My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

T and I just got back from an amazing weekend in San Jose! We flew in early Saturday morning to attend a baby shower my sisters hosted for us at my friend J’s house.  We were both so touched by how much time, money and effort our friends and family have put into celebrating Baby Cakes’ arrival.  Even in the days leading up to the shower, we were inundated with gifts sent to us by dear friends and family members.  

My sister B cooked for 2 weeks straight (with Sister L serving the role of indentured servant), my Quad friend J opened up her house so we could have the shower there (she has the loveliest, warmest house which everyone always compliments her on so we were thrilled to use it), we had family drive 3 hours to be there and friends totally surprise us by driving 6 hours to come to the shower (we didn’t even send invites to LA or out of state friends as we figured there’s no way anyone would come, didn’t want people to feel obligated to send gifts, and felt bad making Sister B slave another 30 hours and spend another zillion dollars on additional invites).  We were overwhelmed by how generous everyone was and felt truly blessed.  Our only regret was not being able to spend more time with everyone individually!

These pictures don’t do the shower justice, but here are some of the wonderful treats my sisters made, which included: mini beef wellington, chicken pot pies, pizza rolls, pesto bread sticks, ceviche, chicken tarragon sandwiches, hummus, sloppy joes, spinach dip, bruschetta, spinach pies, almond cake, cheese cake bites, lychee panna cotta, caramel apple bites, green tea shortbread cookies, orange cranberry scones, lemon cookies, cream puffs, and little blueberry pies as favors.  Oh, and my mom made some delicious shrimp and carrot puffs that are always a hit.  I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but it was all delicious and beautifully presented!

That night, we met up with some of T’s friends and watched the UCLA game.  My friend C, who wasn’t able to make it to the shower, dropped by to visit, even though she was clearly exhausted (she’d been on a rock climbing trip all day).

The next day, after a gut-bustingly huge lunch (my parents grilled up an insane amount of food) with my family, we  flew home (on our two year wedding anniversary!) and basically crashed.  I’d already told T I hadn’t bought him anything and didn’t intend to make a big deal of the anniversary – we never made big deals of events like anniversaries, birthdays, and graduations growing up so I’m still one one to celebrate them much – but T got me a very thoughtful gift and the sweetest card.  I have a wonderful husband and I’ve loved every minute of marriage!

Woke up in the middle of the night with a horrible ache in my hips/thighs.  I think it’s sciatica, which is apparently common during pregnancy (although usually in the third trimester – and I’m still 3 weeks away from the third trimester!).  My hips ached a little once or twice in the last couple of weeks, but last night was the first time it was so bad I couldn’t sleep. Woke up at 3am and was still awake at 4am, when T woke up to get ready for work.   When I discovered sitting up helped, T propped me up in bed.  After half an hour or so, the pain faded enough for me to lie down again and go back to sleep.  Still a little sore this morning, but no where near as bad as it was last night.

It kind of sucked.  Although, on a brighter note, Baby Cakes was awake with me and kicking up a storm.  I’ve noted, during my multiple bathroom breaks in the middle of the night, that 3am is one of his favorite times to be up and moving.  I love feeling him kick – it makes the whole thing worthwhile.  =)

On a non-baby related note, had a great time this weekend!  T’s mom was in town, so we got to spend a lot of time with her and T’s brother.  I made Louisiana Pasta for dinner Friday, we went to the Outdoor Cinema Food Feast Saturday (where we joined a couple of my friend, watched the Princess Bride and ate too much junk food), and then went to a beach party on Sunday with T’s co-workers (where we again ate too much junk food).  T and I are detoxing this week.  I made shrimp and spinach last night and am making salmon and broccoli tonight.

It was cold and cloudy this weekend so we spent most of it curled up on the couch playing videogames (T) and reading (me).  Managed to pry ourselves out of the house on Saturday to attend our friend’s annual cookie decorating party, where T made a scandalous gingerbread girl and I, apparently lacking any creative juices, made a very boring star.  Sunday we met up with T’s brother and his boyfriend to watch The Princess and the Frog, which was pretty cute, at the Grove.     

