Salsa Shower Anyone?

This morning John and I headed to one of our favorite breakfast placed in town, The Breakfast Buzz. We were able to get there pretty early and beat the hung over college crowd. Everything went very smoothly...John and I each got our regular dishes and we even had one of our favorite waitresses. Granted we don't know her name, but she is always smiling and friendly... not what you really except from a college student that early in the morning...on a weekend no less.

As I was getting ready to write out my check, (yes...they only accept cash or check, and no we were not in Los Osos), our waitress came over to clear some of our plates. John loves his breakfast burrito so much that all he had on his plate a full container of salsa.

I'm not sure what happened when our waitress picked up his plate, but all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I see the plate start coming right towards my face! Luckily she hung on to the plate, but the cup of salsa went FLYING AT MY HEAD! It totally happened in slo-mo and all of the sudden I was staring at splattered salsa on my plate and I felt something wet on my face! John looked at me and started laughing and then I started laughing as I was in total shock and embarrassed! What a scene!

The waitress felt SO bad and kept apologizing, but I told her it was ok. She left to go get a towel and in the mean time I looked down at my collar and saw a huge pile of salsa just staring back at me. So I leaned over and flicked the color to get it off, and it went SHOOTING over and sprayed this other guy's leg!! I felt SO bad!!! He just started laughing and told the waitress, when she came back, that now I knew what it felt like! He was totally right!!

There was a huge drop of salsa on my leg and it was all over my check book. Luckily it did not get in my purse. I think if it had then I would have been mad. I guess there was a ton of it in my hair but the waitress did her best in trying to wipe it out. John said it was pretty funny to watch. She said we didn't have to tip her, and I was thinking...no tip? What about a free meal? I once got a free meal when I found a metal can lid in a salad, and let me tell you a salsa shower is WAY worse.

We did of course tip her, but I think if a manager had been there we could have gotten the meal for free. I do think she was lucky that I wasn't some crotchety old bitty. Imagine that! I could just see some old hag yelling at her until she made her cry.

I tried to get a couple of battle photos, but they didn't come out that good. I didn't realize until I took my coat off that I had two huge salsa spots on my back! John said that I probably wasn't that mad because I knew I'd be able to blog about it. WHATEVER!

Team Pink!

Last Friday I was released from the chains at 3pm! I was so excited! We rarely get to leave work early on any day of the week, so it’s a big deal when we get to. It was interesting to hear what some of my co-workers were going to do with the extra 2 hours…one was going to go on a hike, one was going to nap, and I was off to repaint the guest bathroom!

I was reminded yet again of how lucky I am to have a husband, (whose number one priority is to make sure I’m happy), agree to paint the bathroom PINK!! You read right….PINK!!!!! This is definitely a historic event for John to agree to paint a whole room pink. (We currently have one fuchsia wall in our bedroom). However I’m not even sure if he sees it as pink, so if he tried to deny me the pink I picked out for the bathroom, I’m sure I could have won that argument.

Anyway…I failed to get any photos of the bathroom when it was green. Except for this shot, which actually has a yellow tint from the light:

It’s actually the first pink put on the walls, which seemed REALLY bright against the green. That is why I took the photo. I got totally worried that it was too pink! (I have no idea what a photo would have done to help the situation either, so don’t ask.)

Once we finished the coats and let them dry it didn’t seem that bright, but now every time I walk by it I love it more and more!

Here is a video shot by John. As you will see, he told me he was filming the room, but later when we watched it he said he just wanted to film me. What a turd!

I also just painted the frame of the cabinet under the sink the brown color, and it looks SO good! I am still in shock at how good it looks. We are definitely going to paint our linen closet doors the same color. See you later gross ‘ole oak!

We also installed our new light fixture, but we think it might be a tad too dark. It is light enough over the sink, but it looks a little dreary over by the shower. John says it's kind of romantic, but do we really want to be giving that vibe off to our guests? I think not. We really don’t want to have to get a new light as we like the new one we bought, but we also know that we would like our guests to be able to properly clean themselves when they visit. We may take a look at the depot’s catalog to see if they have another dark framed light. Their selection was pretty limited in the store.

We should get the majority of the work done this weekend, but it still won’t be 100% done as we have yet to pick out the flooring or buy the new toilet. John’s parents used these snap together tiles in their bathroom, which we are interested in trying out. They said it’s easier than installing regular tile, which would be nice…but the bathroom is such a small room it will probably be an easy job regardless. Heck! I bet I wouldn’t even have to help! Doubtful though...damn you home owner pride!

