Deck the Tree!

Sorry I have been slacking with the photos this month. I'm starting to feel like Christmas is kicking my butt!! I'm normally on the top of my game, and I think I've been on track with everything...I just think I'm trying to do too much this month. My cookies have been baked for weeks, as well as the Christmas music CDs I made for my co-workers. However there are just a few more handmade gifts that I'm working on that I might have to finish in the car on our way up to Fortuna! There has just been a lot going on and I'm actually looking forward to January for when things will start slowing down.
After some serious harassment from Mrs. Hotlanta I have delivered a photo for her (and you). I will try to post again before we leave town this week, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!

Online Album: Atlanta

I know I've been a bit of a blog slacker this week, but it's not like I'm sitting here on the couch doing nothing. In fact, I just wrote comments and shared the first photo album from my trip to Atlanta. I know most of you are on my photo mailing list, but for those of you who are not, click here to view the album.

Enjoy!

Day 25: Sweet Weekend

We had an action packed weekend that consisted of spending 10 hours at the Happiest Place on Earth and then having little Gigi melt our hearts. Needless to say it was a perfect weekend.

I have a lot more photos to share...hopefully they will get uploaded soon!

Day 24: Bucks

The day after Thanksgiving John and I headed to North County to drive some of his work properties. I think we might have driven 15? Whatever the number was it took all day. One of the best homes John took me to was a HUGE vacation home in Morro Bay. It.was.amazing.

Now I know I didn't take these photos today, but how could I not share them? This shot is from the views in the living room:

Day 23: Beauty #2

It was not my intention to post back to back sunset posts, but after you see the following photos I don't think you will blame me.

John first sent me this photo on his way home from work:Isn't is gorgeous? Once I got his photo I went outside and took a few myself.
I also wanted to see what it would like with my hipstomatic app. I thought it turned out pretty neat.What is crazy is that I left work 5 minutes after taking these photos and the pink was completely gone from the sky.

Day 22: Beauty

So technically I didn't take this photo, but John took it yesterday on his drive home from work. I'm kind of bummed I didn't get to see it in person, but this photo is the next best thing, right?

Day 21: Toss it

What do you do when you don't want to cook another meal before thanksgiving? Go out for pizza of course! As John says...the day before thanksgiving is like the second Superbowl for pizza joints.

The inside of my fave pizza place Woodstalks.

Day 20: Prep

Stuffing?
Check.

Day 19: Newbie

San Luis has yet another coffee shop in town...Kreuzberg Cafe. John and I decided to check it out this weekend and it was pretty good. The atmosphere is really cool with lots of lounging furniture, cool artwork, upside down lamps as lights, and books to buy or swap. It reminds me of a place that would be in San Francisco or Seattle. Hopefully it will have a long life in SLO!

Day 18: Wave

This past Saturday John and I headed to Pismo to one of our favorite breakfast places. After we stuffed our faces we walked down to the beach to check out the surfers. There were quite a few guys out there, with minimal waves. It also had just rained so I was excited there were still some clouds in the sky.

Day 17: LIVESTRONG

On Friday I received my totally awesome new iPhone 4 cover. Check it out!Lance tweeted a twitpic of this cover months ago, and of course they were not for sale to the public. A few months ago I emailed LIVESTRONG and asked them if the cover was going to be sold. I received a general message back saying it wasn't for sale. Dang.

However a week after later LIVESTRONG put the phone cover on the market! I was so excited that I bought it THAT day, but I had to wait a month for it to ship. The flags represent the different countries of the cyclists that are on team Radio Shack, and the 28 represents the 28 million people who are currently living with cancer.

Day 16: Can I help you?

I brought my co-worker Cheryl a hat from The Varsity as a souvenir from Atlanta. I think she is ready to take your order...what do you think?

Day 15: Crack

I went to my chiropractor today as my lower back has been bothering me for quite awhile. This is not the first time it has bothered me either. A few months ago so I was going in and getting it adjusted...however it would only last a week and then it would start hurting again. I eventually stopped going because the vertebrae wasn't staying in place. The pain did go away, but now it is back. Nice.