Didn’t make it to my 10 mile run on Saturday because it was pouring Saturday morning.  Sadly, by the time T woke up, the downpour had turned into a light drizzle and I felt like a wimp for not going on my run.  Am very worried about the 20 mile run next week considering how little I”ve run lately…

Can’t believe 2009 is ending already! November just flew by. I threw a birthday party for T’s 30th’s in early November. Inspired by the recent pizza-making party we went to, I threw a panini-making party. We bought tons of breads, meats, toppings, and cheeses. I prepared some appetizers (bacon wrapped dates, crab rangoon, and stuffed mushrooms), T grilled up some steaks and we had friends make their own paninis. I’d also prepared some crepes so we had crepes and ice cream cake for dessert. As usual, we bought way too much food and had leftovers from the party all week. I’d originally wanted to host a nice sit down dinner, but when the guest list started growing, I realized my plans were exceeding my limited cooking abilities. In fact, I almost failed to pull the panini party off, but fortunately several of T’s friends are excellent cooks and, more importantly, arrived early enough to help get everything ready.

The next day, we headed out to Disneyland to take advantage of their free-on-your-birthday promotion. It was fun, but exhausting. I don’t know how parents are able to spend all day with their kids running around that place – we were tired by 5pm and had to head home!

The following week we were off to Maui for my friend K’s wedding. It was such a great trip. T and I rented a three bedroom condo we shared with friends who were also attending the wedding. The wedding itself was perfect. Small and intimate on a golf course overlooking the ocean. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, we relived part of our honeymoon by laying by at the Westin’s pool, went snorkling at Molokini and Turtle Town, got massages, drove to the top of Haliakala, ate plenty of shaved ice at an amazing shaved ice place, and went to the Feast of LeLe, the best luau on the island.

Got back late Wednesday night and drove up to San Jose bright and early Thanksgiving day, with a stop in Fresno to pick up Alfie from T’s mom (who was dog-sitting for us). My parents and sisters went all out on dinner and totally outdid themselves this year. Delicious turkey, broccoli and cauliflower sides, home made buns, stuffed mushrooms, pumpkin cake, etc. In fact, my parents spent the entire weekend preparing all of our favorite dishes. We both came back 5 pounds heavier.

The best part came at the end of Thanksgiving dinner, when my littlest sister’s boyfriend proposed to her in front of the entire family. It was so sweet. My mom brought out a brown package at the end of dinner and told L someone had left it for her on the porch. Staring suspiciously at her boyfriend, she opened the package only to find another box inside it, and another, and another…we all started staring suspiciously at H at that point. But the boxes kept getting smaller and smaller and soon it was too small to contain an engagement ring. He denied any knowledge the entire time. At the end, she got to a tiny box with a note in it, he got down on one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket and proposed. We were all in tears, it was so sweet! So now we have two weddings in the family to look forward to! Can’t wait! I love weddings.

Needless to say, all to this eating has been horrible on my diet and my running. I’d gotten up to a comfortable 18 miles before we left for Hawaii, didn’t run much in the subsequent weeks, and had to struggle through a 14 mile run yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll get back in shape soon. I’m really looking forward to this marathon and the new route, so I’d hate not to be ready for it!

We capped off a wonderful year of marriage with a wonderful weekend in San Diego.   We decided to celebrate our anniversary the same way we started our marriage – surrounded by friends – so  T and I drove down to SD on Saturday to meet up with one of my best friends, J, and her boyfriend, K, who were flying in from San Jose.   Actually, we kind of hijacked their planned trip and turned it into our one year anniversary celebration.  =) 

 T and I exchanged gifts on Friday, before heading out to SD.  I’d been adamant that I didn’t want to exchange gifts (my family’s never been much into the gift exchanges and I couldn’t think of anything to get).  However, at the last minute, I thought it’d be cute to make T a coupon book, with coupons in it for things like home-cooked meals and my attendance at sports events. Good thing I thought to do something since T, as usual, managed to surprise me with a romantic candle-lite dinner when I got home from work on Friday!  It was perfect, and harkened back to his proposal.  Best. Husband. Ever. 