I will also need to make a new shower curtain before the job is complete. Ok…so I don’t really have to make the shower curtain for the job to be done, but I have the feeling it’s going to be a major design factor! I’m so excited! I’ve been carrying around the pink paint swatch in my purse just in case I happen to stop by a fabric store. I’m also thinking of getting brown bathroom rugs and brown towels.

I’ll update as we go along…but for now I will leave you with this classic ‘accidental’ video I took:

Addison Update!

Rebekkah sent out some new photos of Addison after her first bath, and per my mom’s request…I’m sharing one of them with you all!

Here is what Rebekkah wrote:

Addison enjoyed her first bath tonight (not just a sponge bath). Her umbilical cord fell off today. She seemed to really like the bath. She was cooing and moving all around. No cries! We also took her to the doctor yesterday...she is already 9 pounds!!!

Great Day in SB

John and I had a great time in Santa Barbara this past weekend. We had planned to get on the road early by 8:30am, but when that alarm went off we were not feeling like early raisers! It was just another sad reminder of how old we are getting! We totally snoozed it and didn’t leave the house until 10:30am! It totally wasn’t my doing though…I was on the birthday boy’s schedule. Plus have you ever known me to argue with someone who tells me to sleep in?

Our first stop once we got into town was to Sambo’s for a late breakfast. John had eaten at Sambo’s before for a company function, and ever since he went there he’d wanted to take me there. Sambo’s used to be called Little Black Sambo’s and was a chain of restaurants all throughout the West Coast. However due to racism issues people had with the name/book, all of the restaurants eventually closed down, except for the one in SB. It is the only one left. You can check out the history of the restaurant here. (Thanks to my super researcher friend Sarah V.)

So do you all remember the children’s book Little Black Sambo? It was one of my favorite stories when I was a kid, and even remember the cover of he book was red. John on the other hand has no memory of the book, but according to his mom she read it to him many times! Poor dude…even at 31 his memory is totally shot! John’s parents also said that there used to be a Sambo’s restaurant in Eureka, where Christine’s Diner currently is. Now I really don’t remember that! I’m thinking it might have shut down before my family moved north. However I happened across this website that has photos of ALL of the Sambo’s restaurants! Can you believe it? Below are the photos of the Eureka location, but there was also one in Ukiah, AND Arroyo Grande!! Isn’t that crazy? So parents...do you remember the one in Ukiah?

I was a little disappointed when I first saw the images of Sambo and the tigers in the restaurant. For one he was wearing a turban and his skin was very light! I definitely did not remember him sporting a turban in the book! I have the feeling that the new images could be one of the reasons why this Sambo’s is the last one standing.

The place was really packed so we decided to sit at the counter. This turned out to be quiet exciting as we had just watched an episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bordain went back to his old restaurant of employment to work a double shift. I learned so much about restaurant kitchens in that episode…mainly that it’s a total madhouse! I have a much greater respect for all people who work in fast paced kitchens. I was totally having flash backs of the busy days I had while working at Cold Stone.

Throughout our whole meal we got to sit there and watch the chaos. John decided to start off his birthday right with a celebratory mimosa.

We were able to watch our waiter make it and as we noticed that the champagne to orange juice ratio wasn’t really even. It was more like ¾ champagne and ¼ orange juice! As you can see it was not served in an ordinary mimosa glass! Even though they were pouring the champagne like it was going out of style it tasted pretty good…so I don’t think it was that cheap. Everything about our meal was fantastic. John got a good lookin’ breakfast burrito and I got a scramble with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, and some of the best hollandaise sauce I’d ever had.

Since we were in no rush to be anywhere we decided to order another mimosa. When our waiter came by again, we asked him for another one, and at the same time he gave us our check. He said that since he was too lazy to re-ring up the check that the drink would be on the house! We couldn’t believe it…but what was more shocking was that this mimosa had even MORE champagne in it than the last! It looked like he was trying to finish off the bottle, which resulted in him only putting in about a tablespoon of orange juice! No joke! If we were judging a ‘waiter of the year’ contest he definitely would have won in our book!

Once we took a look at the bill we noticed that we didn’t get charged for our two hot chocolates either! How could we possibly be getting so much free stuff?? This never happens!! So we gave the dude a huge tip to compensate for the drinks. However he almost fell over when he saw it. We thanked him and I mentioned how it was John’s birthday then he said it was his on Monday! Those Aries’ I swear…they’ve got some weird connection.

On our way out I had to stop and get a souvenir. I had to add to my collection of restaurant t-shirts! Some day there will be a contest/competition involving restaurant t-shirts and I will win! Mark my word! (Note to self...add to goal list.)