Here is the waiting room...the thing to the left of the door is a pillow display.)

I am very thankful I went in as I immediately felt the release of tightness once he adjusted it, however I was already sore like a half hour after. I am really hoping it stays into place. The Dr. gave me some exercises to strengthen the muscles around the area, so I've got to start doing them. He had also given me some for my upper back and they have totally helped. Let's hope it works!

Day 14: Plum

A few months ago I bought a GAP coupon on Groupon. I thought it would be no prob to use the coupon in 3 months because I always go to the GAP...right? Nope. I had yet to even go to the GAP over the last few months and my coupon expired on Friday! I panicked and told John we had to go use it ASAP. I still couldn't that it had been at least 6 months since I had been to the GAP. (This is very unusual since my entire wardrobe normally consists of 95% GAP.)

Have any of you been to the GAP recently? If so, have you noticed anything particular about their prices? Maybe that they are EXTREMELY high?? Every sweater, (including turtlenecks), were all around $50, business pants were $65, and plain white t-shirts were $15. Seriously! When did all of their prices get jacked up? I am still completely appalled. Who would pay $15 for a plain t-shirt when you can get the same shirt at F21 for $3? What happened to my fave reasonably priced clothing store? Am I getting that cheap or are their prices way too high?

Regardless of my sticker shock, I did buy this SUPER cute bag! What do you think? I am all about purses with adjustable straps now days that am walking a lot more...and it being plum? It was meant to be.

Day 13: Red and Gold

Sorry for the delay in yesterday’s post…I really had no time. On Saturday we decided last minute to buy tickets to the 49er football game on Sunday. How could we pass that up when we were going to be landing in San Francisco at 11:45am? We were slightly hesitant, as we didn’t know how tired we were going to be, but we decided to bite the bullet as we wouldn’t have another opportunity like this for the rest of the season.

It was really sad saying good by to Rebekkah and the girls. We had such a great visit with them that I didn’t want it to end. Rebekkah really is the hostess of all hostesses!

Overall our flight was pretty bad. We found out when we got there that we would not be sitting next to each other. I’m not sure how that happened as we bought our tickets at the same time. When I was given the chance to chose my seats there were only 10 to choose from. When did all the other passengers get to choose their seats? As far as I know, the airline did not allow for pre-online boarding. It’s bad enough when you have to sit by one person you don’t know, but two? John had this really tall guy next to him who was in his area…granted the dude didn’t have a choice, but still that stinks. I had two younger guys next to me which was fine, except I had two little boys behind me who were totally rambunctious. They were SO loud and constantly kicking my seat and playing with the table. I was happy that the dad was at least trying to make them behave, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I could not get any sleep because of the kids and John wasn’t able to sleep much either. Unfortunately this resulted in us being pretty tired for the rest of the day and the game. However we were still able to have fun.The 9ers really aren’t that good this year and it was not an easy game to watch. (WAY too many penalties). We decided to leave early to avoid the traffic and the game went into overtime and the 9ers did win, so that is good.

One more photo of the sky on our way home. It was gorgeous!Now back to reality. How much longer do we have until Thanksgiving break?

Day 12: FO

Saturday was our last day in Hotlanta. We didn't do too much...did a little shopping, ran a couple of errands, got the girls photos taken with Santa, and ate some more good food.

The night ended with a dessert stop at The Varsity for their famous Frozen Orange AKA FO. We were introduced to The Varsity and their awesome FO last year and I must admit I was worried I wasn't going to get one this trip, but low and behold the BEST HOSTESS EVER pulled through 10 hours before we were to leave the state. Here is my gigantic FO and it was even BETTER than I remembered.

Here is an added photo bonus for you...the mandatory group photo we had taken before going into the Aquarium.

And.................the group shot from last year. (I am impressed they have changed the background image).