On Saturday, we headed down to San Diego and spent most of the day at the San Diego Zoo, which I loved.  Zoos usually make me a little sad, but the SD Zoo is pretty spacious and the animals didn’t look at miserable at they do at other zoos.  Saturday night, we met up with J and K for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack and then went out for a fun night on the town.  J and K surprised us with a lovely bottle of champagn to celebrate our anniversary.  Best. Friends. Ever.

Sunday, we met up again with them for brunch and then walked along the harbor and explored Seaport Village before heading back home (with a quick visits to T’s cousins in San Clemente on the way).  The weather was perfect the entire weekend.  Sunny with a nice breeze.  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate our first anniversary.  Same time next year guys?  =)

We had such a lovely Labor Day weekend.  Although we’d originally planned to visit my family in San Jose over the three day weekend – seriously, every phone call home starts with “When are you coming to visit?” nowadays – T had to work on Monday so we decided to stay in LA. 

The weekend started off with a good (albeit hot) 8 mile run with the Leggers on Saturday.  I’m really enjoying the challenge of running with a faster pace group.  Then T and I headed downtown to grab lunch at Kendall’s (we made the mistake of getting their french onion soup – ick) before seeing a matinee showing of the musical Spamalot.  I had been wanting to see it for ages and really enjoyed it, especially since we got $20 tickets the day of the showing instead of purchasing $90 tickets beforehand.  T, however, was a little disappointed because he remembered the source material much better than I did and felt the musical was too repetitive.

On Sunday, we went to a beach party in Long Beach.  The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot.  The party was on the peninsula, in a protected enclave facing the bay.  The water was warm(ish) and peaceful.  We brought our canopy and beach chairs and enoyed the day with good food and friends.  It was relaxing.

Sunday night we met up with some other friends at a houseparty, where we continued to stuff ourselves silly.  Fortunately, on Monday, T and I headed to the gym after work and ran off some of the food we’d eaten!

And on a totally random note, I started using body butter daily years ago, after my littlest sis L pointed out that my skin resembled that of an alligator’s, and have recently discovered a new body butter which I love.  It’s cheaper than the body butter I usually get from The Body Shop, it’s thick and creamy, doesn’t feel greasy and smells great. 

Happy belated 4th of July everyone!  I’m running a litle behind schedule with the posting this month.  T and I had a wonderful 4th, even though he had to work that day.  We were able to put together a last minute BBQ with friends in the evening and then walked over to the marina to watch fireworks and stayed up way too late singing karoke.  We’re going to try and make this a yearly tradition.  Last year, we went with my friend D and brought Alfie, but since Alfie didn’t seem particularly interested/concerned about the fireworks, we left him home this year. 

Heading to NYC tomorrow for my friend L’s wedding.  T’s never been, and the summer I spent in NYC seems like a lifetime ago, so we booked a private walking tour which I’m really excited about.  It’s gotten some ridiculously good reviews.  I hope our expectations aren’t too high!  Talked to my friend M, who’s been very graciously helping us coordinate our trip, and she advised me to bring an umbrella.  Umbrella?  In June?  What a crazy city.

Sorry for the lack of posts.  It’s been a busy month.  To start, T organized a fantastic dinner with friends at C&O, followed by drinks at Glow, a lovely outdoor bar in Marina del Rey, to celebrate my 31st birthday this month.  I got some wholly unexpected but totally awesome gifts. 

The following weekend, T’s mom and his aunt visited on their drive down to San Clemente for their niece and nephews’ (T’s triplet cousins) high school graduation.

