The Grundmans

The Good 'Ole Concert Days

2011-04-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

I love going to concerts. It's as simple as that. I did not realize how spoiled I was when I lived in the bay area for 4 years having access to ANY and EVERY concert I could hope for.

Now living approximately 3 hours from any large city, my concert viewing has greatly decreased. Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to travel for a band I love, however over the last few years bands are more commonly preforming on any day of the week...not just the weekends.

The closest concert venue we have is in Santa Barbara (1.5 hours south.) The venus not that big, so the performers that play there are either bands with one hit album, has beens, or Katy Perry since she's local.

We also have concerts once a year at the Paso Fair. If we are lucky they will have a band that we like (Weezer, STP, Velvet Revolver). This year they have yet to announce an act we would like to see...there is one more night free...let's hope it's not another country act.

Occasionally there will be a fluke...like when MGMT played in Avila last year. (I'm actually heading back to the Avila venue next month to see Sheryl Crow play for a fundraiser. Random, I know.)

I currently subscribe to all concert venue newsletters as well as all of the small bands I like HOPING they will play somewhere near by. I'm learning that it is also very common for smaller bands to play festivals...AKA multi day concerts. Most of these take place over a weekend, which is awesome except it's MULTI DAY.

I will painfully admit that I am TOO old to attend a 3 day concert. Ever since I turned 30 I have really felt the physical effects of getting older. Seriously. A simple weekend trip to SF/LA totally wipes me out. If I can't' take that, how could I survive a 3-day concert? Whatever happened to the 1 day concerts back in the 90's? KMEL Summer Jam? Kamp KOME? Anyone? Those concerts were SO AWESOME. Totally exhausting...but they were only 1 day so you had ample time to recover.

It really bums me out that 1 day concerts have now turned into these MULTI DAY 'festivals.' I'm sure most of you have heard of Coachella as well as Outside Lands. I name these two in particular because A) they both have bands I would love to see, and B) they are both in CA and I could possibly attend them...HOWEVER they take place over 3 days. 3 DAYS! Who has the time and money for a 3 day concert? Ok...so I know one person who has the resources, and that is my friend SA. I must say that I am totally pumped that I have at least one friend who is hard core enough to attend these awesome festivals...and that I get to live vicariously through her.

This weekend she will be going to Coachella for a second time. Read about her survival tips here...and read about her experience last year here.

New Blog for You

2011-04-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings to my 7 friends who subscribe to this blog. I have the feeling that my other viewers are long gone as it has (sadly) been 2 months since I posted. Sigh. Blogging became so time consuming for me that I became more and more reluctant to sit down and write. It's supposed to be fun right? An enjoyable hobby? Hopefully it will start to feel that way to me again.

While I'm on this blogging hiatus I do have a new blog for you all to follow. My friend Christine has just joined the blogging world and has challenged herself to post everyday. Seriously! So add The Ravenous Mind to your reader right now. Don't forget to leave her some comments, as of now I look like a total stalker fan because I am the only one who has left any comments.

Note: Check back tomorrow. I'm working on a rant post.

Happy Town

2011-01-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011!! What? January is almost over? Where did this month go? How have I not blogged in forever? I swear I keep thinking of things, but no writing has commenced. I don't know what the deal is...I'm lacking some serious motivation. I get some ideas from other blogs, but it doesn't help.

However...I HAD to blog about Oprah's show today regarding the happiest city in America. Did any of you happen to DVR it? I heard a few weeks ago that Jenny McCarthy was in town filming a segment for the show. I have no idea how I missed this opportunity to be riding my cruiser in the background of one of the shots. I would have totally blended in!

Oprah's site did not give me the code to embed the video, so here is the link.

Overall I think the segment was pretty good, but also pretty corny and not everything was 100% true. (If you have time, read the comments underneath the video. Most of them are spot on.)

A couple of observations:
1. We have a bike valet in town? Where is that?
2. I like how they interviewed 1 of the 5 black people we have living in town. Saying SLO is diverse is like saying Fortuna is diverse.
3. There are no jobs here...they did get that fact right. However even though she stated that the medium home price is $400k they did not mention how affordable that actually is for local residents.
4. I also thought it was interesting that Oprah asked how the crime was since my office got broken into about a month ago. (blog to follow).

So tell me...what did you think of the video? Did it look like the happiest city in America to you?

Tasty

2011-01-06T20:42:00.001-08:00

Last year for my birthday a group of my friends joined me in going wine tasting for my birthday. It has almost been a year since the day, but I FINALLY finished the video montage!

Wine Tasting

Deck the Tree!

2010-12-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-07T21:35:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-30T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-24T22:05:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

Stuffing?
Check.

Day 19: Newbie

2010-11-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-11-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-15T20:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-15T19:46:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-12T19:47:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-11T17:24:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-11T07:36:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-09T20:36:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-08T19:10:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-07T17:41:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-04T20:46:00.001-07:00

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

2010-11-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

(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

2010-11-03T18:04:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-11-02T19:37:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-11-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

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'!

2010-10-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Paris Day 1

2010-10-25T20:03:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to looking through the first day of photos from our trip. Here are a few to wet your appetite. I'm hoping to get the some of them uploaded to ofoto this week, but right now they are uploading at a snails pace.

Outside of the Louvre
One of my fave paintings in the Louvre. I was so excited that I found the right room. Can you believe the scale?
Venus.
After the Louvre we walked down to the Arc.
On the metro.
The tower.
I loved all the metro signs throughout the city and I tried to take photos of all the ones I saw.

Hopefully more photos to come!

Nice #1

2010-10-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

On the train ride to Nice the scenery reminded me a lot of Cinque Terre. I don't know why that surprised me because Cinque is right down the coast.

It was overcast when we arrived which was a bummer but at least it wasn't raining. We were starving so our first stop was lunch. we split a gigantic cheese pizza, which was great and cheaper than Paris.

We also found a funny typo on their menu.

Next we headed down to the water/main walkway where we noticed there was a hill towards the East that was calling us to climb it.

The view was really great but I only imagined how blue the ocean normally looks on a sunny day. There were actually a few people in the ocean despite the weather. I did touch the water (without falling in...John has video) and it seemed pretty warm. Also did you know that the beach is all rocks? The only sand was two small man made areas. So bizarre.

For dinner we headed into the old town and went to a place that looked touristy but had quite a few locals. Directly to our right were three young ladies where two of them dominated some linguine with mussels. The third however just sat there and smoked and texted. I didn't even think she was with them but she got up and left with them.

Right next to us on our left were two dudes who totally cracked us up. First when we sat down there was a plastic bag on our table that looked like someones leftovers. Come to find out it was the dudes next to us and apparently they didn't think we minded their bag on our small table?

A little while later one of the dudes knocks his bread basket on the floor towards us, which I think he apologized for but who knows? You know I couldn't understand a word either of them were saying!

We get our food and it was outstanding homemade pasta. I could not eat it fast enough. Apparently it looked like it was giving me some difficulties as the guy next to me pointed to my spoon and rambled something in French. I told him 'oui oui' and then continued to fight with my noodles sans spoon. Regardless of what that dude thought I am not a pasta rookie!! I just see no point in the spoon when i have twirling skills.

As we were finishing up our meals the dude diagonal to me accidentally nudged my leg. He then began apologizing and then grabbed his knife to protect himself from John if John thought he was making a move. So funny.

After dinner we set out to find a ice cream place mentioned in one of our travel books. We found one of their locations but it was closed so we went to the next best thing...a chain called Pinoccio's. It actually was pretty good as we wound up going there every night...however I would say they served ice cream not gelato. Regardless it was still tasty.

- Posted using my iPhone

Arles #3

2010-10-10T12:31:00.001-07:00

To start off our second day in Arles we checked out the local 'farmers' market. We could not believe how big it was and it was so neat to see the different things they sold. It was more like stores set up mini stores. For example the butcher set up shop with a complete refrigerated case on the street. Other highlights include cheese, olive, spices, veggies, and breads. There was so much variety and the quality looked really good. All of the old ladies were there early and would run you down if you were in their way. There were even a few different vendors who were selling paella on the street. Gigantic pan and all. We tried some and it was pretty good. Not sure if it was because it was 10:30 in the morning or what. Here is a photo. It isn't that impressive.

I did think a gypsy was following us through he market thinking that we were going to be her next victims but no such luck for her! We did see some police but they seemed much more interested in the roasting chickens than the gypsies.

After the market we headed to the coliseum which was in the middle of the town. It was really neat and they currently hold bull fights in it.

Today was such a nice relaxing day. We strolled to a coffee shop that was recommended in one of our travel books. It was tucked in a total locals neighborhood where the only tourists we saw were lost ones. The cappichinos were good and we had some great people watching. I even saw my first pommeraianin chein! It was soooo cute.

After walking around some more we decided to go to the ice cream place we went to the day before. Once again it was tasty.

We also finally found a decent priced clothing store! I cannot tell you how many shops I've seen where their cheapest item in the window is 115 euros. As some of you know I did my best to hardly buy any clothes this year so I could by some on this trip. Apparently the cheapskate in me still won't let me. But that all ended when we found this shop!! I was able to get a few different shirts for 29 euros each. John even found a total euro sweater with a gigantic collar, which i think makes him look like Bruno.

After our shopping we needed to refuel so we went to a pizzeria near the coliseum. Let me tell you that it was so good.

It was a four cheese that included goat cheese. Did I tell you that I have been getting goat cheese with every meal? Who knew it was so good here and who knew they serve it on everything? John said when we get back home I can get a goat for our five feet backyard so I can started making my own cheese. Sweet!

It also looked like either the owners or waitresses dog was hanging out in the dining room...just napping.

We continued our shopping excursions after lunch to get a few more souvineers and tasty treats. I had been seeing meringue everywhere around here so I decided to buy some. Not a little cookie but a giant piece! It was really good but of course I got too much.

John on the other hand decided to get callissons which we saw on the Anthony Bourdain special. Those are the little triangle candies in the photo. They too were really good.

Overall we really enjoyed our stay in Arles. Now we are on a train heading to Nice and I think my seat is too close to the bathroom, if yeah know what I am sayin'.

- Posted using my iPhone

Arles #2

2010-10-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

We were able to spend two days in Arles and really enjoyed it. On the first day we were able to visit most of the main tourist sites. We started at the Arles museum which was really interesting. It had a great history of the town and had these awesome dioramas of the roman structures that used to be erect in the town. There was a huge amphitheater, coliseum, forum, and circus Maximus. They had bits and pieces of the roman buildings on display but the dioramas were my fave. They even had a special exhibit where they showed all of these under water excavations from ship wrecks. They showed a mini video of the process which I really enjoyed as well. The majority of their findings were wine and water ceramic jugs and a sarcophagus.

Another tourist thing we did during the day was go on a Van Gogh walking tour. There were about ten marked locations where Van Gogh had painted. The city of Arles had even installed markers in the ground that you could follow to make sure you were going the right way. Pretty cool. I think we made it to all of them except two. One pathway we took was by the river which was really pretty except it totally stunk of dog poo!!! Apparently the peeps in Arles do not pick up the poo after their dogs. It was everywhere!!! The painting landmark we were going to see was a Starry Night. (not the starry night). Near the location there was some ruminates of a bridge. Kind of neat. Also near by was a group of old men in a park playing a game similar to bocci ball but on a smaller scale. We saw some men play it in Paris too so apparently it is very popular here.

Anyway, I did recognize most of the paintings that were featured on the walk. Yeah for all of my art history classes and for tuition money well spent! I only took one photo with my phone of one of the locations and it isn't the right angle of the building either. Sorry! It was so neat to be able to stand there and see the same view of van Gogh. I have never been able to do that with any artist before and I feel very fortunate to have ben able to do that with one of my faves.

After our hours of site seeing we were really hot and sweaty. (it is definitely more humid here than Paris!) Our hotel advertised it had a pool so John and I decided to check it out. It was a mini pool that was indoors and on the bottom level of the hotel kind of odd and kind of awesome. We had to pay extra to use it but it was well worth it and so refreshing! We even used the sauna for a bit but it made me feel clostrophbic. I now know I do not like to breath in warm air.

Before dinner we decided to have cappichinos since we didn't get ones at lunch. Guess who couldn't fall asleep that night?

Here are two photos from my dinner. (I am reposting them now that I have time to write). The first one is of my salad and the second one is of my desert.

That creme brûlée was the best I have ever had. I cannot believe how good it was and am mad it isn't that good in the US. Oh well.

- Posted using my iPhone

Arles #1

2010-10-09T05:21:00.001-07:00

During our mid day break today John and I decided to check out our hotels mini pool in their mini spa. As result we took a nap = no blog for you. Sorry!

So far we love Arles. It is such a cite, quaint town and reminds us of sienna. We walked all over the town today and got to see a lot of locations of where Van Gogh himself painted. Including be cafe below which he painted cafe terrace at night.

Arles is also a town that used to be he main town that connected Rome and Spain. As a result there is a coliseum in the middle of town and any other Roman ruins. It is fascinating.

I forgot to take photos with my phone in the first half of the day but I did try to get some more food photos for you that were asking.

I will try to wrote more tomorrow but on Sunday we head to Nice and I will have quite a few hours on the train to write.

Hope you all are doing well!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Test

2010-10-09T00:07:00.001-07:00

Test. This app is giving me issues.

Lyon

2010-10-07T07:40:00.001-07:00

Bonjour from Lyon! we spent a little under 24 hours in this cute city, which is the third largest city in France. John read that is is know for it's cuisine thanks to Paul Bousce so he wanted to make sure we had a meal there. (This is also similar to when we had to stop in Bologna because he read that it was the gastronomical city on Italy.)

It was interesting to me how different Lyon felt compared to Paris. It is a big city but even the people looked different to me.

I was pleased that our hotel was cute and in a good location. (yeah to trip advisor and frommers!) the lady at the front desk was also really nice and spoke good English.

The place we had planned to go to dinner was called Brasserie Georges. It is the oldest restaurant in Lyon and seats up to 400 people. It was basically like a huge banquet hall and somewhat fancy with all the waiters in tuxes. Very old school and very neat. They had homemade beer which John loved and I also got champagne as an aperitif (pre meal drink to cleanse your palette). I am staring to love aperitifs. Why don't we have those in the US?

Anyway, John and I started off with two small dished. John got a salad and I got some cheese raviolis. Hey were both really good. My pasta was homemade and reminded me just how close I am to Italy and how I need to turn meal dial to pasta and pizza as much as i can. Seriously...the pasta was melting in my mouth.

For our main dishes, John got a very traditional meal of three different kinds of sausage and sauerkraut. I got a baked fish ball. Ok, so that isn't what it was really called but it was a pureed fish thing that looked like mashed potatoes but had a different consistency. Needless to say it was tasty. After our meal we figured out that the place reminded us of what a German beer/food hall might be like. John's meal was very German.

Despite mosquitos and hotel construction at 8am I actually slept well. The bed was really comfy but I still woke up exhausted.

We headed up on the hill through the old town of Lyon to go to the Notre Dame that was dedicated to Mary. It was really beautiful and the inside was covered in mosaics. It was amazing and remainder me of the cathedrals in Italy. (sorry u forgot to take a photo with my phone.)

Near by the cathedral there were two roman amphitheaters/ruins which they currently use for concerts.

After sit seeing we headed to Le sud which is one of the restaurants owned by Paul Bousce. John got the traditional French dish of seafood soup called boulibase and I got some penne pesto and tomato pasta. Both dishes were really good but I would have enjoyed mine a bit more had I not gotten a migraine. Nice, right? Thanks to a coca-cola it didn't take very long until I started to feel better.