Day 11: Grub

Today we started out very excited to go to a DDD called Cabbagetown. We get there...pumped... and it looked closed. What? I just check their website. I got out of the car and looked in the window to find it cleared out!!! What the heck? We just saw this place on a recent episode! Needless to say I was pretty mad about it.

What was our back up plan? The Silver Skillet. The very first DDD we went to during our visit last year. Needless to say we were not disappointed (again.) Their food is so basic and so darn good! Of course I had to get another coke (as they really do taste better here.)


Another highlight of the meal was that the owner was there and I got to chat with her when I checked out. Her segment with Guy is one of my all time favorites. She was super nice and very excited that we came back a second time to eat there.

After we stuffed our faces we headed to the aquarium. We went there last year and it was even better! This year they had beluga whales and penguins. It was very hard to decide what I should photograph for my blog but once I realized I needed something that wasn't moving fast I settled on this guy.


There were two Albino crocs which I though was even more rare!

After the afternoon with the fish we came back and the babysitter showed up so we could hit the town! Well not really...but we did go to a other DDD...The Highlander. We went to this DDD a year ago but they do not allow anyone under 21! Can you believe it? I am thankful we went back because the food was really good and they had cider on tap! Sweet!!

Day 10: Lil' Buddy

Day one in Hotlanta was very fun and totally exhausting! I am totally on east cost time. In fact it feels More like 1am instead of 8pm!

Here is my fave photo from the day (that I took on my phone). It seems that John has found himself a new lil' buddy.

Day 9: Hotlanta

Well we made it! I've had no time to blog as I have been catching up with my friend Rebekkah....but you know I was taking random photos all day to make sure I had a good one for my post. Hopefully I will have more time to write.

Here is the way I started off my morning.


Our plane.



Our view.

Day 8: Big City Lights

Well today sucked. Not really sure why as it was my Friday. I don't know...something was off.

The most exciting thing that happened at work was that the repair guy was there testing the heater. Hopefully I won't have to bring gloves in on monday and the temp will be regulated.

I am currently in San Francisco waiting for our friend to come home so we can take advantage of staying at his place for free. I am seeing my neck doctor tomorrow morning and then we are flying out to Atlanta to visit my friend Rebekkah. I think this trip might be our cheapest ever as we have free accommodations as well as a free flight since I used our credit card reward points.

Here was our view right as we got into the city. It is raining here. Odd.


I had planned to take a photo of my dinner, (we went to our fave cheese steak place), but I got caught up in an eating frenzy and spaced it.

Day 7: Ride

Today I rode my cruiser back to work after lunch. It took me a total of 5 minutes. How awesome is that? I cannot believe how lucky I am to be working so close to my work. I didn't come across much traffic either, but it was a bit chilly on my way home.

I am planning on asking for some bike accessories for Christmas but I'm not sure what...maybe another rack to go over the back tire. The basket can be too small sometimes.

As a side note...today is my dad's 66 birthday! I thought about taking a photo of myself at work with a happy birthday sign, but I thought that was a little blah. So instead I created a Jib Jab video of the family. I hope you enjoy it!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Day 4, 5, & 6: The Weekend

Day 4: The Kilt
Friday night I met up with some of my old co-workers to celebrate one of their birthdays. We met up at The Kilt which has been in town for maybe 6 months. I LOVE The Kilt. They have the BEST salad there, (buffalo chicken), that I get every time and one of my new fave drinks, The Kilt Lifter. (They also have Irish cider, but not on tap.)

Nothing blog worth really happened, (I know shocker!), but it was still a lot of fun.

Day 4: Violet
Saturday I got my hair colored, and my salon had just moved locations. A new addition in their waiting area were these SUPER cool old hair dryer chairs. Check out the ashtrays in the arm rests! Just like old airplane seats.
At the old location they had these awesome 'Hollywood' lights on either side of the mirror. However in their new place the lights are no more. (Old photo is on the right.)I decided to have some of the unnatural color of my hair dyed back to brown. The hair only took to some of the color and you can still see some of the pink under the brown. My hair dresser said she could dye it darker, but I told her that I liked the muted pink. I decided to go with a new violet color which looks pretty good with the pink. It will be interesting to see how it fades. Since it is also a new bleach job the color will probably fade pretty fast.