Anyway, I got a t-shirt and a copy of the Little Black Sambo book!! I was SO excited! Right when I saw the cover photo it totally brought back memories of the story.

Then when I flipped through I noticed a few other pictures that I remembered!

How could I forget the tiger with the shoes on his ears? So silly!! I did not remember that his dad was the one who found the tiger butter, or that they ate pancakes at the end of the story. I totally should have gotten some pancakes at the restaurant. Maybe next time.

When I was reading the story I came across these two lines:

"...there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter (or "ghi," as it is called in India)..."

So I guess Sambo lived in India? I had no idea…so I guess I shouldn’t be that mad that they gave him the turban in the restaurant photos. John also told me that back in the day anyone who wasn’t white was considered black. Soooooooo lame.

After our late breakfast we had some time to kill before our movie so we cruised the pier. The weather online said it was to be 72 degrees. Yeah right! It was more like 80! It was totally hot. I hate it when the real tourists are dressed more appropriately than I am!

A few years ago when we spent the day in SB before heading down to LA we saw Maria Full of Grace. The theater we saw it at was called the Metropolitan Riviera Theatre and it was totally sketchy. It had one screen and seemed to be located next to some research facility. I stayed clear from the guys in the lab coats and did not ask questions.

When we decided to see another movie in SB we did not think we’d have another odd experience, but we did! The Metropolitan Plaza de Oro Theater only had 2 screens and was hardly noticeable from the road! We actually drove by it the first time, and then couldn’t find the correct parking lot. We saw Girls Rock, which we both really enjoyed, but there were like 4 other people in the theater and it was a Saturday afternoon! I couldn't believe how dead it was. What was also shocking is that the theater still had its original décor which looked like it was from the 70’s. They had the fabric draped on all the walls, old fake red brick flooring, and really old light fixtures. It reminded us of the State Theater in Arcata.

Despite feeling like we were in a time warp we both really enjoyed the movie. If they had that rock camp when I was younger I know I would have totally rocked the drums. I mean I was already awesome just on my smurf drum set. Imagine me on the real thing! (I’m sure my parents wouldn’t want to imagine that!).

We ended our night by going to one of our favorite restaurants of all time, The Palace. The Palace has amazing Louisiana style food, a great atmosphere and an extremely nice staff. When I had called to make reservations they asked if we were celebrating a special occasion, and I totally hesitated in telling them it was John’s birthday, but told them anyway. John has always emphasized that he never wants any restaurateurs to know that it is his birthday. I knew this was a HUGE risk, but I was thought that maybe he’d have lighten up a little in his old age. Well let me tell you that his tone definitely wasn’t ‘light’ when he saw the waitress bring over his bread pudding with a candle in it. I totally lucked out that no one sang to him, AND he got his dessert for free! Score for me! It's always nice to let a free dessert prove my point that it totally pays off to tell peeps it’s your birthday.

Here’s a shot of his bread pudding:

Here is a shot of our crawfish appetizer:

Here’s a shot of my crawfish pasta dish. I LOVE it!

About an hour into the meal the restaurant staff breaks into song and they all go around to all the tables and clink glasses. I got a quick vid of it, but you really have to be there to enjoy it to the fullest.

Overall it was a very successful day, even though I feel a bit guilty for having so much fun when it wasn’t even my birthday! I can't wait until next year!

So Tastey

So this weekend went by way to fast for me, and now I feel like I'm fighting some sort of cold. I thought it was just my allergies on Saturday but the sneezing and runny nose also came with a sore throat. Sore throats aren't normally caused by my allergies to almost anything green. Soooo due to my laziness and spending most of my time working on the guest bathroom, you only have this week entry of the cake I decorated for my work's St. Patty's day potluck.


As some of you know I've decorated a few cakes in my time. The one above will not be in my decorating portfolio. This was probably one of the easiest cakes I had ever done and all my co-workers were so impressed! Well they acted impressed...maybe they were just trying to be nice. Anyway I felt really weird accepting their complements on a cake a 10 year old could probably create. I'm definitely going to have to kick it up a notch for our next potluck. I was going to make a cake for our Halloween potluck last year but I ran out of time. I remember a cake that was made for a cake walk one year during an elementary school carnival. It was a grave yard with a picket fence and open graves dug out. It even have little piles of cake next to the grave holes as dirt. Hopefully this year I'll be able to make it and really knock the socks off my co-workers!

Happy (early) Day!

So this entry is somewhat inspired by Brianne's latest entry, since she too is an Aries. On Saturday is John's 31st birthday. Since I don't post on the weekends, here is my birthday post for him!

