry mouth attack on the 405 one morning - not pretty.

The worst part seems to be at night. I woke up at 3am this morning coughing and chocking because my nose/mouth/throat was so void of any and all moisture. A few chugs from the glass on the bedside table and five minutes later I'm barren and coughing all over again. My poor husband, who needed a good nights sleep, didn't really get one. I didn't either, but what do you expect when you have a dozen of Shaq's size 21 socks in your mouth?

I get out at 3:00 today

Happy 3 day weekend to everyone!

Zen

This is my new zen beach. My sister got it for my birthday. I just set it up on my desk at work today. It's a hit. I feel like people will think I'm crazy if they see me raking the sand, but who cares. It's actually kinda fun. Although it makes me sad that I'm not really at a beach. Hopefully soon...

Michael, Jim, Stanley, Dwight, Andy - I miss you

There is some possible good news on the television writer's strike front. Per Michael Eisner, the AMPTP and writers have come to an agreement. The WGA west and east are each holding almost simultaneous meetings tomorrow to vote on the agreement. Word is that the writers will agree to it.

Phew, hope. I need some new Office episodes, people. And let's not forget about my second favorite comedy, the very under-appreciated How I Met Your Mother. I was never a fan of Doogie Houser, but boy I am now.

Here's a great list of all the major network shows and how many episodes they're planning to air for the rest of the season. Here's hoping we'll see some new shows soon...

Shocking News

I have to say, yesterday evening was shocking. Not because of my birthday and not because of election results.

It all started when we went to the little Methodist church around the corner to vote. My husband went first in line. He gave them his name and then moved down the line to get his form. I was next. They found my (old) name (still haven't changed it yet). Then the woman goes, "and you'll get the rebuplican ballot." EXCUSE ME? She has me look on their log and next to my name and address are three big letters REP. To which I said, "Oh my God, I'm a republican?" I try to tell the women there's no way in hell I'd register republican and asked if there was anything I could do to change it? Nope. I had to take a provisional ballot which they told me probably wouldn't count in the presidential race, but would count for the state propositions. "The democratic party won't accept a vote from a republican voter." OMG. The democrats won't accept my vote? I'm not one of them?

While I was voting on my good for nothing ballot, the voting woman was getting in a fight with my husband that the DMV wouldn't have made this mistake because you don't register to vote through them. Other voter people were disagreeing with her. It was only 5 years ago we moved here and yes, we registered through the DMV. They've messed up so many things between our names and addresses over the past years that there's no doubt they put me in the wrong party. No wonder why I get republican phone calls and junk mail.

My husband says this could be grounds for divorce - I've deceived him. Apparently, I've deceived myself. He also pointed out that if I ever ran for a political office (not in five year plan, but who knows) that I'd have a hard time justifying why I was a registered republican for five+ years.

I've already been on the CA secretary of state website and completed their online form changing my last name and political party. Hopefully the change will be immediate, but my permanent record will always be tarnished. Thank you, California DMV.

Super Tuesday

Another year older. I've already determined that I'll take next year off for the 30th. I don't think I can spend that sitting at work. Maybe I'll spend it here:
























Been a good day so far. Flowers from my boss, upcoming lunch and I've heard whispering of afternoon cake (a co-worker always gets really yummy cakes for his friends). Then dinner with the husband and sister. Should be a good night.

WOOHOO!

Super Tuesday

What a day. It's gonna be huge. Calling it super Tuesday might be a little much though. I mean I know it's my birthday and all, but people can relax. Next year for my 30th you can call it super Thursday (leap year).

Oh yeah, and it's also the primaries. Guess we'll have to go vote before we go out to dinner. I still haven't fully made up my mind on who to vote for. A dem of course, hello. I heard about a nifty website called Glass Booth. You rank the issues on importance, answer about 10 questions (it's short) and it tells you the candidates you most closely agree with.

Hillary was the winner for me. We agreed on 86% of the issues. Mike Gravel (is he still even running) and John Edwards were tied for second at 84% similarity. Obama was third at 81%. It also tells you how you agree or disagree with each candidate. Just for fun you can compare your answers against another candidates from a dropdown menu. I put Mike Huckabee and it was only 26% similarity (the lowest of the republicans). It said we strongly disagree on almost every issue. Gee, ya think. President Huck. Whoa, scary thought.

I still haven't made up my mind yet. The top two have definite pros and cons. A twofer might not be too shabby. A little "change" might be a good thing too. I can't vote for John Edwards because he's all about guns. I've been told I have radical gun beliefs - I think only law enforcement should have guns, period. No hand guns, no hunting rifles, nothing. If parents didn’t have guns around the house Columbine might not have happened. And if the gun laws weren't so lax then the medically ill declared kid from Virginia Tech might not have been able to buy a gun. "Might" be the operative word in those sentences, but still.

Anyway, it's kinda interesting. Check it out. Who are you most similar with?