This past weekend, we went to a super-cute picnic wedding, complete with fun picnic games like a 3-legged race and an egg relay.  Since the bride was one of T’s best friends from college, we had several of T’s college friends staying over at our place as well as tons of guests hanging out the entire weekend.  It made for a fun, but tiring, weekend.  Sadly, I was inevitably the first to call it a night – although I should mention I’m at least two years older than they are! 

Also visited the korean taco truck for the first time – and on a day they were giving out free tacos for a promotion at that!  Yay for free yummy food! (Updated to add: They were parked in front of Westwood Brew Co., so after lunch we drove through UCLA and reminisced about how easy college was compared to real life.) 

Looked at some houses for sale.  Since housing prices are at record lows, it’s tempting, but we still can’t really afford a house we want in a location we want, so for now, it remains a pipe dream.

In between all this, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make our condo more homey.  We had an interior designer, recommended by a friend of ours, come by and consult with us for an hour, which was surprisingly helpful.  I’m hunting for some pieces she recommended and trying to schedule a date to have some of our rooms painted (the task of choosing paint colors was a large part of this month’s activities).

I’ve been busy traveling the last two weekends and preparing for guests the next three weekends.  T and I were in SF for T’s cousin’s wedding in Golden Gate Park over Memorial Day weekend.  I, as usual, was drastically unprepared for the weather.  I have a knack for packing the exact opposite of what I’ll need on any given trip.   This time, it was much colder than the cool to slightly chilly weather I was expecting and the warm weather I was hoping for and packed for.

Weather aside, it was a great weekend.  The couple, who are both in med school and are self-proclaimed geeks, had so many sweet, personal touches to their wedding and the events surrounding it.  Their rehearsal dinner had a fun trivia game component.  Their ceremony involved the mixing of chemicals in a beaker.  Their reception was at a great organic, vegetarian restaurant overlooking the water.  Post-wedding activities included breakfast and a Giants game (they are huge fans).  It made me want to go back and do our wedding weekend all over again!  =)

This past weekend, I went to Cabo with the Quad for our 5th Annual Quad Trip. Since K is getting married in November, this year’s trip served a duel purpose as both a reunion trip and a bachelorette party.  I had a blast!  The weather was perfect.  Sunny with a nice warm breeze the whole weekend.  The girls got in Wednesday/Thursday and I arrived on Friday.  Although Cabo was less busy than during my previous visits (presumably because of fears over the Swine Flu and increased violence in Mexico), there were just enough people around for it to be festive without being overwhelming.  Plus, we discovered this wonderful, relatively secluded, beach which I’d never been to before.

This upcoming weekend, T’s high school friends are coming to town and staying with us.  Then T’s mom is stopping by the following weekend on the way to T’s triplet cousins’ high school graduation.*  And then one of T’s best friends from college is getting married in LA and many of T’s college friends are staying over.  The next month will be a whirlwind but I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!   (Although the prospect of having that many visitors in the next few weeks really makes me wish we’d actually gotten around to painting/decorating our place and hiring someone to clear our place, as we’ve been discussing for months!)

* Sadly, I have to miss our HLS birthday weekend/reunion in Virginia this weekend!  =(  Unfortunately, it’s just too many trips in too short a span (we’re also going to NY for a wedding in July).  I hope you girls have a wonderful time and will fill me in on your adventures!

Wedding season has started!  We went to our first one this past weekend in San Francisco.  One of my best friends from law school, R, got married at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square.  We had such a fabulous time.  I got a chance to catch up with lots of old dear HLS friends and T, to his surprise, managed to enjoy himself despite not knowing many of the guests (the open bar probably helped).  It was the first wedding after our own that we’ve attended and I was looking forward to being a guest.  Putting together our wedding has given me a greater appreciation for the effort that goes into organizing one and I enjoyed all the little touches that I probably wouldn’t have noticed before.