We are heading down to Santa Barbara for the day on Saturday to celebrate. We've already got our restaurants picked out and may catch a movie if that tickles our fancy. It will be nice to have a relaxing day away from home, especially since the guest bathroom is still a construction zone. I should really get some yellow caution tape.

I've decided to post a bunch of random photos of John, (random as in me being super lazy and just doing a computer search for 'john' and seeing what came up).

Here he is with his favorite cape. (The inspiration for me to make his nephew one for his b-day).

He's so fierce!

I think this might have been for Easter? Oh probably not. I think he often dressed proper.
Hold that thought...his sister Molly was the cheerleader of the family. This uniform was strictly borrowed.

One of our first photos together...Freshman year Sadie Hawkins.

We got this photo taken at Great America...we must have been 18-20. I know John thought he looked like a bad ass in this photo, and I love that I became a D cup! I tried to take that top home, but the clerk stopped me.

Here's a random photo from Rebekkah and Adam's wedding. I know it may look like I'm doing the robot, but FAKE OUT! I'm only striking the pose for the photo!

Another random photo from a friend's birthday party. I considered using this as our Christmas card photo.

Anyway...I am thankful everyday that John is in my life and that I met him when I was so young. As I'm getting older and our time together is narrowing I'm trying my best to enjoy every minute we spend together. He is the reason I get up in the morning and the reason I leave work at 5pm on the dot! I can't wait to see what the next 50 years hold! Love you babe!

Blinded by the Color!

This week has turned into a crazy week and it’s only Tuesday! What the heck? There are actually three important items causing me to lose a tiny bit of my sanity each minute. Aren’t you dying to know what they are? I’m sure you are hoping that they are really interesting and ground breaking, but I’m afraid they aren’t. Two really aren't that exciting...one...John's b-day is this weekend so I'm preparing for that, and...we got an extra guitar for Guitar Hero, and it is AWESOME!!!! Awesome as in fun, but not awesome in that nothing is getting done around the house and I'm getting to bed super late because we are always playing. Due to the massive amounts of shredding that took place this past weekend it resulted in a very slow start to a new home improvement project...the guest bathroom.

We decided to give it a much needed fact lift. We are basically changing everything except the shower/tub and the vanity. However we will be painting the oak of the vanity and mirror a dark brown color. We are hoping it works (a neighbor of ours did it), but if it doesn’t we don’t care since it’s a little dated. (Like I would appose to getting a new one?)

Anyway we had one of our typical marathon trips to the depot, which I didn’t mind too much because A) we haven’t had one of those in about 6 months (thank god), and B) I got to pick out all the fun stuff…like a new light fixture, new paint, and all of the bathroom hardware. (New flooring and toilet are still to come!)

I had decided on a light green color about a month ago that will match the shower curtain we use. It all seemed to be going good until we finished the first coat last night and realized that our hallway is practically the SAME SHADE! How the heck did this happen? Then John reminds me how almost every room has green in it, and how he knows I love green so much that he was surprised that I didn’t marry it. WHATEVER! I don’t even like green! I have no idea how the other greens got in the house. Needless to say I am pretty miffed. I like a variety of bold colors in my house, and all this green is not cutting it!

I then started to wonder why I hadn’t chosen a nice soft yellow. That is another color that would have matched the shower curtain and we used that color in our old condo. Dang dang dang! I was so mad at myself.

Then my color blind husband asked me what color goes with dark brown…orange? Yes ORANGE!! Can you just imagine how good that will look? John was thinking of a lighter orange, but I had to tell him if we went that route then it would be peach, and I did not want it to match our kitchen. Enough with the matching already! I'm thinking more of a rusty/burnt/terracotta orange.

I went back to my favorite hardware store tonight to pick up some new and improved orange paint swatches. We will see what color we decide on. I'm hoping for a medium shade...I think John’s worried that I might want to go this route:

But even if I do…will he be able to tell?

I said what?

Below is a scan of one of my preschool newsletters that my mom saved. She recently found a copy of it and sent it to me. Even though I remembered my story in the newsletter I also found it interesting to recognize other kids names that I didn't know at the time. I was not friends with these kids, (except maybe Jaymie), and did not really meet them until high school. So you Fortuna readers will surely recognize some of the names below. Enjoy!

Note: I've got a lot to write about the birth, so that entry is coming...trust me!

Addison Carlie Steinbuck

Addison Carlie Steinbuck
8 lbs 10 oz.
20.5 inches (I think)
March 12, 2008 at 3pm

I'll try to get some more photos out today!

The Time Has Come!