The weekend

We saw Atonement this weekend. Don't waste 2 1/2 hrs of your life. Unless of course you have no life and then go right ahead and see it. We went to a Garth Brooks concert at the Staples center. I've never been there before; it's a really nice venue. We had so much rain that Sunday morning we had a power outage for a few hours. It was a great excuse not to get out of bed - wish we could have more of them. We also watched the season of Flight of the Concords on On Demand before they expire today. Love the songs, but overall it's not my favorite series. That was the weekend in a nutshell.

And now it's crappy Monday. This morning I saw a bus driver strangely merging on the freeway and then swerving a bit. As I passed, I saw she was on her cell. Poor kids. I can't wait till the hands-free law hits LA. And the State of the Union is tonight - always interesting. Here's a good drinking game - a shot every time he butchers "nuclear". Stephanie Miller is part of the coverage on MSNBC so that will be quite comical.

I saw Spider Pig!

LFL brought a couple movies with him during his visit. The Spider Pig scene gets an A, but the movie gets a C+. Script gets a C. There were some funny scenes, but as a whole it could have been better. Springfield being blocked off from the rest of the world, except the Simpsons (of course) was not the best premise for an entire movie. Spider Pig was worth seeing though.

We watched Superbad too. You have to be in a low brow, male, high school humor kinda mood or you'll hate it. Rating it against an Oscar winner, I'd say it gets straight D's, but judging it for what it was, I'd say it gets a C, scriptwriting a B and acting a B+. The period pants part was my favorite. Sick, but funny.

We're going to see Atonement Friday night at the lot with my sister and Five. I hear it's sad, but good. We'll see.

Here ya go

What a lovely three day weekend. I wish there could be more of them in the year. Only 26 days until President's Day weekend!

For the recap you've all been waiting for...

Saturday 3:00pm: We all met at the bowling alley. Brad Pitt II in his pre-approved outfit, playing it very cool meets Five. He thinks she's cute. We chit chat as a teeny bopper party is beginning next to us (mmmm, pizza). Awkwardness level - not too bad since we're with them. We bowled three games. Five is not a great bowler, but I don't have much room to talk. My husband got a 185 one game - 4 strikes in a row. He won 2 games and LFL won the last. Everyone was having a good time. But why was my kiddie ball wet every time it came up the shoot? Oil on the lane? Something more disgusting? Yuck.

LFL asked Five if she'd like to go out after bowling and she made a vague comment implying all four of us would go. So, Five and I were in the bathroom (I washed my hands for about five minutes straight, no kidding) and I asked if she wanted to go out just the two of them. She said she'd prefer we all go - maybe ice cream.

So I drove with Five and we all headed over to Burbank to go to B&G (Ben & Jerry's). Along the scenic route I took everyone (got a little lost) would you ever guess that in LA there is a horse only lane on the road? Picture a bike lane, but with lots of horse lane signs and more crap on the streets. Who knew? We were by the equestrian center in Griffith Park, but still.

We finally got to Burbank, passed the loads of poor saps waiting in line to see Cloverfield (the guys saw it on Friday night, both said it was terrible) and sat at B&G's for an hour or so. They both ordered Half Baked, a sign of true love? Of course.

It ended in the parking garage, with talks of meeting again over IM. It was clearly reminiscent of Rhett and Scarlett in a modern day Gone With The Wind. We shall see...

The Weekend We've All Been Waiting For

Five and LFL have both said they'd prefer if their blind date was a double date with the two of us. I don't really want to be some go between (been there, done that), but oh well. My involvement ends at the end of the date though.

Here are the plans: We've decided on the lovely activity of bowling. I am not a fan of wearing used shoes and you'll all think I'm a wimp, but those balls are heavy (keep your thoughts to yourself, Steve). I use the kiddie lightweight balls instead. I know, it's a sad fact about me. I'm much better at Wii bowling. At least my friends are of the human nature and I've never made styrofoam gifts for a squirrel. I shouldn't pick on my dear husband today though because he worked like 16 hours yesterday for a really ridiculous reason. I get why a meter maid sounds like a good alternative.

I digress. We're meeting Saturday afternoon. Five has agreed to come to the valley - I drive to Santa Monica M-F, I prefer my weekends to never include the 405 . After wearing used shoes starts to get boring and if Five and LFL are hitting it off, they might continue their date alone. Phew, here's where my part ends.

They don't allow smoking in bowling alleys anymore, do they? I hate walking out of those places smelling like the marlboro man. I better wear clothes I don’t mind burning, just in case.

I'll report all the juicy details on Monday. I was having Marshall from the tech department of Alias build me a mini camera out of a lip gloss tube, but it doesn't look like it'll be finished in time, darn it. So no video, but I'll be sure to include some comical dialogue.

So there you have it. Think positive thoughts for the little (literally, they're both short) love birds.

Hope you all have a pleasant three day weekend. Go Giants!
** I make manly appetizers and root for his football team, he sits through General Hospital. It's called marriage.

Ya think you know someone

You all know the history, we were friends for 3 years during college, dated for 5 and have been married for a year and a half. So you'd think I'd know my husband pretty well after all that. I can easily interpret his vague comments. For instance, I'll call him at work and ask how he's doing. I can easily decipher the vast difference between "Ok" and "Ok, I guess".

