New Blog for You

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.

Online Album: Atlanta

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

Enjoy!

Day 24: Bucks

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

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

Day 23: Beauty #2

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

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

Day 22: Beauty

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

Day 20: Prep

Stuffing?
Check.

Day 19: Newbie

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

Day 18: Wave

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

Day 17: LIVESTRONG

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

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

Day 16: Can I help you?

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

Day 15: Crack

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

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

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

Life can Really Blow

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

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

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

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

17 Days

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

I'm here...

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.

M.I.A.

John misses our couches.

What is that Sound?

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.

Other Blogs

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.

November

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.

Hello?

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!

J-O-B

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!