So I got the word…Rebekkah will be induced at 8am on Wednesday!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!! I had a tinsy winsy bit of doubt that I might not make it, but for the last few days I have only thought the following: “I will make be there for the birth.’ “I will only miss one day of work.” And what do you know? Thanks to The Secret it is totally going to come true! It really could not be more perfect. I will be able to drive up north tomorrow after work, and still be able to attend my doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon. Then I will most likely be able to drive home Wednesday evening after the birth and be back for work on Thursday! Isn’t it perfect?

I guess Rebekkah had an ultra sound and non-stress today and the baby looked fine. She was a bit concerned that the baby may not have enough amniotic fluid, but it all looks good.

Who knows if I’ll be able to post when I get back, but let me tell you that it’s times like these where I really do need a lap top! I could totally be blogging updates during the delivery…or even better have a live web cast! Yeah...I’m sure Rebekkah would love that!

and waiting...

Still no baby! Can you believe it? Rebekkah is not having any bodily changes either. She sees her doctor on Monday and we both have the feeling that he will want to induce her. Of course the important thing is 'when' he induce her? I'm hoping she will make an appointment to go back to the hospital early Tuesday morning. Oh you know what? I totally thought that would be the perfect plan, but I realized that I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday! That would not cut it! My plan would have been do drive up there Monday night after work... be there for all of Tuesday and then drive back that night, and only miss one day of work! Perfect right? I guess not if I have that doctor appointment! Dang...well I guess I'll just have to wait and see what her doctor says tomorrow.

By the way...do you hate day light savings time or is it just me? I don't like it either way...when we loose an hour OR gain an hour. I really don't think there is a need to be changing the clocks when not every state does it! What is the point? Do I really need to be thinking it's 3pm when it's really 6pm? I don't think so!

Still waiting...

No baby…still waiting…although it is a good thing. Imagine if I didn’t get to see the finale of Project Runway last night! Oh the horror! I cannot tell you how excited I was that Christian won!!! He (like the rest of America) is my total fave. Rami’s collection was pretty good, but I totally thought he was going to win when Michael Korr’s only complaint was that he didn’t like his color palette. Come on! That is barely an issue. I just reread this entry (my first one on PR which has been getting over 100 hits the last few days), and I had to laugh at my Christian comments. And actually I now don't think his first outfit was that bad. Maybe his attitude affected my fashion goggles a little more than I thought.

As I was saying…now is the perfect time for Rebekkah go into labor. How perfect you may ask? Well let me tell you the top ten reasons why NOW it is perfect for her to push a watermelon out of pea sized hole:

10. I will most likely only have to miss one day of work. (You know how stingy I am with my PTO.)

9. John will be able to make the drive with me. (Like I really want to do all the driving? That is what my husband is for! Well one of the reasons.)

8. I will not have to rush back the next day to get to work. (I was planning on possibly not showering or fixing my hair depending on how much time I had. You know my co-workers don’t want to see that!).

7. I will most likely get to spend more than an hour with the baby. (Even though I will probably have to wrestle the grandmas, grandpas, and the dad to the ground, it will be worth it).

6. I’d get a three day weekend! (How sweet would that be?)

5. We might able to take our time on the way back home to stop off at Roxie’s for a deli sando or at Johnny’s in Gilroy. (You know we never pass up a chance for a good meal…and you know I’m gonna have an appetite after all that pushing…I mean photo taking!)

4. If the baby is born on Friday or Saturday I will be able to make it back for my book club meeting on Sunday morning. (Total priority people…don’t even laugh).

3. No rush hour traffic to deal with on Saturday. (I really don’t want to be cussing everyone out on the drive. That can’t be good for my mojo).

Ok, so I thought it would be easy to come up with 10, but it totally wasn't! Sorry....add the top two in the comments if you desire!

Where the Buffalo Roam

So I’ve totally been putting of posting about our Colorado trip because there is so much to write about! I know that is a totally lame excuse. I should have typed that I’ve been unable to blog about it because I've been wasted every night for no apparent reason. But alas my humor chromosome went on an early spring break. Yeah I know…total a-hole move.

What was I typing about? Oh right…our Colorado adventure! First let me say that the flight out there was SO easy! When we fly, we rarely fly within the US, so this was great! The flight was only 2 hours, no connections, and no needing to pack extra underwear or toiletries in case my luggage got lost. I don’t think I’ve ever boarded a plain with just my purse and book. I could totally get used to traveling like that.

We arrived in Denver and headed to our friends home in Parker. (Jay and John used to be college roommates). The DIA (do I sound local or what?) is out in BFE so we had about a half hour drive. The first thing we noticed that was different than California were these ‘toll roads.’ We were slightly confused what to do as we saw a lot of cars zoom by the tolls not paying. I decided it would probably be best to pay the tolls and not risk getting thrown in the slammer with in the first 2 hours of being in the state.