John decided a year ago or so that it would be neat to collect harry potter books from each country we visit. We had already looked in two book stores with no luck but the next shop we went in had one! How cute is this cover?

Now we are on the train to Arles.

It is a smaller town which I am looking forward too. I don't think I am a real big city girl. I am looking forward to taking it easy and sleeping in.

Now that we have traveled south of Paris the weather is beautiful! The sun was actually out today! Yeah!

Another note...we saw a ton of gigantic meringue pieces in a lot of the bakery windows. Is fence known for that? I have no idea.

We had two cappichinos before getting on the train. It was the best one yet. Reminded me of Italy.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Paris Update #2

2010-10-06T13:40:00.001-07:00

NOTE: I did not double check this entry for grammar or spelling. I also want to apologize if some of you have seen the photos below on Facebook. I still have a few readers who are not on FB, hence the reason for the duplication. (And I am too lazy to get on FB to double check what I posted)

I am currently on a train to Lyon. Have I mentioned how much I love having my iPhone with me on this trip? It really is the best.

I am sad to say that our Paris adventures are over. Man that was a fast four days! I still cannot believe how big of a city Paris is. There is so much to see and do that we definitely did not have time for everything.

Since I last blogged we traveled up the eiffel tower which was really neat and luckily we had fairly clear skies. It definitely wasn't sunny but we had a sweet view. We also got there right when it opened and only had to wait a half an hour to get to the top. Granted I feel totally exhausted from all of our sight seeing and not sleeping in but it is worth it.

After the tower we headed over to the island where the notre dame is. Can you believe I had no idea it was in an island? I really wonder what the heck I was doing/observing 13 years ago. There is actually another small island next tot he larger islands which had some really cute streets. John and I were able to take our time and got to take a few mini breaks too.

We have come to find out that the cages here in Paris are similar to the pubs in england, as they almost always have really good basic food. For example, I have gotten two tomato and mozzarella salads and BOTH were better than any I have ever had in the states. Point made.

I expected Paris to be more like Italy because they are so close to each other geographically. Boy was i wrong! We were hoping to find coffee bars for quick drinks in the mornings but most places are sit down and of course you never seen any to go cups. Wait! I did see one but it was a Starbucks cup. Surprise surprise.

We have has two good cappichinos at our lunches and man...they really taste nothing like the ones in the US. I wonder if I will acclimatize in the next week and a half...then be mad when I get home because they don't taste the same.

We spent part of yesterday in an area called Montmarte. It was a really cute town where they also filmed the French movie Amelie. We first went to the church sacre coure and climbed to the top. The view was awesome but it looked as though the very tip of the effeil tower was covered in fog! We were very thankful we went the day before to the tower. Lucky!

Once we came down from the church we headed over to the two windmills cafe where Amelie worked in the movie. We decided to eat lunch there so we could be crazy stalker fans and not feel bad about it. It was a good choice too because we had another great meal. He cafe wasn't exactly the same as the movie but pretty close. The bar looked the same but the cigarette station was not there, but the bathroom was the same as well. I may have to do a separate post on when I get back home.

I also must say that ALL of the French people we have dealt with have been so nice. Not really different from when I was here 13 years ago. It kills me how everyone thinks they are rude.

Anyway, after lunch John and I were able to go to this fancy bakery for macaroons which we sampled in the Luxembourg gardens. They were so soft they practically fell apart to the touch. I think citrus was my fave.

Last night we ate dinner at a restaurant featured on anothony bourdain's 100th episode of no reservations. We tried to eat at a few of the other places he ate at on the show but they were all booked. Let me tell you that the dinner was one of the most unusual dinners I have ever had. It was modern french food with crazy flavor combinations that tasted really good together. In fact it was a set menu so we also had no idea what we were going to be eating. The food its self was art. I don't have any photos of the food on my phone or i would post them. I think that meal deserves its own post as well.

We also sat super close to a couple from Cleveland. They were really nice and we even joined them for a drink after dinner.

Today we went to a couple more specialty bakeries and started out with a major sugar rush from more macaroons. I hate to think what the remaining ones look like right now in my camera bag. Poor lil buddies.

We had enough time to visit the garden area of the Rodin museum (which only cost a pound!) and saw the thinker. I had no idea so many of his pieces were outside but it was really fascinating.

Now we are on the train. I must say that I LOVE to travel by train. Good, fast, trains that is. Of course I only start enjoying the ride once I find the correct platform and get in the right car and in the right seats. Unlike in Italy we have assigned seats for all of our upcoming rides = less stress for me! There was just a couple down the aisle totally mKinging out really loudly, but other then that the scenery is awesome.

Well this blogging has pooped me out. I need a cappichino.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Mini blog

2010-10-03T09:17:00.001-07:00

Greetings! Well we made it to Paris after 20 hours of traveling. That trip is a killer! We left around 12 and arrived at 9am USA time. I think I got about four hours of sleep but John only got about two.

Luck would have it that my bag some how did not make our transfer but john's did. Luckily I had a back up change of clothes in my carry on and some other clothes in john's suitcase. However I did not have any hair products in my carryon even though I had 85% of my bathroom stuff with me. Somehow my hair didn't turn out that bad today but I did snag a hair dyer from the front desk for the rest of our stay.

Last night we left our hotel right after we checked in to make it to dinner at where they serve everyone the same thing. Salad, steak, and frites. It was packed and we still had to wait an hour because we got there at 7:10 instead of 7. Oh well. They did seat us at a table for one so it was a tad crammed.

After dinner we walked near the eiffel tower which was all lit up and we even got to see a mini sparkly light show.

We walked a little further and then headed back to our hotel. It took us 50 minutes to get back. Yeah our hotel is in bfe. We got back and were so tired.

When the alarm went off this morning at 7am we were both still tired! However we got moving and headed to the louvre. I could not believe how many tourists are in this city! The museum was packed but we cranked it out. On of the best things was that John hD downloaded Rick steeves audio guide which was perfect.

Next we headed to lunch where John got a hamburger patty with a fried egg on top. Kind of weird but the frites were great.

After that we continued to walk towards the arc du triomphe. Once we got there we climbed to the top. I think it will be the easiest climb we will have on the whole trip.

Here is a photo from the top and bottom.

We then walked over to the tower hoping the line would be short but it wasn't so we traveled across the river for photo opps.

Now we are resting until dinner at 8pm. Hopefully I will be able to blog more later. You never k ow about this Internet connection.

One last photo of John on the metro. I love the metro here. It is as easy as the Underground.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Final Countdown

2010-09-26T18:38:00.000-07:00

Bonjour mes amis! We have reached the final countdown to our 'trifecta trois'!! After 9 months of planning and impatiently waiting our vacation of the year is right around the corner.

I'm hoping my 10 loyal readers appreciate the graphic above. As you 10 recall, I often make a graphic of the different places we will be visiting, so I had to make one for this trip!

Here is the the graphic I made for our Italy trip a few years ago.

Below is the first graphic I made for our first trip to Europe. This graphic is missing the specifics of our trifecta which were beer, cheese, and chocolate. I am thankful everyday that John read an article telling him to visit the benelux if you were a lover of those three delicacies.
I will do my best to blog while I am gone as a few of our hotels have free wi-fi, and I will have my phone, but I'm not making any promises. I do think Facebook updates might be a bit more common, but I'm going to have to play it by ear. Au revoir pour le moment!

Backyard Bunnies

2010-09-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend when John and I came home after biking downtown we noticed two little bunny buddies in our backyard! WHAAAAAAAAAAAT? They were so cute and you could tell they were having the best time on their adventure away from home. Gnawing on some grass, relaxing under the the Mini, it was like they were on a mini vacay or something!

We figured they had to be pets as they were pretty well groomed and not too scared of us. My biggest fear is that they would run out into the street and get hit by a car, however we had NO sort of bunny catching equipment. I thought maybe they might have been our back neighbors pets, so I cruised in their backyards looking for bunny cages and didn't find anything.

Luckily the owners, two of our neighbors, showed up a few hours later to take them home. They said that they often escape, but have never come over to our yard. (Normally they head East.) I asked them how they normally catch them and they said they just corner them and they surrender. Oh really? That sounds easy...yeah right! Some how John helped catch the black bunny and the ladies caught the white one.

Of course we had to get the Flip out to capture the crazy backyard bunny scene. Please enjoy!

Lucky #7

2010-09-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today is John and mine 7 year wedding anniversary! Before John and I head out to dinner I thought I would share a few random photos from the big day. I'm hoping I have not posted these before. (I only have a handful of wedding photos online, so there is a good chance these are repeats).

This first shot is of John and his buddies rocking out, with groupies Molly and Jessie as in the background.

Here is an awesome action shot, (that John's Aunt captured), of the bouquet toss.

The last photo of the night! (Note John's wedding ring that he flushed down the toilet a few years ago).

I'm hoping we will watch a bit of our wedding video tonight, but the 49ers are playing. However they are already losing, so maybe I won't want to watch the rest of the game when we get back from dinner. I don't want to be depressed on my anniversary!

CP vs. Montana

2010-09-19T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Cal Poly played the Montana Grizzlies who were ranked #1 in their division. They beat a team by 71 points the previous week in their season opener, so I was prepared that we might be leaving at half time depending on the score.

There were A TON of Montana fans in the crowd. The night before I had my book club meeting at a restaurant in town, and there was this huge table of old peeps who were wasted and singing songs. At first I thought they might have been a glee club. Near the end of the night they shared some cake with us and the one guy said 'Go Grizzles.' I was like 'excuse me?' Go mustangs!! Apparently the whole table was filled with Montana fans and they were singing old college songs! That should have tipped me off that there were going to be a lot of fans in town, but I didn't think there would be that many at the game. However I should have realized that of course they would want an excuse to go to California!

The team played pretty good and at half time it was 14 to 14. I could not believe how close our boys had kept the score! In the 3rd quarter Montana took a lead so we were fighting to catch up. Slowly but surely we gained on them which included this touchdown.

Montana got the ball back, and then two plays later we intercepted the ball for a TD!! 14 points in 18 seconds put us back in the lead. We barely held on to the lead for the rest of the game, but they did!!!!! Montana even had 3 different opportunities to score to take the lead, including a 2 point conversion that they missed, which would have tied it up.

We were SO excited that they won...and totally shocked! This game was just as exciting as when they played Sconnie two years ago, but this game had a way better ending.

Here is a celebration video:

Guess what Montana's ranking is now? 6th! CP dropped them 5 places! Poor dudes...but really they didn't deserve to win the game.

As John and I were riding high on the victory, on our bikes, John accidentally threw his chain ON A DOWNHILL! He was behind me and all I heard was 'BABE! BABE!' I didn't know what was going and and then I see him riding by me dragging his feet on the ground trying to slow down. He is SO lucky he did not crash. Right after his chain fell off his handle bars also bent forward, which makes it even more amazing that he did not crash. It's a good thing he is a self taught bike mechanic so he could fix the chain and we were able to make it home.

Our next football game is in 6 weeks as CP has 5 away games in a row. Luckily we won't be missing any when we are on our trip, which is now 12 days away!!

I'm Batman

2010-09-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

John enjoying his Flip cam.

Action Park

2010-09-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but across the street from our house is a park...a very entertaining park I might add. We have seen everything from people playing boccie ball, soccer, croquet, to people doing yoga, meditating, hula hooping, juggling, slack lining, protecting, and even a dude doing parcour.

A few weeks ago there were quite a few bizarre events going on at the same time, so John decided to capture the action with the flip.

Right after he shot the video above, a dude in his car showed up and proceeded to take the cake with his actions in the car.

17 Days

2010-09-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

John found this video of Anthony Bourdain talking about Paris. Enjoy.

CP vs. Humboldt

2010-09-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last weekend John and I went to Cal Poly's opening football game against Humboldt! How exciting is it that they were playing Humboldt? It was the first time they had played in 4 years (I think). We noticed there were two Sarvinski boys from Ferndale on the team, but I don't think they made the traveling squad (we didn't see them on the sidelines). We were hoping for some legit local boys on the team.
Cal Poly played really bad in the first half. Granted we didn't know if Humboldt was playing really good, or if we were playing really bad since it was the first game of the season. I found out later that Humboldt is a division below us, so apparently we were playing bad.

Side Note: It seems as though Humboldt is called the 'Jacks' now and not 'Lumberjacks.' What gives? That is lame.

Even though this is our 3rd year of being season ticket holders John and I were so excited for the first game of the season. One of the best things I saw in the beginning was this dude on the Humboldt sidelines:
Someone was totally pumped to catch some rays in SLO. Granted it is warm for maybe the first hour of the game, (at 6pm), but after that it gets really cold. However since this dude is used to the cold he was able to wear the tank top for the WHOLE game. Impressive.

Another interesting thing we saw was #18's awesome helmet holder. I think he should get a patent on it ASAP!
There were quite a few CP female students dressed in Humboldt shirts, (don't ask how we know they were local). Maybe they were from Humboldt but they didn't look like they still lived there if you know what I mean.

The Mustangs did pull out a victory in the end (thank goodness), and a good time was had by all...even the few hippies that made the trip from the HC.

3 Day Weekend

2010-09-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a video I took of John this past Friday celebrating the fact that we had a 3-day weekend.

(He says that I am the only one who thinks this video is funny. Agree or disagree?)

Also HAPPY 42nd WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to my parents!

7 years - A Month Early

2010-09-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

My 7 year anniversary with John is coming up this month, but we happened to give each other our big gifts a bit early. Don't blame me! It's all John, I swear.

We had talked about getting a new computer as my desk top is about 5 years old and SO slow, but I'm never the one to say 'Buy it!' Since John knows this about me, he decided to just buy it for me...hence the reason he gave it to me so early.

(Are you all following John on Twitter yet?)

As some of you know, John and I are heading to Europe next month and John has been talking about buying a Flip Video Camera for the trip. I kept telling him how both of our still cameras take video so we really didn't need it. However...I then realized how he looked at the camera as a toy as well. How could I deny him something he wanted so bad? At least it wasn't a $1000 Star Wars Lego.

I decided to view their website to check out the details. John had told me he wanted a mini cam and on their site I found out that you could upload your OWN PHOTO to the front of the camera. Flip cam? SOLD!!!!

What would be the best photo to put on the camera? How about a photo collage of some of the places we've traveled together?
I do have a legit reason of giving John the camera early. On his to do list he had 'Buy Flip'. Seriously. There was no way I was going to risk him spoiling my surprise!

I decided to tape John ask I gave him the gift. I didn't really get the reaction I wanted, as he was a bit shocked to see the photos on the camera.

The 7th anniversary traditional gift is copper, so in a few weeks we will be exchanging those gifts. I'm not sure how John will like this gift as the 'practical' copper I gift was discontinued. We will see!

Summa Time and the Livings Easy

2010-06-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend was pretty mellow which was much needed. I FINALLY had time to test out my new cruiser! We rode downtown and got to our destination in just a few minutes. Let me tell you it was not long enough! I wanted to keep riding because it was so fun. I can't wait to be crusin' all summer.

(Click photo to enlarge)

John and I are planning/hoping to make one dish a week out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (John got me the recipe book after seeing the movie last fall). We decided to start with something simple, so the first thing we made was a roasted chicken. (Ok, John made most of it, I was assisting by taking photos). The bird is ready. (We sold our roaster when we moved, so we got a cheapy rack at Bed Bath, and it worked great!)