We also got to spend some time with my family, which was lovely.  I’m touched anew each time I see how well T gets along with them.  My grandmother, despite severe back pain, looked fairly healthy.  (She adores T.  I think it’s because he always remembers to greet her in Vietnamese and smiles when she talks to him in Vietnamese like he understands.)  We also got to spend a lot of time with my parents and my sisters and their boyfriends, which was great.   Despite some snafu’s – I had to make a last minute trip to the mall to buy a new dress for the wedding since my sisters confirmed mine was entirely too informal for an evening wedding in SF and T forgot his dress pants in LA which necessitated a second last minute trip to the mall just as we were supposed to head up to SF for the wedding – the weekend couldn’t have gone better.

I love Facebook. I love letting my friends and family, whom I don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like, know what’s going on in my daily life and finding out what’s going on in theirs. It’s those daily details that keep people close. It’s the reason I started this blog in the first place.

I also love getting a voyeuristic peek at what’s going on in the lives of people I’ve lost touch with in the past 10 years. However, I’m starting to feel that my friends and I live in a bubble. No one in my social circle has kids, yet it seems that everyone I’ve reconnected with, mostly old high school friends, has a baby. Which makes sense since we’re entering our 30’s, but still feels weird. Sigh. I guess our 30’s are really our adult years, whereas our 20’s were clearly just a practice run.

I know most of my readers (Hello??? Anyone out there?) probably don’t celebrate the lunar new year, but I figure everyone appreciates a do-over, so for those of you who have already failed to meet your new year’s resolutions (like me), consider today a do-over. =)

To celebrate the lunar new year and usher in the Year of the Ox, T and I spent the weekend in San Jose with my family. T may be the best husband ever. He was very good natured about the fact that my parents keep the house at artic temperatures (it’s often much colder in the house than outside). He stoically dealt with my little sister’s cat, to which he is severly allergic. He was great at engaging my parents in conversation, despite only understanding 1/2 of what my dad says, and very sweet with my grandmother, who doesn’t understand anything he says.

Despite the bone chilling cold, we had a nice visit. My parents love to feed us and we love to eat, so during the day and a half we were home, we had dim sum, crab, fried shrimp, filet mignon, and a traditional Vietnamese beef dish. For dessert we had friend bananas and cream puffs. We were definitely waddling onto the plane.

Unfortunately both of my sisters had to work over the weekend, so we didn’t get to see much of them. They’re also in the process of moving out of the house. Little Sis B is finalizing the paperwork on her first townhome and is waiting for construction to finish. Littlest Sis L is moving in with her, as are both of the boyfriends. In the interim, they’re all moving into an apartment (for complicated reasons having to do with the boyfriends’ leases expiring). I feel a little sad that we’re the only ones not part of this little clan, but T doesn’t seem to mind.

My co-workers threw T and I a wedding shower today. It was really sweet. Since most of my them have never met T, and he had the day off, I had asked him to swing by. He was the hit of the party. Several co-workers dropped by afterwards to tell me how charming he is and to comment that he was such a good sport about the entire office grilling him for an hour. =)

I’m actually a little overwhelmed by how generous everyone (my co-workers most recently, but certainly my friends and family) has been, both with their time and money. I can only hope to be as nice to the people in my life as they are to me.

Had a phenomenal bridal weekend. My friends and family outdid themselves putting together my bridal shower and bachelorette party. I am incredibly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

My fabulous sister B organized the bridal shower, which included overseeing the “staff” (including my littlest sister L, both B and L’s boyfriends, my Quad friends, and T), preparing a delicious array of food (from scratch!),* and crafting amazing decorations. B spent months coming up with the menu, doing test runs on the dishes, and hand making the decorations. My sisters and their boyfriends (aka, “laborers”) all drove down from San Jose Friday and got up early Saturday morning to finish preparing for the shower.