We made it to Jayenna’s house and it was SO nice and HUGE! I couldn’t get over how in every housing division we saw the homes were GIGANTIC. Most of them probably ranged around 3,000 square feet. I couldn’t believe it. It’s like Colorado is sending out this subliminal message “come to Colorado…buy our beautiful CHEAP houses…have lots and lots of babies…” I mean why else would you need such a huge house? I guess you could fill it with gym equipment, or convert a couple of rooms to a HUGE closet…or a SHOE closet! Ahhh the dream.

One thing we learned very quickly that if you are to buy a home in Colorado, you must make SURE to buy a house on the north facing side. (Or was it South?) Anyway… if you buy a home on the wrong side of the street you could risk having snow in your front yard for a very looooooooooong time. Which also means many backbreaking days of shoveling it. It was really amazing to see the difference just across the street.

One of the biggest highlights of the day, (besides seeing our friends of course), was getting to meet Laina!! She was SO much cuter in person!! I mean I thought she was really cute in all the photos I had seen, but it did not compare at all to seeing her in the flesh! She was such a good baby too…hardly ever cried, and it seems like Jayenna can take her just about anywhere and there’s never any issues. Granted we were only with them for a few days, but you all know those old wives tales about the babies that cry, and cry, and cry right? Why are those tales so familiar? Oh right!! I was one of those babies! Sorry mom!

Here’s a cute photo of Laina eating some dinner:

An even cuter video:

One of my goals while visiting the ‘Centennial State’ was to get a good pair of snowshoes. After our visit to Yosemite last month I realized the hard way that tennis shoes are not really ‘all weather.’ I knew I’d be able to find a better deal in CO than CA, and I did! In fact John and I both did! We told Jayenna of my want, (not need of course), and they took us down to the Castle Rock Outlets. The town looked really neat, and the shops were pretty sweet too. We actually each found a pair of boots for around $30 a piece! Here is a sweet photo of them…don’t they look good in the snow?

We woke up the next morning to snow on the ground! In fact it was still snowing. It was SO pretty, and I was SO excited to test out my new boots! Let me just say that my ‘want’ totally became a necessity!!

Our plan for the day was to drive up to Boulder and check it out. On our way there, we had to drive through Denver, which seemed pretty neat. Although our highlight was seeing Mile High Stadium…and we aren’t even Bronco fans! It looked so modern and slick. It actually made me realize how old Candlestick really is. So sad.

It took a little under an hour to be to Boulder, and when we got there our first stop was to visit with a Realtor that our local Realtor hooked us up with. Since we didn’t know much about the town and knew no one there she was a GREAT source of information. One thing she told us was that boulder is known for its ‘Flatiron’ mountains. There is a hiking trail right below them so we drove over there and took a mini hike up part of the mountain. Here are the flatirons:

One neat thing about being in a new state is seeing all the different shops and restaurants. We came across the Einstein Brothers bagel shop, (near the college), that first morning and decided to try it out. It was definitely Noah’s quality, which was very exiting. We even had to venture there the following day as well.

After our quick snack we gave ourselves a self guided tour of some of the neighborhoods. The Realtor actually told us all the info, so we just went and saw it for our own eyes. The southern Boulder neighborhoods are homes built in the 60s that are slowly getting remodeled (interiors). Our Realtor talked very highly of this area because that is where she lives. I decided to take a video of the area to remember how the houses looked. Little did I know that we would SEE OUR REALTOR IN FRONT OF HER HOUSE! See for yourself:

I totally panicked after filming that…I mean could you imagine her turning around and seeing us drive by with the camera hanging out the window?? We laughed so hard after that, but then laughed even harder after hearing ourselves on the video.

After that we ventured north. On our way I spotted a buck casually walking down the sidewalk! I totally panicked! Well at first I thought it was fake, but then realized it was real! I bet he was even a 3 pointer. Lucky for him it seems like the residents of Boulder are pretty friendly. If that buck had been in Fortuna, it would be already mounted on a wall by now.

The homes in Northern Boulder are all new, and very industrial looking. I actually thought most of them looked like commercial buildings, but almost all of them were occupied. Very interesting. Nice solar pannels though.