Buttering up the bird.

John trying out his belated birthday gift from our friend Molly. Onion goggles even work for shallots! Who knew?Turning the bird.

Ta-da! Golden brown! John also made a butter/fat sauce that we put on top and it was really good! So far so good. I'm not sure what we will make next week as I personally don't like real labor intensive recipes, so we will see.

Tips Galore!

2010-06-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I saw this post on Chris' blog. I had NO idea they had a cake decorating tool box! I HAD to get it. All of my cake decorating supplies were currently in zip lock bags. (They were in a box before the move, but I got rid of the box to conserve space, but still...how tacky is a brown box?)

Like the thrifty shopper that I am, I waited until I got a 40% off coupon from Michael's until I made the purchase.Needless to say this has been one of the best purchases I have made in a long time.

Since we are on the decorating subject, last week was our last French class so I made French inspired cupcakes for everyone. (I also made some small French flags that I stuck in them but I didn't get a photo.)
The French class was a great introduction to the language but we didn't really learn how to converse with each other. John and I will be starting the Rosetta Stone this summer, so hopefully that will give us the extra practice. 3.5 months until our trip...time to book some tickets!

Goin' to the Chapel

2010-06-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends, Molly, was planning a big wedding next month and asked me to be one of the bridesmaids! I was really excited to be a part of her special day, as we all know how much fun weddings are. Unfortunately some complications arose, which caused her to call off the wedding a month before the date and elope instead. However a week later she announce that the wedding is still on! She is unfortunately not going to have any bridesmaids or groomsmen, so I won't get to get all dolled up and wear my guava dress...but I am REALLY thankful that I even get to be there on one of the biggest days of her life. I would have been really sad if I had to miss it.

At the time of the party planning she was still eloping, so we weren't even sure if brides who elope have the pre-wedding parties, but we decided to have them anyway since they were already planned. Two weeks ago was the bridal shower in Sacramento. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly went off without a hitch (with only 2 weeks of planning).

The one thing Molly told us she wanted was cupcakes. So we took that and ran with it making it a cupcake cake themed party.

Our friend Amy was in charge of the food, and let me say she made the BEST finger sandwiches I’ve EVER had! They were really tasty.
Molly’s boss offered to make the cupcakes and I’m so glad she did. Everything was from scratch and they were really good. She made red velvet, chocolate orange, and raspberry lemon.

Click photo to enlarge

Molly also got some really nice gifts. Is it bad that I’m posting a photo of the gift I got her? I can’t help if its if super cute. Molly is the BIGGEST fan of bacon that I know, so when I saw these cards on cakespy I HAD to get them for her.
Her boss came through (again) by making this frame out of Molly’s grandma’s china. (Molly was getting rid of it at a garage sale, and her boss bought it). It was such a sentimental gift and even more special as molly never thought she would see the china again.
This past weekend was the bachelorette party here in SLO, and let me say I am still recovering from it! (Post coming soon)

DDD #22

2010-06-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

How did we go from #27 to #22? Well I’m obviously WAY behind in my blog posts since I only posted once in May. I’m also worried as time goes by the critical DDD information that is stored in my head will slowly disintegrate before I can document it. THE HORROR! So…to avoid this I am writing about the most recent DDDs while that info is the freshest.

So back to #22. Last month after my second PRP injection John and I met up with Maggie at Baby Blues BBQ for our 22^nd Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Like always we took Guy’s suggestions and ordered the dishes he featured on the show, but this time we were a little disappointed.

Click to enlarge

John got the pulled pork, which was pretty good, but a little dry without adding more BBQ sauce. We also got the corn since it was features on the show and it was just ok…not real sweet. I got the baby back ribs and they were AWESOME. By far the best thing we ordered all night…along with the GIGANTIC glass of Kool-aid.

Maggie was pumped to have the option to just order sides, since they are her fave, however they were dry as well, (without adding BBQ sauce).

Baby Blues and BBQ was featured in season one and I’m starting to think that the most recent restaurants featured on DDD are at a higher quality then some of the ones featured in the earlier seasons. Sad but true.

I also think this DDD was before Guy started using his stencil to mark the places he visited. However he did leave this behind.

DDD #27

2010-06-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

Last week John and I headed back down to LA for my last(?) PRP injection. After my second injection I did notice that the pain had decreased. It still swells up a lot, but at least I’m seeing any difference in my foot. After the first month’s injections I only noticed a change one day, and was thinking that the injections weren’t doing anything. I’m not sure if they will heal my Achilles 100% but if I can run or jump by the end of the year, the mission accomplished!!

The third injections hurt just as bad as the first two, but I didn’t start to feel any pain until we got home around 11pm. With the first two injections I felt pain immediately after the numbing shots wore off. I’m not sure if that was a good sign or not, as my foot hurt pretty bad the next morning.

After the injection we had made plans to meet Maggie at Gloria’s Café for our 27^th Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. At the last minute I got a text from my sister-in-law that she and her husband were going to be able to meet us as well!

Gloria’s started out as a Mexican restaurant but over time she started introducing more and more San Salvadorian dishes. Every dish I tasted was REALLY good. The flavor was outstanding.

Maggie got the beef tacos, I got the 7 seas soup, and Molly and Michael split the popusas combo plate.

Click to enlarge

John got the carne adbodaba and popusas.

The flavor of John’s carne and my soup, was SO good. I’ve never had anything like it before. I could have used some crab extraction utensils though, but I managed…as some of you know, I have a bit of crab cracking experience.

The décor was authentic and it had the neatest light fixtures…very 70ish. (Sorry no photo). If you didn't notice in the first photo, Gloria's has their DDD poster hanging in the window of their door. That is what I like to see! Be so proud that you risk the poster fading away to nothing. I'm sure Guy would replace it if they needed. Overall I LOVED Gloria's and can't wait to eat there again. Thanks Guy!

Thyroid Update

2010-06-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I got some blood work done to check my thyroglobulin levels. (Thyroglobulin is a protein that is produced by your thyroid. Since I do not have a thyroid, my level should be at 0.) A year after my thyroid was removed my thyroglobulin levels were high at a 3.8, (I think). My doctor then found the cells in my neck, which lead me to my second surgery.

Six months after my surgery I got my levels check again and they were at 1.7. My doctor wasn’t that worried because she said she has some patients that never reach 0. As long as the number continued to go down, then we had nothing to worry about.

Six months later my levels were tested again and they were 1.4. I also had had my yearly ultrasound and my dr. didn’t see anything suspicious. Yeah!

Fast forward to my most recent blood work and my levels came back as 2.8. What the heck? I contacted my dr. and she isn’t worried, and doesn’t see it necessary for me to see her any sooner than my next appointment. She does think it’s a good idea to get more blood work done before my appointment to see if the levels test that high again.

So as of now the saga continues, but I’m not going to worry about it until after we get back from Paris. I will continue to say that I am one of the lucky ones. A friend of mine, (Stephanie on the far left), recently got diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. If you’d like to follow her fight please visit her Care Page.

I Found a Wistle

2010-06-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

This past holiday weekend we had quite a few guests in town. First my parents and my uncle were in town and around the time they left my in-laws showed up for a day. One of the highlights of the weekend was that MGMT performed in Avila Beach on Friday night.

Thanks to Spin magazine John had downloaded some of MGMT’s songs last year and we included those on a mixed CD we made for my dad for Christmas. When I found out that they were going to be playing 15 minutes from where we lived I HAD to get us tickets! The only time we ever get big named artists playing in our County is during the Paso Robles fair in July. This concert was very unusual!

After I bought the tickets I then realized that I didn’t have either one of their albums! Oops! John download them for me ASAP and I started listening to them everyday at work. At first I was like ‘what kind of music is this?’ but by the end of the few weeks I was a total fan.

The concert was on a golf course, so I made reservations for us to have dinner at the restaurant on the course. It couldn’t have worked out more perfect as we got to park super close to the venue!

My dad sent Eric to get some beers…he came back with this! As you an see he is very proud.
The crowd was mostly college kids, but there were even some families with their little kids. I always have fun people watching and seeing everyone’s stylish concert attire. I assume white pants the latest fashion trend?

The first two songs MGMT played sounded SO good. However by the third their sound got all whacky and the base was REALLY loud…then they keyboards got REALLY loud, and then there was massive feedback from the guitar. It did improve, thank goodness, but we weren’t sure what was going on.

They had a really long encore (5 to 6 songs), but ended it with their song Kids, which was awesome. What was odd, is that they sang the song over prerecorded music. I’m not sure if they planned it that way or what, but it was odd.

I still haven’t figured out how they wound up picking Avila as a venue. My only thought was that the Santa Barbara bowl was booked, or that they knew someone in the area. I’m hoping it is a sign that more big named bands will play in this area but I doubt it.

I'm here...

2010-05-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Is anyone out there? I blame our move 100% for my lack of blogging. Seriously. I cannot believe how much of our time the move has sucked into its vortex to never be seen again. I’m so ready to be able to do something fun without the feeling of a thousand home jobs hanging over my head. Granted we did have some fun when we went to Sacramento a few weekends ago, but I’m talking about not having that feeling while at home.

This weekend my parents are coming into town, so after we moved in we decided that our goal to get the house unpacked would be this holiday weekend. So far it’s been a good/realistic plan. However HOURS of fun have been sacrificed for it, as well as HOURS I needed to read my book club book.

This past weekend we decided to be ‘responsible’ and not go down to L.A. for the last leg of the Amgen Tour of California bike race, and it’s actually a good thing we didn’t. We wound up working both days on the house and even took two more loads to our storage garage. We even had boxes to still unpack! We made some good headway, but I just want to be done with it.

The adjustment to the new digs is getting easier and easier, but there still isn’t enough counter space in the kitchen. I think that may be one of my permanent complaints.

I will do my best to get back in a blogging routine, so keep your fingers crossed that I do…or you can just leave me a motivational comment.

New local

2010-04-21T21:19:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, but we moved this past weekend. Needless to say it's been rough and everything is disheveled. The move and the adjustment into our new home has not been easy. Even after getting rid of, (what I thought), was a lot of stuff during our garage sale, it still wasn't enough. Our new house is totally packed....I mean packed.
Here is our guest room AKA the 'staging' room. What do you do when your staging room is filled? Well you put stuff where ever you can find space. I swear if the producers of Hoarders came in our house right now we would qualify for their show! Small pathways have been made around our stuff.

I actually got the kitchen unpacked tonight, but I have no idea where I put anything. At least now maybe we will be able to make some meals at home. After 5 days of eating out every meal I'm already sick of it. That actually shocks me since we ate out for 4 weeks when we remodeling our kitchen. It took 3 weeks for me to get sick of it then.

We are also still working on our house on Yarrow which is a major reason we haven't had time to unpack our stuff. However we just found out that escrow will not be closing on Friday so that gives us the weekend to finish up and clean Yarrow. I am praying that escrow will close in a couple of weeks. It kills me to think that we could have moved this weekend instead of last. Oh well. There are a lot of things that are out of your control.

**Sorry for any type-os, I'm too tired to proof this.

Good or Bad Cancer?

2010-04-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the following secret was posted on postsecret.com:I thought this was very interesting as the person was referring to thyroid cancer. (The three colors on the ribbon are the awareness colors for thyroid cancer). I don’t think anyone invalidates what a person has gone through when they say that thyroid cancer is the ‘good’ cancer. To me that means THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS you do not have a terminal cancer, have to go through Chemo, loose your hair, or lose a major part of your body (from surgery).

Why does this person feel guilty for not suffering more? No one chooses what kind of cancer they get. I’m wondering if they have a family member or friend who is suffering from terminal cancer, which is making their cancer seem less important

I also agree that no cancer is good, but it’s all about perspective. You aren’t given a choice with what cancer you get diagnosed with. Do you think if someone had the choice to have thyroid cancer or breast they would pick breast? Even if they really wanted a boob job, I doubt they would choose breast. Why? Because thyroid is better than breast…right? Less risks?

Why is it that some people can’t even say the word ‘cancer’? Because it’s bad, right? I agree that it’s all bad. Like I said before…it’s all about what perspective you put the cancer in to deem it ‘good’ or ‘bad.’

The same day I viewed that secret, I also read an entry on the blog Dear Thyroid called ‘Myth-Busting: The Good Cancer. We’re Talking About Thyroid Cancer.'

This entry gives a great detailed explanation of what someone goes through when diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It also supports the thoughts on the secret.

A few days later they posted part 2 of the first blog entry, which states the ‘good’ points about the cancer.

Like I said before, it’s all about perspective. I was surprised at how many angry commenters there were on the first post, saying they were tired of peeps saying thyroid was the ‘good’ cancer. I guess I should be thankful that I’ve had a positive outlook for most of my diagnosis.

Medical Drama Part 2,094

2010-04-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

You know what is worse then being told you have a lump in your breast? Having to tell your husband you have a lump in your breast. Trust me…I know.

A few weeks ago I had a routine check up and the nurse practitioner found a lump. The only good thing was that she told me it had all the characteristics of being a cyst. It was mobile, firm (but not rock hard), and fairly large. She also told me that 80% of lumps are cysts. Next step was getting an ultra sound. She told me that if it is a cyst, it would appear as a large black circle on the ultrasound because liquid shows up as black. I also knew that ultra sound technicians are not allowed to tell you anything, so I felt ahead of the game knowing that black was good.

I was lucky I only had to wait 2 days until the ultra sound, and I cannot tell you how happy I was when I saw a black circle!! It was pitch black, similar to this image (thanks Google).The technician did come back and tell me it was a cyst. Yeah! I wanted to go out and celebrate, but I still felt a little uneasy knowing that the lump could have been cancer. I didn’t really let myself think that it was cancer. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if it was. I thought that the ultra sound wasn’t going to be 100% clear and because of my medical history they would have required more testing, but in the end it would be a cyst. I am so thankful it was a cyst. Thyroid cancer sucks, but breast is a whole new level. Even though I only had to wait 2 days, it was tough.

Like I said before…telling John was one of the worst things I’ve had to do. I know that if the situation was reversed I would have been a lot more worried. I feel guilty that I put him through so much more stress/worry. I should take the brunt of it right? I’m the one with the illness. It doesn’t seem fair.

M.I.A.

2010-04-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

John misses our couches.

What is that Sound?

2010-04-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, bad table manners is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves, and I know exactly who to blame for it…my dear ole mother. As a kid she trained us early on to not smack our food (or gum), chew with your mouth closed, slurp any substance, and to not scrape your teeth on your utensils.

Once she whipped my sister and I into shape I’m sure she was very thankful. However it didn’t matter when we had friends over to eat with us. I will never forget this one time when our friend Erin Vader was scraping her teeth on her fork. My mom politely asked her stop, but then she did it again. Poor Erin didn’t even know what she was doing! I wonder if Erin scrapes her teeth now.

Flash forward to 2010…my mom and I just became friends (again) with an old friend via Facebook. She sent my mom the following message:

‘Hey Judy I remember when I was a part of a different co-op that you were in! LOL Hey I was in Spanish last week, smacking my gum, and Seniora Padilla made sure I the whole class understood that it is annoying! HA HA! Guess you're not the only one annoyed by that terrible habit! Gum is a great stress reliever and thinking tool...but I really do need to not smack it...sometimes I get really focused especially in Spanish! I thought you'd get a kick out of that!’

As you can see my mom’s influence is still remembered to this day! I’m wondering if any of my other friends have memories of her iron fisted eating rules.