Day 4: Cafe
Sunday morning John and I went to one of our fave coffee shops in town Steynberg Gallery. They have one of the best cappuccinos in town. Inside there is a small counter with seats that faces the main window. On the window ledge next to two seats are the following signs:
Once again I don't have an exciting story to go along with the photos. So I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Day 8

I was lucky enough to receive the photo below of Gigi on her 8th day of life. Great lighting and her eyes are open...how lucky can I get? Doesn't she look serious? I can't wait until she starts smiling...also check out her cute little nonexistent chin!

Day 3: Moving Day

I am exhausted. Totally exhausted and I have no idea why. My day started off great. I had to be at work by 9 so I was able to sleep in and go for a walk. (I could get used to having extra morning time.)

I got to work and watched the movers do their thing. This one mover told me that he liked my hair and tried to make small talk. Then as I was walking away he asked me my name. I left thinking...that was odd. Then I realized that he was flirting with me! Duh!

After lunch we went to the new office and I was capturing some of the moving action with my co-worker, Cheryl's, flip cam. Guess who I happen to film? Mr. Flirty... who goes ahead and flexes for me while moving a file cabinet into the office. Reeeeeeeeeal nice. I had to tell Cheryl what kind of footage I got and she asked me if it was the same mover who rode the scooter. I told her I wasn't sure, then she told me that he asked her what her name was! I said THAT IS THE DUDE!

Right before the movers finished Mr. Flirty came by to tell is good bye and Cheryl presented him with a #1 Movers trophy (aka a soccer trophy she got at a garage sale and then labeled it with a sharpie.)

Was it the perfect photo of the day? Yes. Yes it was.

Life can Really Blow

So we are back…actually we’ve been back for a few weeks, and I’m finally getting over my post vacay anger. I can’t help it…it just happens. We’ve been really busy since we’ve been home and we haven’t even had time to look through our photos or John’s 362 videos. Trust me, I have grand plans of making some sweet montages for the blog, however your patience is required.

In the midst of my pouting I got an update from my friend Stephanie who is battling liver, lunch and spine cancer. She recently got some bad news that her CT scan showed another mass in her lung. I’m sorry what was I just complaining about? Oh right…not still being on vacation while my friend is fighting the battle of her life. Reality check. Done.

One of Steph’s closest friends helped organize a fundraiser for her last month, which turned out to be a huge success. I couldn’t make it to the event, but I was able to get some donations for their silent auction. I have made a few purchases from Lisa Leonard Designs as well The Pleated Poppy and when I contacted them both to donate they were more than happy to help out. It meant so much to me that they didn’t even hesitate since I only know them via blog land.

Life really blows sometimes and it’s so important to put things in perspective. Do you have your health? Are your loved ones still alive? I hate the fact that other people’s tragedies help me with this, but what can I do about it? Another friend of mine lost her dad a few weeks ago as well. That makes 5 friends of mine who have lost their fathers over the last 2-3 years. Life is so unexpected. You really need to live everyday to it’s fullest.

Day 2: Box City

(I just realized that I didn't number my first photo post. Does it matter if they are numbered if I didn't set a number goal for myself?)



My company is moving offices tomorrow so the majority of the week we have been packing things up. I actually didn't have that much to pack since we moved (within the same building) in march. I have found it interesting how much stuff people have to move or are throwing out. We knew we would be moving again at the end of the year.

I'm not sentimental about the move and am actually quite excited. Our new office will be closer to town and my house...which means I will be able to bike to work! How crazy is that? I could even walk if I wanted to.

Today we shut down around noon and got to leave at 2pm! I was so excited! When do you ever get to have a free afternoon? Since it was 90 degrees here today I decided to spend my free hours at the beach.


It was 77 when I got there which was nice but man the flies were driving me crazy! They were everywhere and driving everyone else crazy too. Is it this time of year or something?