So last night we're having an innocent conversation about how he thinks Connecticut is great even though he's never been there, when he goes, "I want to be a meter maid." Holy good God. Didn't see that one coming. I immediately disclosed that this new career goal and his subsequent reasoning was all going on my blog today.

He told me some story about seeing a meter maid with a giant box attached to him run from meter to meter sucking out the change. My husband theorized that the meter maids probably have a set area they have to empty and when they're finished their day is done, which explains why the meter guy was running. He said he thinks it would be a very low stress job - he's always trying to think of a low stress job.

The fifth thought that came to mind after hearing all this was "does he have a death wish?" I know it's just a bunch of change, but that adds up and you know there are crazy people who would try to rob him. To that he said, "Well, it's not like I'm gonna be a meter maid in Compton." Whew, glad we agree on that.

Movie review and more...

We saw Juno this weekend at the lot. My sister and Five went with us. It was a good movie - kinda kooky. If you're looking for a mainstream movie, this has a little edge. Dwight from The Office is in it so what's not to like. It's brief, but it's obviously the best scene. I give the movie a solid B+, acting gets an A and screenwriting an A.

In other news, my sister told us she wants to leave LA. She said even if my parents move out she still wants to leave. She's hoping to move at the end of the school year in May. She only moved here in August so it hasn't been much time, but I get it, LA sucks. If we didn't have to live here for our occupation, we probably wouldn't either. Although, I have no idea where else we'd live, which is part of our problem. That beach in the Caribbean sure is nice, but not very realistic. Maybe as a vacation house though when we're 40 and rich.

Love It

*The frame is an espresso color even though it looks kinda black in this picture.

My awesome painting from my very talented friend. This picture doesn't even do it justice. You all must come see it in person.

The Fun Begins

I was pulling into my driveway Monday night and there was a giant city notice posted on the garage door. Lovely. I parked, walked out and read the notice. They're holding a public hearing to turn our apartment building into condos on Thursday, Jan. 17th at like 10:30AM.

We'd gotten a letter over a year ago from our management company saying they were going to convert the units into condos and offered a 5% discount if we wanted to buy our unit. Are you kidding me? We have 4 separate leaks along the sliding glass door every time it rains. What a terrible investment.

Like I said, that was over a year ago and we hadn't heard anything since. We figured our crappy management company figured it wouldn't be worth their time/money, but I guess not. So we're currently looking for a new place. Ugh.

We actually went to see a 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath townhouse last night, but it wasn't quite as up to date as we'd prefer. And it had those hideous mirrored sliding closet doors in the bedrooms. Those are pretty much a deal breaker for us.

We can't even imagine moving, but we figure we better start looking and find exactly what we want instead of waiting till we get a 30 days to vacate letter and be forced into something not as awesome as we want. Who's gonna help us move?

Sexy Bagger

Monday/Tuesday evenings we (usually just the husband) do our grocery shopping. We usually don't like to waste the precious weekend at grocery stores so we save it for after work. I figure the day's already blown because I've been at work for 9 hours so why not spend an hour or so at the store.

So last night was no different. We went to Ralphs (which is one of the nicest of the chain stores). We carefully selected our tissues, olives, yoplait yogurts, etc and were headed to the checkout. The lines were unusually long (too many people on break at the same time was my guess). I strategically assessed each line and picked what I thought would be the shortest wait. It ended up being the longest. I need to better hone that skill.

We wait and wait and finally we're up. Robin, the cashier, quickly scanned our items. In the meantime, they had no baggers so my husband started bagging. They usually hate it when you bag your own groceries and will swoop in if they see it happening. This time there was no one to take over. I pay, we're just about to leave and Robin goes, "Thanks for your patience and thanks for bringing that sexy bagger with you." To which I said, "My pleasure." We got in the elevator to the parking garage and I said, "Did she just call you a sexy bagger?" If I hadn't been around, I think Robin would have given my sexy bagger her phone number.

Random stuff

Storm Watch: Crazy big storm is just starting to hit our fair city. The overly dramatic weather people are saying it's gonna be "the worst storm to hit in decades". I'm choosing to ride it out at the Macys one day sale tomorrow.

I got to work in under 25 minutes today. It usually takes an hour and 15ish. Every night this week I've gotten home in roughly 25-30 minutes. This is a beautiful thing. I don't want the holidays to ever end, or the schools to go back in session or the strike to resolve. This town is actually pleasant (that's right, pleasant) when 3/4 of the people are gone.

Two weeks to go until the big blind date between Five and Looking For Love. Details are TBD, but I'm thinking it'll be dinner and a movie on Sat night.

Can you imagine being this guy?

Apparently, the kayaker is a marine biologist and was investigating a great white shark. Little did he know, the shark had been following him from below and then came up for a closer look. The pic was taken by a guy on a nearby boat. (S&S - they call him a canoeist!) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=505753&in_page_id=1770