I normally bite my tongue with I’m around a noisy eater, but all I have to do is look at John and he knows that I’m dieing inside. Ahhh the joys of becoming your parents as you get older.

Final Decision

2010-04-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

It’s official! We have a place to live! We will not be homeless on the streets of SLO. Granted that was never a real concern of mine, but I can’t say the same for my parents.

We actually didn’t get the place on Leff Street that we wanted, which was a TOTAL SHOCKER! By the time we applied for that place we had already been approved for two other places! I have no idea why the dude didn’t pick us…apparently the other coulpe made a better impression. His loss right? Well maybe it’s our loss…of a garage that is.

If you can believe it…we continually saw rentals that kept topping our first choices. On the day where we had made up our mind to rent the house on Ward Street (2 car garage), we decided to see one more house. This house was on Pismo Street, which is a block closer to downtown than the other house that was also close to downtown (Buchon Street, which we had already applied for and gotten accepted).

Once again I entered the house thinking that there was no way this place would be better than the one with the 2-car garage, but I was wrong…for the 3,596th time. Big surprise. This place had a DISHWASHER!!! OMG!!! I could not believe it! It also had a decent size yard and a decent size kitchen with ample cabinets. However it only had one closet. Ummmm have you seen the amount of clothes that I own? That wasn’t going to cut it. John on the other hand was ready to sign the lease that day. Was he serious? Hadn’t we just deicded to take the house on Ward?

We had some decision makin’ to do.

We liked the house on Pimso better than Ward…BUT did we like the house on Pismo better than the house on Buchon? That was the tricky question.

Once again we wrote out another pros and con list, which included all three houses. The main difference between Buchon and Pismo was that Buchon had a cheaper rent. The advantage of Ward over the other two homes, was that it had the 2-car garage. It basically came down to whether or not we would be willing to pay $2400 for the use of a 2-car garage for a year.

Remember…we have a lot of stuff…a lot.

Knowing we could get a storage unit (for a year) for less than $2400, we knew it wasn’t worth it. We decided to go with the house on Buchon…the one we had been approved for over a week ago and luckily it hadn’t been rented to anyone else. In fact the rent actually reduced $50 a month by the time we signed the lease…score!
I am worried that we didn’t get our ‘ideal’ house, but I’m also worried about being a renter again. Last night John told me he had a dream where he was walking to Firestone Grill, (one of our fave restaurants in town, that we will be able to walk to). My dream on the other hand was a bit different For some reason there was a bunch of random people in our house and they kept leaving the front door open. So in rides this kid on a bike. Right into the living room. I yelled at him and told him to get out of here. He acted all innocent because the door was open…like duh! Of course I’m going to ride my bike inside! Well apparently someone else was leaving the back door open, and then I was having issues with the windows/blinds. (I don’t think I could open/close them). Overall it was a very stressful situation/dream.

Needless to say I think our dreams pretty much sum up how we are both feeling about the rental. I do believe that Buchon is the right choice because it is cheaper, has big closets, and has a great location. One of the main reasons of us renting is to save money, and that totally got lost in the process…especially when I saw the 2-car garage.

Don’t worry too much for the MINI…I’m going to get her a MINI car cover. Too bad I couldn’t charge the landlord for that.

We get the keys next week and will start making some trips over there with our gear. That leaves us about 2 weeks from now until the big move, and about 3 weeks left until we hand over our keys. How is that realty almost here when I’ve been avoiding it for the last 2 months? Doesn’t avoidance = stopping of time? Dang. I think my time is up.

DDD #21

2010-04-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Before we left LA we decided to head out to Glendale to eat at Mambo’s Cafe, our 21st DDD. We showed up and they had this awesome Cuban band rocking the house…however it was a bit too loud for us old fogies, so we decided to eat outside. We remembered a few things that Guy tried, and our super nice waitress helped us figure out the other dishes to order.

We started with the Tostones and Shrimp. Let me tell you that these shrimp were some of the BEST shrimp I have ever had.
After the shrimp I was mad that I didn’t order a main dish with shrimp. I got the half of chicken, John got the Cuban sando, Michael got the Cajun chicken, and Molly got the halibut, but they served her the wrong fish.Overall the meal was good, but John and I both agree that the Cuban food at Sol Food in San Rafael is better.

Sci Fi Medicine

2010-04-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

Sometime last year John Googled 'Achilles Tendon Injuries' and came across an article on PRP Therapy. The more research he did on it, the more it sounded like it could help my Achilles. If it was good enough for professional athletes like Tiger Woods and Troy Polamalu, then is has to be good enough for the Booers right?

I asked a few of the orthopedists that I saw what they thought of the therapy and they were all neigh sayers. Only one dr. wasn't very skeptical, he didn't know enough about it to know if it would help me ore not.

Since I didn't hear what I wanted, I decided to use Google to find a dr. that did the administered the therapy. In my research I found Othrohealing located in LA. Everything I read on the site sounded awesome, so I made an appointment for the first holiday I had this year, which was Good Friday. (Gotta save that PTO for Paris).

I was pretty worried because I felt that this was my last hope. If the dr. didn't think my case was worthy of the therapy I don't know what my next option would be. Lucky for me, after a general evaluation, and ultra sound, the dr. thought I could benefit from the treatment!! AWESOME!

First step was getting blood withdrawn...6 vials...piece of cake compared to the 12 I had done the week before. Here I am snacking on the granola bar they gave me after the withdrawal:
Next step was to wait 25 mins while the blood was put in the centrafuse.

Next step = prep for injection! First the dr. poked me with a plastic tool to designate the worst areas. He told me that this part is the most painful for some patients. ‘Whatever,’ I thought. How bad can a plastic tool hurt, right? OMG! It totally hurt, and he didn't even draw any blood!

Then it was time for the numbing shot. Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine having a really sore muscle/tendon...now imagine sticking a needle into that EXTREMELY sore muscle/tendon. Sounds a bit painful, right? Let me tell you it hurt SO bad! Luckily I only had to get one numbing shot. They even used some freezing spray (before the injection), which might have caused no pain to the skin, but the tendon pain was so intense that the spray was useless.

Luckily I didn't feel any of the injections, and it really didn't take that long. Look on the left side of the video, and you will see the needle entering the tendon. The dr. targets the black areas, which are the pockets of liquid. The white blood cells are supposed to speed up the healing process.

After the injection I got iced by GAME READY.
This thing was AWESOME! The brace filled up with ice-cold water and it had a timer, so after 10 minutes I was done! I can't imagine all the other cool equipment that professional athletes have access too.

I was pleasantly surprised that my foot didn't hurt afterwards. The dr. said that some patients need crutches or get a prescription for vicodin. Seriously? My foot didn't hurt at all.

FLASH FORWARD to 4 hours later and I am in A LOT of pain. The numbing juice wore off and I could barely walk. The drive home was extremely difficult because I could not find a comfortable position for my food, and the ride was also really bumpy. I just knew once I got home, and out of the car, that my foot would feel better. I was wrong. I was still in a huge amount of pain. Luckily I had some left over vicodin from my surgery and was able to take one. I don't think I would have been able to sleep through the night if I didn't have those meds. (The dr. gave me 500 mg of Tylenol but that didn't do a thing for me.)

The next day it was a little better, but still really sensitive. The dr. also said to treat my foot like it is a new injury. Take it really easy for the first 5 days and then start up physical therapy again. I head back down in a month for another injection, and then possibly one more. I might see an improvement after 14 days, or I might see an improvement after the second injection.

Overall I am SO thankful I got the PRP treatment. Other wise I would have always had the 'what if' hanging over my head. Dr. Sampson and his team were AWESOME. I can't believe how lucky I was to find such a great practice from Google. So keep your fingers crossed for me that this will do the trick and I will be able to run and jump in a few months.

Is that a Fungus?

2010-04-04T10:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I finally went and saw a dermatologist for the bizarre rash on my foot, (the same one as the bad Achilles). It appeared last July once I started wearing a boot while I slept. In November I started wearing a sock with the boot thinking that would make it go away, but it didn’t.

Are you wondering why it took me 7 months to go to the doctor? Well it doesn’t itch, it’s not spreading, and it doesn’t bother me. I also really didn’t want to go to another dr. appointment, but obviously it’s being caused by something other than the boot.

The dermatologist I saw is good, however he had no idea what the rash was. He called in reinforcements, (the other dr.), and he too had no idea what it was.

Next step = biopsy. Yes, you read that right. I had to have a biopsy ON MY FOOT! You know there are some things you just aren’t prepared for when you go see a dr. for a rash. I’ll just take some cream thanks, and be on my way. What are you doing with that needle?

Of course the first numbing shot didn’t take deep enough so as he started digging I started feeling the pain.

Shot #2 = awesome! NOT! At least that one worked. He put one stitch in and I had to come back in 2 weeks.Two weeks later…the biopsy didn’t tell him anything and the rash continued to mystify them.

Next step = Blood and urine tests.

Results = I’m healthy as a horse.

Next step = see a rheumatologist. (I personally didn’t think this was necessary, but the rash had stumped him…what else was he to do? He also wanted to prescribe me a steroid cream, but not before I saw the rheumatologist.

Month later = rheumatologist visit where I stump him AND some other dermo that worked in his office. They kept saying how ‘interesting’ the rash was. AKA they had no idea what was causing it.

Next step = MORE blood and urine tests. They took 12 vials of blood. 12!!!!! The dr. said they were going to test me for everything, and I guess that meant they needed a pint.

So now I’m waiting to hear from him. I asked him if he could recommend a good local podiatrist for me, and he said he didn’t think I needed to see one. I disagree, so I’m seeing one this week.

We will see if the rash stumps any more doctors. I finally got the prescription for the steroid cream, however I don't think it is helping.

Rental Sweet Rental

2010-03-31T20:29:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks, John and I have been looking at rentals like a couple of crazies. I was really worried that we wouldn’t find a place, and you know what? We are finding so many good places it’s hard to make a decision! I am still in shock about it. I thought for sure with only having a month to find a place we would have to settle for some crap hole. How would I know? Neither of us has had to rent in 10 years. Lucky for us it’s a total renters market in town. That is also quiet surprising since the school year has yet to end. (We know there will be a ton of more places opening up in June and July.)

We found the perfect condo that had everything we wanted…dishwasher, washer/dryer, and a1 car garage.Then the next day we spotted an older home with tons of character, and only 3 blocks from down town!It has been a dream of ours to live within walking distance of downtown...but was it worth it not having a garage and dishwasher? Dang! We were really excited for the possibility of renting the older home, however it really didn’t fit all of our needs. In the end the practical choice won, meaning we filled out the applications for the condo.

We got approved for the condo within an hour of turning in the applications! Is that normal? We had no idea it would be that fast! The prob was that we couldn’t sign a lease until April 1st, because we had to wait to make sure all of the contingencies went through with the sale of our house. Needless to say the property manager was none too pleased with this news. We offered to pay her some cash to hold the place, but she never got back to us. I was a little sad at first, but then realized we could apply to the older home with the great location. It was a sign right?

We submitted our apps to the older house, but still continued to look at places. In our search we found ANOTHER great rental. It’s a two-bedroom place located behind a home, with a 1-car garage, a mini yard, and 5 blocks from downtown! Granted it’s a bit farther from downtown than the other place, but the place was a lot newer than 1940, and it had great storage which meant we wouldn’t need a storage unit.On Monday I got a call letting me know that John and I have been approved for the older house. Great. I had to tell her that we were actually waiting to hear back from another house that has more storage. At least she was nice about it. So the waiting continues.

Santa Barbara Mini Break

2010-03-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

For John’s birthday I decided to surprise him with a mini break to Santa Barbara. Not the most original idea I know, but since we were out of town the weekend before I only wanted to go somewhere for one night. Since SB is only 1.5 hours away it was the perfect location!

I did my best in not giving him any clues because I knew he would guess it…I mean really…how many options were there? Well apparently A LOT. He first thought I was taking him to Vegas, then Arizona to hit some DDD’s.

Once we got on the road and started heading south I thought for sure he’d figure it out, but he didn’t! He first thought I was taking him to a Dodger game…then he thought I was taking him to Ojai! At first I thought these were fake guesses, but they weren’t!

I actually threw him off a bit by driving past SB and stopping in Ventura. I wanted to try to sell some of my clothes back to Buffalo Exchange. All of the consignment shops in SLO only give you store credit, but BE didn’t. Let me say that I’m SO glad I took my stuff there! They took about 10 pieces of mine and I got $50 in return, (or $70 in store credit). That is way better than I’d make at a garage sale.

I was also excited that we got to stop in Ventura because we had recently read about an authentic Italian restaurant in town that we wanted to try. It was called Sicily by Gino’s and it was REALLY good. We got a prosciutto and Parmesan cheese pizza.We even got to talk to the owner, which is always cool, and she told us how they only use the freshest ingredients. We told her you could totally tell, as the quality of the pizza was very similar to the pies we had in Italy.

During our lunch I finally let John know where we were going, and he said he really had no idea. Being the planner I am, I handed John a map of SB that had all the places we were going to go during the weekend. The main spot was Williams-Sonoma. For his b-day I got him a gift card there, along with my mom, and his mom! Every month when the dude gets the WS catalog he drools over it. Since we don’t have a WS in SLO, I thought it would be the perfect gift to combine with the mini break!

After lunch we headed back north to WS. Needless to say John was like a kid in a candy store. I can’t tell you how many rounds we made in there before I told him we needed to make a list to help narrow it down. Once we did that we were able to focus a bit easier. (Granted if I had told him ahead of time, we could have looked through our kitchen and seen what we wanted to upgrade.)Next we checked into our Motel. I was a little worried about this place, but it got a good rating on tripadvisor.com, and so far that site has never let me down. The only problem was that NO SB hotels let you book a room for one night. Isn’t that LAME?? I can’t tell you how many places I had to call. Most of them told me to call back the week of, and hopefully they would have a room. Luckily for us the Agave Inn had a room.

It was a sweet deal as most of the rooms had recently been renovated. I was glad John liked it too, as I’m sure it would not have passed my mom’s and sister’s standards.

After a mini rest we headed downtown to do a bit of walking and shopping. Williams-Sonoma didn’t have a few things we were looking for, so they told us to check out Sur La Table. It was our first time in that store and it was AWESOME! John found exactly what he was looking for and I even found a cupcake doughnut pan!! (You can bake doughnuts in it as well, but I want to try cupcakes.)

Next we headed to The Palace Grill…our favorite restaurant in SB. It NEVER disappoints. I’ve blogged about it before, and honestly I don’t know why I just didn’t repost this entry as I’m having de ja vu rereading it!

Anyway, I was planning on sharing a meal with john, but he talked me into getting my ‘ole stand by…because he wanted to eat it! I’m really glad he talked me into it, because it was really good.John also got the blackened fish.
He also LOVES the bread pudding here. I think it was the biggest yet.In case you were ever wondering what is the proper way to eat bread pudding...here is John's in instructional video.

Even though we were stuffed to the brim we decided to stop off at an ‘English’ pub which was on the same block. John was pumped because they had Hoegaarden, and I got a cider. I was a little miffed because they didn’t have any legit English cider. Seriously…if you want to be an authentic pub, you need to have authentic drinks.After some enjoyable people watching, we did a bit more walking/shopping, and then went to Pinkberry!! I was so excited to go again, AND to get mochi on my yogurt. Let me tell you it did not disappoint AGAIN! I am really falling in love with that place. DANGER! DANGER!I got the DEAL OF THE YEAR on these sunglasses. They were regularly $98, but marked down to $54, and then $29. However when the clerk range up the price it, of course, range up as $54, BUT He gave them to me for $29! I then used a 30% off coupon and a $10 off coupon bringing the cost down to $11!! Deal of the year, I’m telling ya. (I'm trying to look tough in this photo).