(Also I know I posted two photos...consider it a bonus!)

GLG

This past Friday I became a non-blood related aunt for the 5th time!! Please help me welcome Gigi Louise!









I have been expecting photo updates from the new parents as they are tech savvy and both have iphones…however my demands have not been met. As a result, I have been mildly harassing them for photos. (Maybe my friend Rebekkah spoiled me when she had her two kids as I was getting photo updates all the time??) However I know grandma is down there helping them, so I would think they would get a few mini breaks while she holds her to snap some shots.

John and I are very hopeful that the new parents will start a blog for Gigi. Nothing major…just a few photos here ant there…or once a week. Our other 4 nieces and nephew live 8 hours away, and there were many months that would pass where we wouldn’t see the kids…and when we did we wouldn’t even recognize them! I am really hoping the same thing doesn’t happen with Gigi. I know only living 3 hours away from her will make a big difference in the amount of time we will get to visit with her so I am very optimistic.

Right now the plan is to meet Gigi during our Thanksgiving break, but we have yet to confirm it.

Be prepared for MASSIVE photos when we get back…although I’m sure 90% of them will be of her sleeping.

I did!

So my friend S.A. over at Sarah’s Back Pages set a blogging goal for herself to blog a photo a day of what is going on in her life. So far I find it very interesting while at the same time she is realizing that her life is not that exciting. I think that fact that it isn’t my life is why I find it interesting…even if it is a photo of freeway.

I am VERY tempted to copy her but I am worried that I will fizz out. However each day I don’t do it I think of what photos I would post if I was doing it. Crazy right? Well I think I might just do it sporadically. If I happen to get a photo that chronicles something that is going on in my life at that moment I will post it.

For instance…I know you are all well aware that today is Election Day, and yes…I voted. (Is it bad that I am annoyed that 90% of my Facebook friends posted ‘I voted’ as their status updates?)

Anyway, I feel very lucky to have been able to vote because they still have me registered under my maiden name! Every time it is something. Wrong address, wrong name, wrong polling place. I swear it is a conspiracy! How do they have John registered under our new address and not me? Oh well. I fill out the form once again.

FEAR THE BEARD!

I am so excited that the Giants won the World Series...the for first time in my lifetime! It is so exciting!! I must admit that I don't watch a lot of games during the regular baseball season. Can you blame me? They play like 200 games. However once the playoffs start it is always much more exciting. You know what is even MORE exciting? Is when the Giants are in the playoffs!!

When the Giants got into the World Series in 2002 and lost my dad said they would never been in the World Series in his life time...boy am I glad he was wrong!!
This is one of my favorite photos of my dad and I. I think I might be 6 years old? (I know I got all my hair cut off in the 1st grade, so that is what I'm going with.) Here we are sitting in the nose bleeds at Candlestick Park watching the Giants. So as you can see I my dad made me into a Giants fan very early on. Thanks dad!!

The 80's are bitchin'!

As some of you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. All year I wait until the perfect couples costume comes to me and then hopefully buy the costumes in September. However this year I had NO IDEA what John and I should dress up as this year...time to stress! Right when my stress was starting to peak I got an invite from my friend Ellie that she and her boyfriend were having a joint birthday party with her boyfriend and it was an 80's theme party. How sweet is that? At least now I had some sort of direction for our costumes!

So what do you think??(Nice of me to move the laundry basket out of the way right? At least they are clean clothes!)

We arrived to the party late as we had a Cal Poly football game to go to, but when we arrived the party was hopping!

Steph and Sam gettin' down

Unfortunately Mr. Miyagi's mustache did not want to stay on longer than 10 minutes and apparently tried to make a break for it, but got distracted by the sweetness of the cupcakes.

Mr. Miyagi and the birthday girl...showing Daniel Son his moves.

Rockin' out to some MJ.

What is this? How did this little buddy get on this small wine bottle?

Near the end of the night we got 'rained' out, but luckily it stopped before we had to bike ride home.