Since most of the area is being developed we happened across a huge lot with a bunch of prairie dogs! They were so cute that I had to get a video:

After the tour we headed downtown to the Pearl Street Mall. This actually reminded me of the promenade in Santa Monica, but the entire thing isn’t closed to traffic. I think it should be though. They had some really cute shops and restaurants, and even an ice skating rink! Here are a few photos:

We stopped for lunch at The Med, (a recommendation from Frommers), and the food was SO good! John got some paella, which was the best we had had since I got some from a street vendor in Germany, and I got a pizza. The pizza reminded me of total European pizza. It was so good. I now so many of you would love it too.

That night we decided to see a movie which was located at the 29^th street mall. I guess it’s a pretty new shopping area, which was really nice. They had these gigantic outdoor stores like North Face. So different than California. We went and saw In Bruges which we both really enjoyed. It was a pretty bizarre movie, but it was great seeing the town. (Bruges was one of our favorite towns we visited while in Brussels).

The only shocker of the night was that the movie ticket cost $9.75! Geesh! I know that it’s more expensive in LA, but the prices are getting ridiculous.

The next day we decided to head into the mountains to check out a small town called Nederland. The town was just a really small ski town = nothing to do. So I think we drove through it in 30 seconds and then drove out of it in another 30 seconds. What seemed like a waste of time really wasn't because the drive out there was so beautiful. I had never seen anything like the Rocky Mountains before. On the way back we saw a sign for ‘Boulder Falls,’ so we pulled over. It was a real short walk to the falls, however the steps down were totally iced over! We attempted to walk down but it was so slick I just knew it was an injury waiting to happen. So as we made it back up the 4 steps we walked down a family was about to try it. John caught this total spy cam video of them.

Photo of John and the mountains:

When we got back into town we decided to check out the local college, University of Colorado. We first checked out the football stadium, which was HUGE! Well WAY bigger than Cal Poly’s. Most of the buildings were really pretty and made out of stone. It reminded me of UCLA, or of an East Coast college. Totally different than CP where every building is completely different from one another. Here is a photo of a few buildings...the stadium is on the left.

Our plan was to head back to Parker that day, but on the way stop in Louisville, which is about 10 minutes east of Boulder. Our Realtor told us that was a nice town with cheaper housing. (Housing in Boulder is pretty similar to prices here in SLO). But before we hit the road we decided to see another movie. Little did we know that There Will Be Blood is REALLY long, and by the time it was over it was dark outside! We decided to still make the trip and find a place to eat dinner there. We found the main street pretty easy, but it looked totally dead!!! It actually reminded us of Ferndale, but it was pretty eerie how no one was really out.

I did not think we were going to find a place to eat when I spotted the Melting Pot!! I screamed so lout I think I gave John a heart attack. We had actually never been to a Melting Pot, but we love La Fondue, which is in the bay area.

So we head into the pot and the lady tells us that they are totally booked! WHAT? How can that be when the town looked like a ghost town? I guess everyone had a hunkering for fondue? However it was our lucky day because she did have a cancellation and was able to get us in! We were SO excited!! It was great to have different cheese, meat, and chocolate options to choose from then the La Fondue menu. I was even able to customize my chocolate, so I had them add caramel and marshmallow to it. Let me tell you it was SO! Good!! Doesn’t it look good?

As some of you know, eating at a fondue restaurant takes a long time. So long in fact that we didn’t get back to Parker until 10pm! I felt so bad, but we were lucky that Jayenna was still up.

On our last day in Colorado, we ventured into Denver. We first stopped off in Washington Park and had a real nice walk. The weather was SO nice that day! I think it was in the 70s…a HUGE change from the 30s and 40s! We were totally dying.

Overall we didn’t really mind the weather. Only one night I felt like it was a little too cold for me, but it didn’t really seem to phase John that much either. One day in Boulder, when it was 40, he had his window down and was wearing a t-shirt! Crazy I know.

Sorry for that tangent...after the park we headed to the 16th street mall. It was a really neat area with shops and restaurants kind of in the middle of the business district. I’m not sure if it was, but there were a lot of business peeps around. They even have a free shuttle that just drives up and down 16^th street.

We met the Hoskinson’s for lunch at Wahoos. Have you all been to one of these? Well it was a whole new experience for John and I. I guess they are mostly in Southern California and are just making there way north. There is a new one in Santa Barbara and a few in the bay area. Anyway it was really tasty, and totally packed!

After we said our good byes (sniff…sniff), we headed back to 16^th street and decided to walk up to the Denver Museum of Modern art. We were also in pursuit of finding an Internet café, because I misplaced the printout of what time our flight departed. Smart right? Well we thought it would be no prob. I mean how hard can it be to find an Internet cafe? Well have any of you recently tried to find an Internet café?? Or have you noticed that they are completely NON-EXISTENT? What the crap? We asked a few people where we could find one, and they kept trying to direct us to cafes that had wi fi. Ummmm not really that helpful peeps! The tourist information booth lady told us to try the public library. We lucked out because it was near the museum. So we head in there and it is PACKED. I did not want to wait 20 minutes to use their computer, so we said screw it and headed to the museum.