We decided to get an early start on Sunday as we had a couple of rentals to look at back in SLO. Our first stop was to a bakery that I had found online. The baked goods weren’t that good, but once John saw some of the breakfast food he insisted we eat there. (We were heading to our fave Sambo’s).It was really good. I got the breakfast burrito and John got banana French toast. (John was also photoed out his morning...hence the reason he is not in this food photo.)
We stopped for another café and some more baked goods before we finally hit the road.

It was amazing how much fun we had in 24 hours. I’m actually mad that we don’t go down to SB more often…especially when we know of so many good places to go. 1.5 hours really isn’t that far. I think we will head back after we move.

DDD #20

2010-03-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

On my way home from Ukiah I met up with John, and his friends in Emeryville at Rudy’s Can't Fail Cafe for our 20th Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! I can’t believe we have actually eaten at 20 different restaurants!

I got really lost finding the place…thanks to the GPS. The GPS is supposed to help you right? Not get you lost and get car jacked, right? It had me turn right instead of left and before I knew it, I was crusin’ through the ghetto with all these thugs hangin’ out in the middle of the street. It was the perfect scenario…a white girl in her cute little MINI Copper crusin’ in the ghetto lookin’ for for a burger joint! Luckily I know how to drive fast when I need to and I got out of there in a hurry. I even drove by PIXAR during the adventure, but I was a bit too stressed to be excited about it. Needless to say, I was very thankful when I saw John standing on the corner waving me down.

Rudy’s was packed, but the wait wasn’t very long. On the show they showcased burgers and a few other dishes, however I think the other dishes were ‘specials’ as we did not see them on the menu. BUMMER! I got a buffalo wing chicken salad, John got a blue cheese bacon burger, Jessie got a portabella mushroom burger, Nory got the Cajun bacon burger, and Kiera had a bottle.
Unfortunately this DDD was pretty disappointing. I’m not saying it was bad…it just doesn’t compare to the other places we’ve been to. I’d rate it a 19 out of 20…20 being the worst. I think our expectations should have been a little lower because it was mainly a burger joint. We have learned that lesson for next time. The fries were good, and the cheese on John’s burger was good, but the meat wasn’t anything special. Either they were having an off day or our expectations have really gotten high from the last few places we’ve eaten at.Overall it was a really cute place, the vibe was cool, and the atmosphere was totally funky. On to number 21...

First Ukiah Visit in 9 Months

2010-03-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago John and I headed north to visit some friends. John’s travels ended in the East Bay to visit his college buddy Nory, his wife Jessie, and their super cute baby Kiera. I on the other hand traveled two more hours north to Ukiah to visit my friend Rebekkah. If you recall, I mentioned how she and her family moved to Atlanta this past summer. This was their first trip back to CA, so of course I had to make the trip!

The youngest Steinbuck, Addison, had her birthday on the day I drove up. Do you all remember when I was able to be there for her birth? I will never forget that day! It’s hard to believe that it was 2 years ago. Sydney, the oldest Steinbuck will be turning 5 in a few weeks so of course I had to bring them both birthday presents.Thanks to my friend Molly, I have recently become obsessed with Nerd Rope and have been trying to convert everyone in my path to become a lover of the Rope like I am. Hence the reason the kids found them in their gift bags.Come to find out, Addison is a lover of all candy, which is awesome. Syd on the other hand thought the nerds were a bit too sour. Bummer! Maybe I will try it again when she turns 7. I’m not giving up that easy.

One huge change that I noticed since I saw the girls in November was that Addison is talking like a wild woman…but I cannot understand a word she says! Ok…I take that back. I can understand like 2, but for the most part I am clueless. She will say something…I ask her to repeat it…she repeats it…and I still have no idea what she is saying! It was really frustrating. I know my mom told me when I was younger my sister had to translate for her all the time. At least Rebekkah knows what she is saying.

Sydney was lucky enough to have a birthday party with her friends in Ukiah at a local place called Jumperz. You would not believe how much the kids love that place! It’s crack for 5 year olds!

My visit seemed really short but I am very thankful that I got to see the Steinbucks since I’m not sure when I will get to see them again. Maybe Thanksgiving 2010? One can hope!

DDD #19

2010-03-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

Before we headed back to SLO, we had planned to go to the Cuban restaurant Mambo’s on our way out of town. However I waited until Sunday to check their hours and I found out that they were closed! BUMMER! Luckily we had a back up located in Eagle Rock called The Oinkster.

After the realization that we would not be having Cuban food, Maggie was still game to make the trek out East with us. (It’s always an extra bonus for us when we get to share our DDD adventures with our family and friends.) I had never been to Eagle Rock before and I always get excited driving on new roads in CA. (Is that nerdy? Whatever). We passed the WB studios, and then this HUGE cemetery where Michael Jackson is buried. There were tons of people on the side of the streets selling flowers just in case you forgot to buy some for the King of Pop. The drive out there was really pretty and there were even snow-capped mountains in the distance. I was surprised how big Eagle Rock was and it looks like it has a bunch of neat coffee and taco places. It was a beautiful day when we were there, however it gets really hot there during the summer.

The Oinkster is a BBQ joint, and it did not disappoint. Maggie got the reuben, John got the chicken and I got the pulled pork.
(Don’t you love how the food is over exposed? Nice work on my part right? Maybe next time I should make sure the food AND the person look good. DUH!)As you can see the portions were HUGE, but you must try everything when eating at a DDD = no sharing allowed. The fries were also flash fried for extra crispiness and accompanied with some great dipping sauces. I also got the Oinksterade for my drink and it was AWESOME. I think it was more of an orangeade vs. lemon, and it was SO good!

I am happy to say that The Oinkster is PROUD to be featured on DDD, as they have their stencil displayed:I also loved the architecture and signage of the building…it was totally 70’s.Amber’s Rule of Thumb:
If every type of dish at a restaurant is exceptionally good, i.e. beverages, sides, and main courses, then that is proof of an awesome eatery.

You know what? The Oinkster totally fits that category. I’m just bummed it’s not more accessible, and that it wasn’t our milestone 20th DDD. What will our 20th DDD be? I don’t know…stay tuned!

DDD #18

2010-03-15T20:13:00.000-07:00

When we were in L.A. a few weeks ago we managed to go to TWO restaurants featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! It’s usually a challenge to go to one DDD on a weekend trip, so for us to hit two was great.

Crazy fact about the Grundman’s DDD quest:
Neither John nor Amber had ever been to a DDD in Southern California.

How crazy is that? Granted there aren’t a ton of them down there, but still…we go to L.A. at least four times a year. I think one factor is that we never made it a priority when we traveled there, because there are so many other good places to eat. However now things have changed.

Our first DDD was The Nickel Diner in downtown L.A. I thought we might have missed the lunch crowd by showing up after 1pm, but I was wrong! The place was packed and we had to wait…but no biggie.

The place was pretty small and the kitchen was right in the dining area, which was kind of cool. We actually saw the owner, which is always a treat, and let me say that her hair had definitely been styled for the show. But can you blame her? I would have done the same thing…and had my makeup done! She has a really cool Cruella DeVille vibe going on with her hair.
These lights are actually upside down lamps.
I started off with a homemade ding-dong, although it kind of looks like a hostess cupcake.
As you know I normally like to order what dishes were featured on the show. I was ready to order this awesome looking salmon dish but it wasn’t on the menu. I’m assuming it was a special. We also wanted to try the bacon maple doughnut that was featured on the show, but they ran out! At least they had the mac-n-chee which you can see here with John. He also got the pulled pork hash, which was to die for. So weird but SO good!
I got a bacon cheeseburger that was pretty good, but the mac-n-chee and pork were better.
We even dragged my sister and brother-in-law with us. Molly got a fish burger, and Michael got a chicken salad sando. Both very good. As you can see they were very excited to pose with their food. Such good sports!
After Michael posed for the photo he caught a woman’s eye and he told her ‘I don’t know why we are taking photos of our food.’ I turned and saw this cute lady with a huge smile and she asked me if I was a food blogger. I told her I had a blog but it wasn’t specifically about food. She then told me that her daughter-in-law was a food blogger. How crazy is that? I briefly talked to daugher-in-law and got her blog address. Here I am talking to her. (John was actually being impatient while waiting for me to pose with my food...hence the attractive shot of the back of my head.)
I found out that her name is Lynn, and her blog is called The Actors Diet. You should definitely check out her entry about The Nickel Diner. See if you can spot the cute chick in a pink sweater in a couple of her photos. She actually got some really good interior shots of the place.

Once again there wasn’t one sign that Guy had been there with his crew. No poster and no stencil. What gives?

So Cal Adventures

2010-03-11T21:03:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago John and I went down to LA for the weekend. My good friend Maggie helped us get tickets to the 2010 Paley fest, where we saw a panel with Modern Family and LOST.

The first panel we saw was Modern Family and they were SO funny! Let me put it to you this way. Normally you pay to see one stand up comedian right? Imagine paying to see 8…all on stage at the same time! Plus these are PROFESSIONAL comedians. Not some Joe Shmoe living paycheck to pay check. They were cracking jokes right and left and harassing each other. We even got to see a new episode of the show, which was totally unexpected.
Unfortunately I did not bring my camera with me, (as I thought they were not allowed), but we were in the balcony anyway. I did however bring it the next night for LOST and got a few good shots and videos. You weren’t supposed to use your flash so my videos turned out better than the photos, but Maggie emailed me a few of her photos, which turned out pretty good. For the LOST panel, She got to enter the auditorium before the majority of the fans, so she and her boyfriend, Jeff, got second row seats! Sweet right? Well what is even sweeter is that she saved John and I seats too!! So we got be in the first row of our section!

My expectations of the LOST panel were a little too high after seeing the cast from Modern Family. I didn’t really expect any of the producers to spill any beans about the plot, but I was hoping they would have given us a better clue than ‘water’. Really? That was the big reveal? Could they be any more vague? They also only showed us 2 minutes of an upcoming episode. A little week compared to MF.

Unfortunately the panel only consisted of 3 actors and the rest was writers, producers, and directors. The 4 actors were actually the most interesting and the rest of the panel was just ok. They actually thought we were there to be entertained which caused them to crack HORRIBLE jokes all night. They were such dorks! I know I was comparing them to the MF panel from the night before, but still…those dudes just weren’t funny. I know 98% of the crowd disagreed with me, but whatever…only 2% of the crowd weren’t dorks.

After the first panel Maggie and Jeff took us to MILK for some dessert. I had never heard of the place before, but my milkshake was one of the best ones I have ever had! Well let me rephrase that…John’s was the best I had ever had! He got The MILKIE Way Malt, which consisted of vanilla ice cream, malted milk, chocolate chips, and caramel-chocolate swirl. The vanilla ice cream was to die for! I got the Mint Chocolate Crunch Shake, which consisted of cool mint ice cream with chocolate chips and mint crunch malt balls. There were so many other items I wanted to try that I have got to go back. They should consider putting a sampler on their menu.
This is not a photo of our actual milkshake. Some how my camera got stuck in my purse…or maybe I couldn’t focus on anything else while shoving the ice cream down my throat. You choose.

Before we saw the LOST panel we treated ourselves again, but this time we went to Pink Berry.
I had never been to one before, and let me tell you it did not disappoint! The raspberries I had on mine were some of the freshest I’d ever had and overall it wasn’t that sweet, which was a nice change. I just read on their FAQ page that all of the fruit is cut fresh daily. Impressive!
I can’t wait to go back and try a new combo. I wonder if someone will open one here in SLO. There is one in Santa Barbara, so you never know. It will be interesting to see how fast they start opening in northern California.

Our weekend in LA was one of the best ones I had had in a long time. I’m not sure if it was because we got to go everywhere I wanted to go, but I know a big part was spending time with good friends and family. (L.A. food posts to come).

Other Blogs

2010-03-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine just started a blog, The Pennington Girl, so please welcome her by adding her site to your reader! The author is Jaymie, who lives in Washington with her husband and two super cute kids. She is also pretty crafty and just blogged about how she spruced up her daughter’s bedroom. I have known Jaymie for 20+ years and we still stay in touch…thanks to email. I am SO excited that she has started a blog so it will be even easier to stay in touch.

There is another blog I follow called Knock off Wood, where the author gives tutorials on how to build furniture just like Pottery Barn furniture. It’s awesome because she helps you save a bazillion dollars by being able to make it yourself. I of course have yet to have John try and make anything, but if that day ever arises I will be ready! Apparently she has only been blogging for 4 months, and that is how long it took Pottery Barn to find her and try to put the kibosh on her site. Check it out here…it’s pretty interesting.

Get ready Necco!

2010-02-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

It's packed and ready to be mailed!

Here is my letter to Necco. I doubt I will hear from them, but you know I will let you know if they do. I'm wondering if they might just post this in their break room under 'crazy customers.'

Dear Fellow Candy Lovers,

Hello, my name is Amber Grundman. I have been a fan of your candy conversation hearts for 17 years. I have very fond memories from when I was a child. In grade school my mom let me take the candy boxes to school to celebrate my birthday, (since I was born in February). Ever since then I have looked forward to February to purchase your conversation hearts.

This year was no exception, however I had the hardest time finding a store that carried them. With some help from my friends I was directed to a Walgreens where I purchased some in the small boxes. I was very excited until I tasted one because it tasted terrible. At the time I thought I had purchased the wrong brand because of the odd perfumy taste and because there were blue hearts in the box. I am well aware that there are competitors that make the hearts and I refuse to eat the impostors. I have even received the nickname of 'candy snob' because of this...but that is another story.

I next headed to Target and purchased your hearts in a large bag. Once again I was very excited until I tried them and realized that they were the same hearts that I purchased at Walgreens. These were not the candy hearts that I had eaten for the past 17 years. What happened?

A friend of mine, who shares my love for the hearts, sent me a link to your website where you explained how you changed the recipe of the hearts after 145 years. Why in the world would you change a perfect recipe after 145 years? I understand you need to keep things fresh, which is what I thought you did by creating the tart and chocolate hearts. You also mentioned on the website that the new hearts were now more fun to eat because they are softer. I thought the hearts were a hard candy...no? There was no need to change the traditional recipe.

All I am praying for is that you bring back the original hearts next year. Remember New Coke? That didn't go over well either. The original hearts are ingrained in American society and you eat them for nostalgia. Please consider correcting what I believe to be a huge mistake.

I have included the uneaten hearts I purchased in this box. I did not want to eat them, but also did not want to throw them away. If you have any of the classic hearts laying around in your office(s), please send them my way....with a bill.

Thank you for your time,
Amber L. Grundman

**Note: I found some impostor hearts at a local gift store today in town. Even though they aren't my fave, they are WAY better than the new hearts Necco sold this year. As you can see they look very similar but are too thick.

DDD #16 & #17

2010-02-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

This past week when John and I were in S.F. for my doctors appointment we of course had to take advantage of being in the city…meaning we had to make sure we ate good food…meaning we of course had to try to go to a few restaurants featured on our fave show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives!

We actually started our DDD quest a year ago when we went to our first place, Tommy’s Joynt, after another one of my S.F. doctor appointments. In 12 months we visited 15 different places, and I am very curious to see how many places we will go to this year. (I secretly hope it’s just as many.)

The first place we went to, (for breakfast), was Dottie’s True Blue Café. We arrived at the perfect time and didn’t have to wait. The place was packed, but it only had about 10 tables.
We started off with a berry lemon cheesecake bar thing. It was tasty! We also got the jalapeno cakes which were featured on the show and were really good, as well as a breakfast basic kind of meal.

You know when cappuccinos are served with a little spoon they know what they are doing. Everything was really good! It was pretty basic breakfast fair, but the quality was definitely above average. The eggs were some of the best eggs I’ve ever had. I have no idea what they did to them, but they had great flavor and great texture (nice, fluffy and not burnt). Of course we ordered too much food, but you have to do that at DDD joints!
An extra plus to the dining experience was that the owner was doing all the cooking! He is only the 5th owner we’ve seen on our DDD adventures. Impressive!

After a quick shopping trip we luckily worked up our appetites and we headed to our second DDD restaurant, Q. This place was totally funky inside. It had crazy artwork, tables, and there was even a fake tree coming out of the middle of one of the tables! I got the pulled pork, which was pretty good, however I liked the garlic fries the best.

Both dishes were featured on the show and both were tasty. The tator tots on the mac-n-chee were so awesome, that I made some mac-n-chee this week and topped it with tots! The cheese was equally good on their mac, but neither John nor I could pin point the type of cheese(s) that were used. I can’t copy if it if don’t know what it was!
One interesting thing about both of these places is that neither of them had any evidence that Guy was there, which was quiet shocking. Most of the places we’ve visited display at least a poster or Guy’s spray painted stencil somewhere on their walls. Needless to say I was a bit disappointed that neither of them were proud enough to display their honor in being part of DDD history. Their loss.

Why Change a Good Thing?

2010-02-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

As most of you know this past Sunday was Valentine’s Day, which is one of my favorite semi not real holidays. Even during the years when I didn’t have ‘someone special’ I still loved it. The flowers, teddy bears, and candy…I love it all!

When I was in grade school my mom let me bring in conversation hearts to my classmates to celebrate my birthday. I thought it was so cool that I got to give out something original vs. plain ole cupcakes.

I have expressed my love for candy hearts on this blog before, and every year those conversation hearts make February just a little bit sweeter. This year however I had a difficult time finding the hearts. Strange right? Well thanks to Facebook I asked my friends where I could find the hearts. I got a variety of answers, and most of the stores people suggested weren’t here in SLO. So when John and ventured up North I made it a priority to find a Walgreens and a Target.

First stop was Walgreens. I was SO excited when I saw the boxes in the candy isle, but I was a little thrown off because they did not have the clear window in the box. Eh…whatever. At least I found them right? I was so excited that I opened the box immediately and tried one…then I wanted to barf. WTF did I just eat? It was soft and tasted like perfume! Maybe I just ate a bad one? I tried another one…again I wanted to barf! I took a closer look at the box and noticed that there were blue hearts on it. Blue? There have never been blue before…where were the white hearts? What is going on here?? Have I entered the conversation heart Twilight Zone?
I couldn’t believe I bought the wrong kind of hearts! I was so bummed out. Oh well…at least I had hope in Target, right? Well when we got there I saw the boxes of the hearts I bought in Walgreens, so I kept on walking. Then I saw bags of hearts! Score!! I bought a couple of bags and immediately tried them again, only to immediately want to barf…AGAIN! These hearts were exactly the same and I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice the BLUE hearts on the bag! I think I was so excited that I thought I had found the hearts that I couldn’t even focus on them! I was so disappointed...again. I only had 4 more days to find some hearts, and my chances were getting slimmer and slimmer.

After telling my whoas to my friend Jen, she sent me this this link. New Flavors and Texture? EXCUSE ME? So what you are saying is that you have created an entirely new candy that just looks like conversation hearts?? ‘The new Sweethearts® have been re-formulated to be softer and more fun to eat.’ Who says that softer hearts are more fun to eat? This is a HARD candy people! Why in the world would you think that changing the recipe after 145 years is a good thing? What are you smoking NECCO employees? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creating other variations of the candy, like chocolate and tart, but don’t change the original recipe…especially after 145 years!!!!!!!

Needless to say I will be sending them the hearts I bought and asking them that they please send me some of the old school hearts. They’ve got to have some in their candy museum right?

Goin' for the Gold

2010-02-18T19:12:00.000-08:00

Daaaaaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaaaa…da da da da da dudududu da da da da daaaaaaaaaaaa.

That is right people! It’s Olympic time! Are you all loving the games like I am? This year John and I are really into it…meaning we are recording every possible telecast. The one problem is that they air 8pm to 11:30pm! There is no way we can stay up that late…well we can, but we don’t want to be zombies at work.

By not watching the telecasts live it has become EXTREMELY challenging to not find out who has won/lost. This is the only time that I despise the Internet. Seriously…how can they post the winners and losers BEFORE it even airs on prime time? It really makes me mad…however news sites aren’t the only guilty parties. I also had a winner outed by a famous person’s tweet!

Regardless of finding out some outcomes, it still has been an enjoyable Olympics so far. One part I love is that a lot of my favorite sports commentators are working the games. Chris Collingsworth, Al Trautwig, and Mary Currilo are a few of my faves.
Scott Hamilton is also pretty good when he gets really excited over a great jump or fall.

Did some of you notice that Johnny Mosley was commentating for the moguls? He was cracking John and I up with some of his comments. It was a great change from some of the other stuffy announcers who don’t know the sport as well as the athletes. It was almost like he was reliving his moment on the hill. He also had a somewhat surfer/Keanu Reeves vibe about him which added to the hilarity.

There is one announcer, Andrea Kramer (?), who I can’t stand. She’s the blonde lady that interviews the athletes on location after they compete. I saw her interview a retired football coach on Real Sports with Bryant Gumble, and it was really bad. I know I could do a better job than her. Oh well. One rotten apple out of five isn’t that bad.

Did any of you see the women’s snowboard cross? Let me just say that I, (along with many others), have waited FOUR years for this event. Four years for Lindsey Jacobellis to redeem herself and get the gold metal she deserved in 2006. If she won the gold this year, it would be one of the best Olympic redemption stories of all time, and I was ready to witness it!

Her first qualifying race she finished with no prob…second qualifying race (to get into the finals), she misses a gate, which disqualified her. That was it. It was over in 2 seconds. I still can’t believe it happened! I was so bummed out! How could she miss out on the gold AGAIN? It was so disappointing. There is a chance that she could come back in 2014, and if she does I’m sure there won’t be that much pressure on her. But will it make a difference? Who knows.

Unfortunately her loss broke my Olympic spirit. I know…very sad. However a few nights later it was lifted once again by USA wining 3 golds in one night. Granted it was a night where 3 of our top athletes preformed, but at least they succeeded under the pressure!
I really like Shaun White, and am SO glad he won another gold. It is amazing to watch him on the half pipe, knowing how hard it is just to keep your balance on a snowboard…well for me that is. He had immense pressure this year to win the gold again, and I’m so happy for him.

I’m still looking forward to the Women’s ice-skating next week, and Appolo Ono is racing this weekend. U-S-A!

GOOD NEWS!

2010-02-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

This past week John and I headed up to San Francisco for my semi-annual visit with my awesome neck doctor, Dr. Lisa Orloff. I must say I was somewhat skeptical about this visit, because during my last ultra sound, (6 months prior), she did see a suspicious area, (but it was too small to biopsy). Had she not seen that I wouldn’t have been so worried.

However I had no need to worry because she didn’t see any thyroid cells, (aka cancer), in my neck!!! The suspicious spot she saw last time had not grown, which makes her think it is just scar tissue! I cannot tell you what a relief it was to hear the news. Over these past 6 months I had been totally prepping myself incase I had to have another surgery. Being the planner I am, a lot of things were already semi planned in my head, and now I have to erase them all.
Here is John in the doctors office. Notice all the neck paraphernalia on the counter. There is a great neck poster on the wall, but it didn’t make it in the photo.
My check-ups will continue because my blood work is still showing signs that there are thyroid cells in my body. There are not supposed to be ANY in my body, but the first blood test I got back after my surgery the number was 1.7. Three months later it was 1.4. My doctor said that it is good it is going down, but each test can fluctuate by a few points. So even if it is back to 1.7 after my next test, that won’t be bad…just as long as it’s not higher. I am very interested to see what my next test will show in May. The Dr. also said I would need another ultra sound, but I asked her if I could have it in 8 months instead of 6 and she said no prob. Why you may ask? Well I want to have it after Paris of course! I need to save those PTO days!

Let me put it to you this way…this is the first good news regarding my thyroid in THREE YEARS! Did you hear me? THREE YEARS PEOPLE!!! I was, and still am in shock. John on the other hand was so excited, he was acting like he just had 5 shots of espresso.

After my first appointment, we had a few hours to kill until my next one, (yes another one was to come), so we headed to Union Square to do some shopping. John really wanted to go back to H&M again ever since he bought some sweet pants in Atlanta. What do you know? He totally scored again!

I actually started shopping for myself and then remembered my ‘NO UNNECESSARY CLOTHES PURCHASING UNTIL PARIS’ pack I made with myself. Duh! How could I forget?

After our shopping excursion and a quick lunch, we headed down to San Mateo to see my fourth orthopedist. Yes…you read right, I said fourth. I decided that this would probably be the last one I saw, as the other 3 didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear, and seeing 4 different doctors is already pretty ridiculous.
This dr. was suggested to me via my sister’s physical therapist. He seemed like he knew his stuff, however he couldn’t offer me any suggestions of what I could do to help heal my Achilles. He did tell us of a podiatrist down the street that performs radio shock therapy to some patients with tendon problems. We got out of the appointment at 4pm. I called the podiatrist at 4:05, and we were meting with him at 4:30! I was SO thankful he was able to see us. There was no way I wanted to have to take another day off for another appointment. John was SO excited for the third appointment!
The doctor basically told me to do the opposite of what I've been doing, because the other medical professionals have been treating my injury as an Achilles injury when he thinks it is a foot injury. Can you believe it? He told me to wear at least a 1 in heel lift all the time, to stop wearing my brace when I sleep, and to go back to physical therapy and have them treat me for my foot, (not Achilles). He also said that he would not recommend surgery! Yeah! I can’t believe I never thought of going to a podiatrist in the first place. Of course the orthopedists are going to want me to have surgery…they are surgeons! Duh.

Since I’ve made these changes my foot hasn’t felt sore. I’m really hoping that is a good sign. I’ve also been using this cream that the podiatrist prescribed to reduce the swelling and I think it’s working! I have no idea how a cream reduces swelling, but I don’t care! I’m just mad that someone didn’t prescribe this to me a year ago!

Overall our 24 hours in San Francisco was very successful and a lot of fun, (after the good news of course). It’s almost like a mini vacay for us because we were on our own cruisin’ in the city. John and I were both completely exhausted the rest of the week though. I always knew the thyroid issues would end some day, but it never really felt like that day was so close. 2010 is starting out pretty sweet!

Finally!!

2010-02-14T17:40:00.000-08:00

This past November I did something that I had ALWAYS wanted to do…since I was a teenage.

Did I jump out of a plane?

Did I get an inappropriate piercing?

Did I go skinny-dipping?

Did I sneak into a movie without paying?

Did I drive 100 miles an hour on the freeway?

Answer? None of the above. I wish it was something as exciting as the list above, but all I did was dye my hair. Well it’s kind of exciting as I dyed it PURPLE!
No not like that!
Way more mild…just in the back…see?
I cannot tell you how much I LOVE IT! I am actually really mad I waited this long to dye it. 20 years is WAY too long. However you have to be seen as a ‘normal’ person in our society right? How many times have you stared at a person with green hair or wondered what was wrong with them? I’m sure it was more than once, and I’m sure my parents didn’t want me to be that person. But it’s just hair dye people!

I should have dyed my hair when I was unemployed last year, but who would hire someone with ‘crazy’ hair? However once you get a job you also don’t want to risk loosing it by having ‘crazy’ hair…right? So that is why I: a) only dyed part of it, b) waited until I had been at my job for 3 months, and c) went subtle. Apparently those three items are the key to success.

After seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I really wanted to dye my ENTIRE head like Kate did. Isn’t her hair beautiful?
However dealing with my roots would be a pain, and probably get pretty pricey due to all of the re-dyes. With my color somewhat hidden I don’t have to worry about the roots showing, which is pretty sweet.

One small bummer is that the dye isn’t permanent…meaning it comes out in the shower, on your pillowcase, and on your clothes. It also fades quicker the more you wash it and if you use hot water on it. It has definitely been a lot more to deal with than I thought it would, but it’s totally worth it.

After my purple started to fade, it turned to a light pink, so the next time I went in for a touch up I decided to get pink.I just got it dyed blood red which is supposed to turn orange, so we will see. Why red you ask? For Valentine’s Day of course!
The one good thing that came of me having thyroid cancer is that it taught me to live each day to it’s fullest. If there is something you have always wanted to do…why wait? You could be hit by a bus tomorrow leaving you with a TON of regrets while hanging out in heaven. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound fun to me. You only have one life…unless you are a cute little kitty, so please don’t forget that.

I am seriously blown away by how much joy getting my hair dyed has brought me. Who would have known that something so simple would make my life better?

If that bus comes after me tomorrow I don’t want any regrets…and you shouldn’t either!

Excuse me?

2010-02-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

Do you remember way back in 2008 when I posted about my Achilles injury? Seems so long ago right? So long ago that it’s probably old new right? Wrongo bongo.

It has been 15 months since my Achilles injury and it has still not healed. 15 months. Have you had anything awful last 15 months? For me that has meant no running, jumping, hiking, climbing, or wearing high heels…for 457 days…seriously.

I’ve seen a total of three orthopedists (locally) and the last one finally gave me a solution. Finally right? Wrongo bongo AGAIN. His solution?

Surgery.
Excuse me? Surgery? I didn’t even think surgery was an option. I mean what could they do to my Achilles if it wasn’t torn? Well, apparently they can insert a tendon from a cadaver to help support my Achilles in its healing process. Recovery = 4-6 weeks in a boot, and then 4-6 months rehab. The doctor said that since the tendon has not healed on it’s own in a years time that surgery was the next step. Why couldn’t my Achilles just have snapped? I would have been fully recovered if that happened to me 15 months ago!

I did ask my Dr. about Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, which can help injuries heal quicker, and he was totally negative about it.

He said that most insurance don’t cover the cost.
I told him I didn’t care.

He said it could cause the tendon to snap.
I told him I didn’t care.

He said it could have a placebo affect.
I told him I didn’t care.

Those were the worst reasons I’ve ever heard! Just because he doesn’t do it and doesn’t want to loose the surgery business, doesn’t mean he should think it’s a bad idea. Shouldn’t he want what is best for his patient? What if it were to work for me better than surgery? Doctors can be so hit and miss. In fact his anti-ism made me even more determined to do more research and to find a doctor that administers the procedure.

I found the Orthohealing Center in LA online, and I’m hoping that they will be the answer to my prayers. Check out this testimonial. I know it’s probably an extreme case, but I’m not as bad off as he was so I have hope! I’m hoping to go down to LA soon meet with the doctor and hopefully get the procedure done in the same day.