We didn’t have much time to spend at the museum, but made the best with what we did have. I always enjoy going to museums and they had some really neat pieces. Although this was the first time where I had seen really old pieces mixed with pieces from the 90s! No joke! They had this whole American Indian section with these really old headdresses, todompoles, canoes, etc. Then in the middle of it there would be a bowl from 1994! Like I really care to see something that new? Give me a break! What is worse is that it actually looked really old, so I think they were just trying to fake us out! The nerve!

I thought our flight took off at 5:45pm, but when we arrived to the airport we found out it took off at 5:15pm. Not too bad! At least we saved 30 mins of waiting in the airport.

Overall we really enjoyed Colorado. It has increased our desire to take a road trip as well. We’ve talked bout driving to Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Moab some day. It’s just neat to explore a new area that you’ve never visited. However…I am seriously going to consider buying a laptop before our next trip. I really felt dependent on needing a computer, and could not believe we couldn’t find an Internet café. I know I’m totally hooked/addicted/dependent to my computer, but normally I don't have to worry if I can find an Internet cafe. Looks like times are a changin' and my pocketbook is not happy.

As I was saying…we really liked Colorado. It’s a whole different way of life due to the climate, which was really interesting. Everyone has nice winter coats and probably 90% of the people we saw in Boulder were wearing some article of North Face clothing. Although I did see one crazy lady in Capri’s and flip flops. I also saw a dude in shorts, but John says he was headed to the gym. I don’t believe him even though he was headed straight for the door marked GYM.

Custard anyone?

March 3rd, 4th, 5th...

So I’m waiting…waiting for the call from Rebekkah to tell me that IT’S TIME!! My bag is all packed, and I think I’m ready. She had a doctor appointment today and he said things look good, but nothing has changed. So the waiting continues.

It’s really been unsettling, knowing that she could call at any minute and then I’d be rushing around to get all my stuff and get on the road. I even slept bad last night and kept waking up thinking she was going to call me to say her water broke.

I think I have so much anxiety because I am so far away (5.5 hours). If I were 3 hours away it would be no prob. I’d then have a little more flexibility with traveling.

I really am trying not to worry about it, although it’s been hard. I know if I’m meant to see the birth it will happen and there is no need to worry. However it’s much harder to convince myself of that than it seems!

So I will try to keep you posted!

Mustangs in the House

This past weekend John and I went to the last men's home Cal Poly basketball game. The game was mediocre since we lost, but I thought I'd share the other non-game related highlights.

During one of the time outs a campus organization that tries to emphasize 'responsible drinking' to the students came out on the floor. They threw out some t-shirts, but only to the student side! I was so mad! I totally wanted one, and was willing to take down whomever was sitting next to me to do it.

Anyway...they had a contest with two people who were shooting free throws. They had 30 seconds to make as many as they could, and then after the 30 seconds were up they would have to put on 'beer goggles.' It was SO funny! You wouldn't believe how off they were when trying to make the baskets! It was really clever, however I'm not sure how many students will really try to drink more responsible after that. I think they may have sparked more interest in purchasing the goggles instead.

At half time they brought an old guy out on the court to see if he could make a half court shot for PIZZA FOR A YEAR from Domino's. The first shot he took was an air ball but he was barely short...then the second shot he totally made!! It was so exciting! He was also shooting the ball underhand which was totally impressive. I wonder if all his life he practiced the half court shot to one day get the chance to be a winner. I'm sure he was hoping that he would win something a bit more exciting, like cash or a new car. Maybe he can take his game to the streets and starts hustling.

They also honored two all-state or all-division, (I can't remember), football players at half time. One guy didn't show, but the other did, and it was our favorite player Ramses Barden! We were pretty stoked, and it seemed like the rest of the crowd felt the same. What really topped it off was as he was leaving the court, he asked one of the ball boys for a ball and then drained a three pointer!! Like it was nothing! I was really hoping that he was going to come out of the locker room in uniform after the half, but it didn't happen.

I had a nice guy sitting to my left that would often complain or give me his two cents. At one point he was leaning forward talking to the peeps in front of us, and CP had barely missed a shot, so I made some sort of angst sound, and his wife looked over at me and said 'Isn't that so frustrating? That just seems how our luck is going.' What kills me is that I know she thought I was another wife dragged to a ball game by her husband...but little did she know that she should have been talking to John!