I am actually willing to try anything at this point to avoid surgery. I’m even seeing an acupuncturist after much harassment from John, (who saw her for his back, but she kicked him out after seeing his MRI because there wasn’t anything she could do for him). Small needles? Really? What could that do for me? Fist let me tell you that I was TOTALLY skeptical…next let me tell you that I’ve seen her three times and I think it is helping! No joke! I have noticed that over the last week the swelling has gone down quite a bit, and I even wore some shoes with a heel! I don’t think it can repair the ‘shredded rope’ state the tendon is in, but if it helps with the swelling that has got to be helpful.

So we will see what happens. I have the feeling that my Achilles is not going to heal itself anytime soon. I’m tired of having dreams where I am running…I want to make it a reality! Plus I need to be able to run if someone were to ever steal my purse and run down the street. Priorities people!

Home Sweet Home

2010-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

A new year = change for the Grundman household. Is this welcomed change? Not really. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have decided to put our house on the market this month.

Ugh.

We’ve had the conversation many times asking ourselves why we spend almost all of our money on our mortgage payment. Is it really worth it? Personally I’d much rather have a little extra spending money to help me keep up with the latest fashion trends. However even though we talked about other options, we had yet to do anything about it. Now due to some financial changes, and the ever declining real estate market, we’ve decided to try to sell our home before we loose all of our equity.

Over the last few years, San Luis hadn’t shown any major signs of being affected by the market, but now we are starting to see a few. John has actually gotten his first two foreclosures in SLO, which definitely says something since he’s had this job for almost 2 years.

I think we might rent for a while and wait to see if home prices continue to drop…or buy if we see a killer deal on a place. I know I will be really mad if we buy a place and then prices continue to drop, ya know?

A few weeks ago we looked at a couple of properties with our Realtor. (Who has a really nice website).

One of the houses we looked at was a small, (850 sq. ft.), beach house in Pismo. It was really cute but it only had one bathroom and a one-car garage. I’m hoping if we find a place it would at least have two bathrooms, a two-car garage, and hopefully around 1100 sq. ft.

The house had some very interesting paintings inside. I understand the reasoning of course. You live by the ocean, and you want to see it right? But your property isn’t on the water. So what do you do? You paint the walls!
Since this house didn’t have a yard the owner decided that that wouldn’t affect her view.

The kitchen was actually cute, and I did like the counter tops.

We saw a couple of other normal condos, but nothing compared to this BIZARRE house that we saw in Arroyo Grande. I don’t even know how to describe it. It actually had a lot of potential if you didn’t mind redoing EVERYTHING. It was pretty big and had a real cool yard with a creek!

It had really cool original(?) fixtures:
It had a bizarre addition, which didn’t really seem like the interior…but also didn’t seem like the exterior. It also had this sweet built in BBQ! John was pumped!
The kitchen was super weird, but had this awesome ‘pass through’
I think this is on the market for $230k, but you are basically paying for the land. I am bummed that it is in such bad shape, because it would have been fun to fix up!

We also saw one condo that we really liked which is a short sale, but we are thinking of waiting to see if it becomes a foreclosure. It was kind of bizarre when we went to look at the place because it looked like someone was still in the house. I think the owner forgot we were coming and then left immediately when he realized he wasn’t supposed to be there! I was so worried that we were going to walk in on him doing who knows what! It was a total bachelor pad, which was dirty, but not too bad. I think he may have had a roommate as one of the rooms had an unmade bed, but there wasn’t a lot of possessions in the room. I also found it interesting how most of the space in the linen and kitchen cabinets weren’t full…when all of mine are maxed out!

Who knows what the future holds. I’m such a planner that this ‘unknown’ is killing me and it’s only been a month! There is a lot to do, and I don’t want to do any of it. Figures right? We actually don’t have too much to do to our house before we put it on the market, which is good. We are going to paint over the fuchsia wall in our bedroom and our fuchsia bathroom. Total bummer. I love the pink! Oh well. At least we don’t have to repaint more of the rooms.

Hopefully I won’t go insane keeping the home in ‘show’ condition. We only had to keep our condo clean for a month and I thought I was going to die! I’m sure it will take more than a month for our home to sell too.

They say buying a home is one of the most stressful life events…I better start scheduling some massages.

Here's to 33!

2010-02-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

Greetings to my 5 faithful readers that (I hope) are still out there! I know I said I would start blogging once 2010 arrived and here I am! Granted it’s February, but hey…even I had doubts that I would be back. I must give credit to Chris, Sarah, and Cindy for inspiring me to start writing again. Thanks ladies!

So where should I start? Let’s see…how about with the most recent current event? Ground Hog’s Day was yesterday and Puxatony Phil saw his shadow.I know a lot of my co-workers were none too pleased with the forecasted 6 more weeks of winter, but I say whatever! Leave poor Phil alone. Anyone who lives in our area knows that we only have two seasons here on the Central Coast. Summer and Fall, with 2-3 weeks of rain a year. I will be really surprised if the temps don’t start hitting the 70’s by next month.

As most of you know yesterday was also my birthday. Yeah for being 33…I think. Who knows what 33 will hold for me, I’m kind of indifferent with this age, but I guess I should be glad that I’m not close to another milestone…like 35. Is that considered middle aged? Or is 40? Regardless…let’s hope that 33 is a good one.

Working on your birthday plain stinks, right? Well thanks to an awesome co-worker of mine she made my day realllllllllllllllllllly special. When I showed up to work there was French music playing on my computer, a chocolate croissant, a cappuccino, a French book, a box of fake French cigarettes, and mini roses waiting for me! It was such an awesome surprise. Are you wondering what is with the Parisian theme? Well this fall john and I are going to Paris! Granted we aren’t going until October, but by having my office all ‘Frenched’ out it made me even more excited to go! I think I need to start eating croissants weekly. My cappuccino intake has already increased thanks out our Italy trip…maybe I should wait until after the trip.
For lunch the theme continued when we went out to eat at Et Voila, a local French restaurant. John and I discovered the place a few months ago and really like it. I had homemade mushroom raviolis and they did not disappoint!

When we got back to the office I definitely thought the surprises were over, but low and behold there was dessert to be eaten! My co-worker tried to get a local baker to create a crème puff tower, (inspired by the Eiffel tower), but they were lame and said they couldn’t do it. So she had to create her own, and it was awesome!! It wasn’t as tall as this one, but you get the gist:

When I got home John had his gift and flowers waiting for me. Check out his awesome wrap job!
I had no idea what was in this huge box but I was SO EXCITED when I saw what it was.
I saw this suitcase in the airport last year and fell in love with it. John some how remembered it and bought it for me. I know this may not seem like that big of a deal, but some days John can’t remember what he had for breakfast! (No offence Honey, but you know it’s true).

After the suitcase excitement wore off we headed to dinner where I had my first good chocolate martini, (thanks to my friend Lori’s suggestion), and it was AWESOME.
It really feels like I’ve been celebrating my birthday for over a week thanks to all the nice cards and gifts I have received in the mail.Do you see that tin? Do you know that the WHOLE thing was filled with cheese and caramel popcorn? My sister had it when she vacationed in Chicago and wanted to share her love for it with John and I. At first it was a little odd, but that stuff totally starts to grow on you! I am ashamed to admit that we finished the WHOLE THING. Granted I’ve felt a little sick from eating it all week, but I couldn’t stop! It’s like crack!

I got a few more gifts for our trip, which include the French Rosetta stone from my parents and that cute Eiffel tower name tag from my friend Maggie. I had both the Rosetta stone and a Kindle on my Amazon wish list. Both are pricey, but one was a need, and the other was a want. As much as I am thankful for the Rosetta stone, I am mad that practicality won.

Do you see the Gnome Bowling kit? How awesome is that? I actually got that from my friend Cindy in the UK, who I met through this crazy blogging world.

I sent her some of her favorite Bath and Body Works products, and I received this in return. It just so happened that it arrived last week. What a great surprise! I’m hoping to take a few action bowling videos soon.

I also got the hat an necklace as gifts, so of course I had to wear them today!
So overall this 33rd birthday totally exceeded my expectations. In fact I’m still on a high from yesterday! I am so thankful for my wonderful family…friends…and blog readers!

November

2009-11-14T08:16:00.001-08:00

It's been a month since I posted. I know...I know. I really have no excuse. I could blame Facebook (again) and now FarmVille...but how lame does that sound? I have all these things I could write about...long stories with lots of photos, but when I think about how much work it would be to create one, I think about how easy it would be to go harvest my crops. Seriously.

I got somewhat inspired by this entry this morning. Her DDD adventures in Portland were AWESOME...almost as awesome as mine in New Mexico. What adventures you might ask? I know! I have yet to tell you.

I actually feel guilty that I have been neglecting this blog. I think I'm going to take a break until 2010. Maybe if I tell myself that I can't blog until then it will have the reverse affect and I will want to blog. You never know.

Wedding #2

2009-10-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend John and I headed up to Napa for his cousin’s Val’s wedding. I love Val and I have actually unofficially adopted her as my cousin. John has quite a few cousins that are close to him in age and I’ve been telling him for years that he is so lucky. I have two cousins younger than me but they live on the East coast and I think the last time I saw them was 20 years ago. My other cousins I see every so often but they are all 10+ years older than I am. I had no idea how great it was to have cousins within a 5 year age span. Even if John doesn’t appreciate it at least I get to!

I was so excited to cruise through Napa with John. If you remember…I visited Napa for the first time this past March when I had my girls weekend. The whole time I was there I knew John would love it as much as I did, and I was right!

I was totally sketched out by our hotel as it looked like a total dive, but then once we got into our room and saw that it was nice and clean my attitude changed. I knew I had checked the reviews on tripadvisor.com and I remembered after the fact that the reviews said it had been recently remodeled. Thank goodness!

Saturday morning John went and played golf with the family and I had a mini adventure morning. One highlight was definitely all of the hot air balloons that I saw BOTH mornings! How cool!!!! Some flew right over the hotel. I am all pumped up about hot air balloons right now because we are going to the hot air balloon festival this weekend in New Mexico. It is one of my life dreams to ride in one but we won’t be able to do it in N.M. That is ok though, because I’m hoping to return to Napa for a ride and a meal at French Laundry. I may need to find a financial sponsor for that trip though. Anyone?

John's Grandpa on the course.

I know Napa is filled with spas so to treat myself, I got a massage. At which spa you ask? Try a place in a strip mall! I know, I know…I was totally weirded out at first but they seemed pretty legit and were actually a chain. My masseuse seemed a bit sketchy but after 15 minutes I was like WHATEVER get that knot out of my back! Plus it was only $50 for an hour. I hope I never become a massage snob…I love a good deal!

For lunch I was able to take John to Taylor’s Automatic Refresher…our 5th Triple D restaurant together. So tasty!

Val and Ron’s wedding was at Aburg De Sol. It was up a hill in Rutherford and had a great view. Here are a few of my fave shots of the night:John and his Grandpa

Me and Auntie Jane (Mother of the bride)Us with John's cousin Robert

Gramp and his kids...John, Jane, Allison, and Phyllis.

Keeping ourselves entertained while we wait for the party bus.

The next day John and I headed up north again to Yountville to go to Bouchon. If you recall…when I was there last March Molly and I surprised our friend Jeremy who was working there. Unfortunately he is no longer working there so we could not go behind the scenes and act all cool. Dang!

Apparently Yountville was having some sort of parade and we totally got caught up in it trying to find a parking spot! It was madness….for a very small parade. Needless to say we finally made it to Bouchon and feasted on some of the best bread in California…and two awesome cappuccinos to boot. It was so nice to sit in the sun and treat ourselves…I felt totally spoiled. I also wound up with two loafs of sourdough as I got one when I was there before and it was by far some of the best bread I have had.After our morning/afternoon exploring John drove me to the Oakland airport where I caught a flight home…but to Phoenix first. (A direct flight from SFO to SLO was $600). John is currently up in Fortuna spending the remainder of the week with his family. I had to pack my carry on very carefully. It consisted of my sleeping boot/sling, my cosmetics, my new pair of GAP pants (their outlets there are really good), and of course my two loafs of sour dough bread.

Iron and Candy

2009-10-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago John and I celebrated our 6th year anniversary. It seems as though the 6th year has been very anticlimactic compared to last year. Maybe it was because last year I got to have a photo shoot and I got an anniversary band to wear on my ring finger. No that’s not it…I think it might have been the fact that the day before was my sister-in-law’s wedding. We spent most of our anniversary traveling back to SLO and then lounging around for the rest of the day because we were so exhausted. We were able to pull ourselves off of the couch to go to dinner though.It was really tasty:
And I also got carded! (I think the waitress was a newbie and probably paranoid since a lot of the college kids were back in town).

The 6th year anniversary gift is iron…and candy. What a combo! I really had no idea what to get John as he had just purchased himself a new set of golf irons. That would have been the perfect gift! Dang. So I opted for two random items…a decorative iron ‘g’ and an iron piggy bank. I had no idea if he would like the decorative ‘g’ but the piggy bank he did need…although it’s only 3 inches high!!!!! A lot of good that is going to do! What is he going to store in it… 20 quarters? Yes…the site online did have the dimensions, but I really didn’t want to believe it was that small. I mean who makes a piggy bank to store less than a handful of pennies in it?
John also bought himself a new cooking knife as a gift from me, but it’s hard to count that as a gift when he picked it out…and paid for it.

Thank goodness I did come up with an awesome gift for the dude, but it was after the fact. I don’t know why it took me so long to think of this gift either. A t-shirt from Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin Texas Mellow Johnny’s. I was so excited when it arrived and he LOVED it! Score one for the wife!

Unfortunately for John the gifts he ordered me did not arrive in time. The killer part is that he did plan ahead and even ordered them in August! I felt pretty bad for him, as I would have been really mad if I were in his shoes. He had nothing to worry about though because once the gifts arrived they were so good that I completely forgot about the tardiness!

I received some accessories for the MINI…two stickers. One says ‘actual size’ and the other says ‘no photos please.’ Then he got this small round magnet thing that hooks on to the front of the car and you can switch out the plates. I'll post a photo after it gets put on the mini.

How cute is the reindeer one? I can’t wait to buy some more. Will I remember to swap them out? Hopefully!

Then he got me the gift of all gifts…a custom Lisa Leonard Necklace!!! I almost keeled over when I saw what it was. I think I may have blogged about her work on this site before but I’m not sure. In case I didn’t here’s a little background. I came across her blog a few years ago via another blog and started following it. At the time she was making custom jewelry and selling it through her blog. Eventually her business grew and grew and she now sells her work from this site.

As some of you know I’m a sucker for personalized gifts and in so in turn my friends get personalized gifts. I started small by getting a few friends necklaces with their kids names on them. They loved them so much that I continued to give them to all my friends. It also helped that this was the year for my friends to have babies. Each time one of them received the necklace I would get the sweetest call or email thanking me so much. Granted it was my idea, but I really felt like Lisa should be the one getting the credit.

I also love to give this baby spoon.

I even gave a necklace to my mother-in-law this necklace with all of her grandchildren on it.
She has even come out with an ornament for this year as well.
Where was I? Oh right…every time I would receive one of the pieces in the mail I would show John and swoon over how beautiful they were. It has been a year since I’ve been ordering from her. A year. I really gave up the notion that John did not get ANY of my hints…maybe I’m a bad hint giver? Apparently I’m not because my some miracle he remembered and bought me a necklace! (Photo to come)

Needless to say it did turn out to be a pretty good anniversary, although it still doesn’t feel complete. Why you ask? Well we have yet to finish our anniversary traditions by watching our wedding video…and I need to put on my dress. With traveling every weekend since and being super busy during the week we haven’t had a night to sit down and relive one of the greatest days of our lives. Don’t worry though…I’m hoping after we get back from New Mexico we will do it.

Work of an Artist

2009-10-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago John’s sister Molly got hitched down in Pacific Palisades (north of Santa Monica). John and I were both very excited to be a part of her big day…I was a bridesmaid and John was the officiate. Molly and her husband Michael planned the wedding in three months and considering that time frame they did a great job.

One of the highlights was when one of Michael’s brothers got up during the toasts. Now Michael never officially named a ‘best man’ as he was worried what they all might get up and say. Needless to say that his preventative actions didn’t help. At the end of the brother's sentimental toast he finished with ‘At least we know Michael isn’t gay,’ and then walked off. It was so funny and uncomfortable at the same time.

I was going to post some of my photos, but why do that when I can steal…I mean copy and paste some of the professional photogs photos? I was lucky enough to convince my sister-in-law to hire my friend Ken to shoot the wedding. (Do you remember the awesome photos he took for John and I last year?) My sister-in-law was definitely hesitant with hiring a photographer that was way more than she had budgeted for but I kept telling her that when the day is over all she will have left is the photos. If you have to cut corners…cut it on the flowers. They are dead the next day anyway. I think a tiny miracle happened when she decided to take my advice and hire Ken…and let me tell you that she told me I was right. I mean take a look for yourselves!

I am still amazed when I look at these photos. During the day I thought ‘how is he going to make these photos look as good as his others?’ I was there…looking at the same things he was and I wasn’t seeing it. However that is why he is the professional.

The South

2009-09-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I saw this photo online today and it made me stop in my tracks.
As most of you know my good friend, Rebekkah, moved recently with her family to Atlanta. I talked to her this past weekend and she said that they have been in the clear of the flooding, although homes a half a mile away did get flooded.

If your local news is like ours, then you probably haven’t heard much about the floods, so I thought I would share with you the email she sent me after I sent her the photo of the amusement park.

I had heard the park flooded, but had not seen any pictures. They say it has happened before and that the rides were built to withstand floods. This park is about 10 miles from our house (at most). It is crazy that people all around us were hit this bad by the flood and we were completely unaffected. The houses 1/2 mile away were flooded past the second levels. Several of them are built 13 feet of the ground due to being so close to the Chattahoochee river, and they still got major damage. it was the worst flood ever recorded in history here. The record high flood levels were beaten in some areas by as much as 14 feet from previous flood records. That is amazing to me. One county near us got 22 or 23 inches of rain in 24 hours. I can't even imagine how that is possible. It is a waterfall more than rain.

I can’t even imagine being in that kind of rainfall, especially when it rains maybe 14 days out of the year here.

Hello?

2009-09-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Is there anyone out there? Has it really been a month since I posted on this thing? What a sad, sad blogger I am. What seems crazy to me is that in the beginning of the month I wasn't busy...now I am crazy busy. So why didn't I blog a few weeks ago? Who knows?

Once again it's not because I have a lack of subjects to post about...in fact my sister-in-law just got married this past weekend, and you know I have photos to post! In fact I also have photos from her bridal shower/bachelorette party from last month.

This past weekend is the start of our 4 consecutive weekends of traveling. I've realized because of this that my weeks are now even busier since I now have to to everything I normally do on the weekends during the week. This is only the first week and it's already crazy.

This weekend we are heading up north to San Jose for the Cal Poly vs. San Jose Statue football game. I've made it into a family event by inviting everyone to join John and I...it should be fun!

If you are looking for some new blogs, I have two for your reading pleasure:

Maggie Mae's Tip of the Day
Looking for a variety of random helpful tips? Then this is the site for you!

Diary of an Unemployed MBA
Interested in reading about the woes of someone looking for a job? Check out Chris...a newly resident of the bay area.

I'll try to post some photos soon!

Summer Time Tradition

2009-08-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we attended our 4th/5th(?) Atascapalooza. Our friend Molly (AKA Miss Wild Child) came down for the second year from Sacramento for the festivities. I don’t think this year was quite as eventful as last year, and I think that is due to the fact that there was less misgiff for Miss Wild Child to get into. I wouldn’t necessarily say she was more well-behaved I think there were just less items for her explore.

They had a piñata again which I think Hans gets the most enjoyment out of. They also had the egg toss again, and I really wanted to decline because I did not want to loose. We won last year…why not go out on top? Yeah it wasn’t that easy. I swear I had never been that nervous for an egg toss before…granted it was only the second one I’d ever been in, but still! There was a lot more riding on this because EVERYONE wants to beat the best right? Lucky for us Miss Wild Child was not in the race this year so I thought we had a chance. It got down to 3 couples and what do you know? We won again! I still can’t believe it. Now I really hope John will let me retire. He also decided to smash our egg (again) before our victory photo. Oh well…I guess a new tradition has started.

Other than that it was a lot of lounging around in the nice North County heat. I guess I should call it warmth because it really wasn’t that hot. Here we are relaxing:

I think Molly is throwing up a 'M' for Molly?

Us with the hostess and her latest addition.

3 Things

2009-08-18T17:59:00.000-07:00

Lots of small things have been making me smile lately which has been much needed. Here are just a few that have and will make this week a good one:

1. Julie and Julia - This past weekend we went and saw this movie and was SO good! I was really surprised with how much I liked it, (since I really don’t know anything about Julia Childs) I am a huge Amy Adam’s fan, so I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. I am also a fan of Meryl Streep and she did such an amazing job playing Julia that most of the time I even forgot it was her. I really hope she gets some sort of recognition for this role.

Both story lines were really clever and I would actually get mad each time they would switch from one to the other. Of course I couldn’t help but relate a bit to Julie since her goal was to blog about her cooking/baking experiences. I now wish I would have thought of some gimmick to have been blogging about over the last 2.5 years. Even though I know my life is SO captivating, I wish I had come up with something like she did. Dang.

One thing I did not like about film was that the actor that they cast for Julie’s husband was not a good fit. What was with that dude? For one…I have never seen a grosser eater in MY LIFE! I was getting so sicked out by listening/watching him eat. Thank goodness his gorging scenes were only in the beginning of the movie. It’s bad enough to listen to someone behind you smacking on their popcorn, but to have to see it in front of you and hear it in THX? No thanks!

I was so inspired by the movie that right after we went to the bookstore and I bought Julie and Julia. I can’t wait to read the story because the book is always better than the movie, right? It’s actually killing me that I can’t read it right now as I’m supposed to be reading my latest book club book. I’m also going to be on the hunt for a good Julia Child’s biography. Do any of you have any recommendations?

One last complaint…Amy Adam’s hair was ATROCIOUS in this film! It looked like she was wearing the worst little boy wig. I understand her character wasn’t rich, but you can still be poor and have cute hair. Good thing she is such a cutie and her face distracted me from the mop top.

2. NY Giants Football – Yes I did mean to write that…and yes I am still a 49er fan. However…Cal Poly’s awesome receiver Ramses Barden got drafted by them this year and I got to watch one of their preseason games on TV last night. John and I were both so excited to see him out on the field in his Giants uniform and he even made a sweet catch. After the catch they then showed a few highlights from last year, including his touchdown in OT against Wisconsin. (Damn you field goal kicker!) It was really cool to hear the announcers talk about him as they all had good things to say about him. Even if this one dude pronounced his name as Ramse Barden from Cal Poly, Saint Luis Obispo.

I was really hoping that the Giants would be playing the 9ers this year, but no such luck. I was even considering traveling to NY, (twist my arm), if the 9ers were scheduled to play them back there, but it’s a no go. Maybe next year.

3. Project Runway – Just in case some of you were not aware, PR is premiering this week!!!! The fighting between the networks was SO lame, and there is no way we should have had to wait this long for the next season. They are even bringing back some of the past designers for a special challenge which I think airs right before the premiere on Thursday. Let's hope there is a contestant as fabulous as Christian is. Set your DVRs!!

What was that? I can't hear you!

2009-08-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Forever 21 opened here in SLO filling the old Gottschalk's building. Two of my friends checked it out and were pretty impressed with the selection and prices so we went to go check it out yesterday. We walked in and it was HUGE! The entire building as well as the old home furnishing section was FILLED with clothes and accessories. It was SO overwhelming.

Once the shock wore off I then wondered why I had an instant headache…oh right!! It was the MUSIC PLAYING AT A LEVEL 11!!!! My god! Do they think young women are deaf? I know this isn’t a new trend…when I walk by Abercrombie I get knocked over by the sound waves and that awful perfume smell. But for some reason I didn’t expect it at this store.

I’ve heard they play the music that loud so that the parents will just hand their kids their credit card and wait outside. I’m sad to say that if I were a parent I would probably do that, but the loud music has never been a concern for me because most of the stores that use that sales tactic are out of my price range. Forever 21 however is a bulls eye for my price range.

I understand if the man behind the curtain wants to give his consumers the feeling of partying while shopping…I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is that you have to SCREAM at your shopping companion to communicate. Um…what fun is that? I guess they don’t want you to get advice from each other of which pair of jeans looks best. They just want you to buy them both...am I right?

I am also WELL aware that I am getting older, which is only 10% of the problem. I wouldn’t say this store is 100% a teenybopper store either and they should really think of ALL of the ages of people that shop there. Here is my solution…on certain nights of the week they should turn the volume down a tad. Just a tad! I would be much more willing to spend an extra hour or 2 in there perusing if I wasn’t so irritated by the blaring music. However I hate to admit that even with the music I was able to find quiet a few things to purchase.

Thanks to my Facebook buddies I was told to shop on their website. DUH! Although I was excited to have an actual new store in town vs. shopping online…oh well…I'm supposed to be in on a spending freeze anyway.

Fastest Weekend Ever

2009-08-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend John and I headed up to Fortuna for our shortest visit to date. I think we were in town for 31 hours. No joke. Needless to say I have been so tired all day today.

One of the main reasons we headed up north was for my friend Katy's baby shower. She is due in 2 months and let me say she looked like she was maybe 5 months! Here she is setting up an AWESOME cheese spread.Here is a group shot of all the ladies.Here is a good shot of Katy's belly and our super cute cacti party favors that she made.It was so great to get together with my old high school friends. Normally we are lucky to meet once a year at Katy's Christmas Cookie Party so this was a real treat. I'm just sad that I live so far away from them.

While I was partying it up with the ladies John got to spend some time with his family out at his parent's cabin. I did get to see all the kids that evening, but I didn't take any photos. I did however receive their latest professional photos which I will hopefully scan.

On our way out of town we drove by this sign:Not that exciting right? Well it wouldn't have been if I hadn't of designed this logo for a local business that looked like this:

Look familiar?

Fair Time!

2009-08-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago I headed up north for the Mid State Fair in Paso. The first venture was to see Kelly Clarkson in concert. When I bought the tickets in March I signed up for her fan club which allowed me access to the pre-sale. After I purchased the tickets they did not give me the location of the seats, but said they would be fairly close to the stage, which was fine with me!

As the concert grew closer I was getting more and more anxious to find out where my seats were. FINALLY the day arrived and I got my tickets. Guess where they were?? FRONT ROW! NO joke. I thought we might be within the first 20 rows or something, but the first row?? Was I even a big enough fan to deserve front row? I didn't think so. I’m sure there were some bigger fans out there than me that deserved them more. Oh well. Tonight was my lucky night.

When we made it to our seats I was still in shock at how close we were.

Right when my friend Sam and I sat down we looked behind us to see one of our old co-workers in the row behind us! Then a few people down to our right was another old co-worker! I couldn’t believe that we were all sitting in the same area. I'm normally shocked to see one person I know, much less two sitting right near me!

Sam and I patiently waiting. (extreme close up I know).
So the show starts and Kelly is RIGHT THERE. I mean RIGHT THERE and not the size of an ant. I probably had perma grin for the first half hour because I could not believe we were in the front row and she was RIGHT in front of us. The whole show felt like it was a private concert. At one point she even looked down at Sam and I and smiled. We both looked at each other like ‘did she just do that?’ It was also really weird to know that the band members could actually see us...like our faces. You definitely didn’t want to get caught zoning out or texting while they are standing there in front of you.

Kelly and her band put on a great show. She sang all of her hits and a lot of my favorite songs from her new album. She even sang songs written by Rod Stewart, Patsy Cline, and Janet Jackson which was a total plus. I think more musicians should do that. Why not? Pay homage to the ones that have helped them.

At one point the super cool guitarist went all rock star on us and threw his pick in the audience…only to have it hit me in the head! However he threw it at the end of the song and when the song ended the arena went completely black and I couldn’t see anything. I told the dude next to me what happened and so we both were looking at the ground when the lights came on and he spotted the pick first and grabbed it! He said I could have it, but in the end I let him have it. Now of course I wish I would have kept it. Oh well. I really did deserve it having to listen to his wife think she was singing duets with Kelly all night. I should have told her that I didn’t pay $75 to hear her sing butcher Kelly's hits..

The next afternoon I headed back up to the fair with John for our annual visit. After we had our first round of fair junk food we decided to let it settle a bit before round two so we checked out the exhibits.
I once again entered a photo this year, but was very hesitant after losing last year, and I was feeling lazy. I probably wouldn’t have entered but I was also entering a photo from Sydney so I thought I might as well print one of my own if I was going to have to drive up to Paso anyway.

During the annual Steinbuck visit this past May Sydney had her new birthday camera in tow. A few weeks later when I went up to Ukiah we picked up her film from the trip. In the midst of photos of our garbage cans and many self-portraits, there was this one great shot of her flip flops on our deck. Right when Rebekkah and I saw it we both had the same thought…it was a total fair photo! I was more than happy to enter it in for Sydney and what do you know…she got first place!!
We actually ventured into a new hall this year that had a ton of baked goods including a cake decorating category! How crazy is that? It really felt like you could enter just about anything that was homemade.
We even saw some Christmas decorations, but I am tempted to enter in my award winning fudge next year. Who wouldn’t like the title ‘multi award wining fudge’?

After our exhibit perusing we were finally hungry enough for some more fair food. First stop….cinnamon rolls!
We normally don’t eat the whole thing, but for some reason we finished it all this year. Not good. I also wanted to get a license plate frame for the mini while we were there but we couldn’t think of a good saying. I should have planned ahead for that one.
After our traditional photo booth photo I then got to get my traditional shaved ice. I even checked and they did make it from a block of ice. It was pretty good, but the ones in Hawaii were still better.
They even had the slush puppy booth again so John scored another sweet slushy mixture. I even think it was the same dude who was working the booth last year.

Overall I think it was one of our best fair visits yet. I'm actually kind of sad we only get to go once a year. I guess it makes it that much special.

J-O-B

2009-07-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

I have just completed the third day of my new job and I must say that it is GREAT! I am SO thankful. Starting a new job is always risky, but I must say that this risk really paid off. All of my co-workers are SO nice and I'm getting to work on all sorts of projects that are new and exciting. I've definitely been thrown into the mix of things because they are really busy...which is good of course because no one likes to sit and watch the clock.

In addition to the awesome new job we also got some good news regarding John's job. The news is basically that he still has his job. Yeah! Hopefully we will both stay employed throughout the rest of the year.

I still have to blog about my Mid-State adventures from last weekend, but I've been trying to get ready for our garage sale this weekend. It's a MAJOR clean out this week!