My Quad friends organized the bachelorette party. They rented a bi-level suite in Long Beach and decked it out in an Hawaiian theme. The party started out in the suite and then moved to the Mai Tai bar, where they’d rented out a booth and surprised me with a special cake (pictures of which are NSFW). =)

The bridal shower:

The bachelorette party:

And here’s poor Alfie, pooped after an exhausting weekend of entertaining. =)

* To be specific, she made crab rangoon,  chicken salad sandwiches, egg salad sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, cucumber sandwiches, spinach dip, bite sized nachos, mushroom tarts, brownies, french macaroons, mini pies, pear champagne cupcakes, and tiramisu.  And for drinks, she made white wine sangria, lemon spritzers, and mimosas!

In an effort to avoid boring everyone with the details of the wedding planning, and in order to maintain some element of surprise, I’ve resisted the urge to post pictures of all the cute projects I’ve been working on. However, I haven’t been able to stop shoving my wedding projects in the face of anyone unfortunate enough to enter our home in the last several months! This may be a problem as my bridal shower/bachelorette party is this weekend and half my wedding guests will be over at our place. T thinks I should put my projects under lock and key so I don’t end up forcing everyone there to admire them. =)

Wedding planning is picking up with a little over two months to go. We’re facing a bit of an upheaval in the wedding party because one of T’s groomsmen (who is starting medical school in Ohio) just got his exam schedule and found out he has an exam scheduled for the day of the wedding. We’d obviously understand if he can’t make it, but he’s super sweet and is trying to see if he can get it changed. He also happens to be the father of the ring bearer so things are a bit in the air there but I imagine it’ll sort itself out soon enough.

In any case, we took a break from wedding related stuff to hang out with friends this weekend. Two of my favorite people happened to be visiting from out of town (Tucson and New York) so I got to spend some quality time with them, as well as catch up with a couple of other local friends I haven’t seen in too long. We went to the beach, watched fireworks (Alfie barely reacted to them at all), had brunch on the marina, dinner downtown, and people over for a barbeque (with food provided by another lovely friend!). I also did an 11 mile run on Friday and cleaned house on Sunday! It was a glorious, fun, productive weekend and I wish it were longer.

While in line at Chipotle on a Monday night. . .

T: Psst. Hey, do you think that girl in front of us has gotten a nose job or something? Something looks off.

Me: No. She just has tons of makeup on which looks weird ’cause it’s Chipotle and it’s a Monday night and she’s wearing sweats.

T: Oh. Yeah, I think that’s it. You’re so much better at being catty than I am.

Me: Well, you’re still learning.

So yeah, we’re catty. And we were at Chipotle last night. The weather was gorgeous Monday so we’d gone biking earlier in the day and felt semi-justified in the indulgence. Rest assured, I was looking properly sloppy and makeup-less! =)

Aside from Chipotle’s, I had a very bad weekend invoving many meals out and off of my diet. (At least I made my 11 mile run on Sunday!) T’s friend was in town for the weekend so we met up with him and his new girlfriend for dinner Saturday and Sunday. We may have gone to In-N-Out one of those days and I may have gotten a hamburger and fries animal style. (Sooo good. The sauce makes the fries all soggy, just the way I like them!) I went shopping with my girlfriends Sunday morning so there may have also been a visit to a food court (where nothing healthy is ever to be found). And somewhere in between all of this, I may have polished off a box of truffles a friend of mine had given me. (Shhh, T doesn’t know about the truffles. . . ) Ugh. Feeling a little sick and chubby today! Not good since I have to pick up my too-tight wedding dress next weekend.

Aside from eating and shopping, I saw Indiana Jones with T and his brother. We thought about sticking around for the new Narnia movie, but were too tired. (Okay, truth to tell, my back starts to hurt after an hour of sitting in a movie theater so I wasn’t feeling it. Is this a sign of what’s around the corner from my 30th birthday?). The movie was okay in case you’re interested.

Also, I finished the envelope liners for our wedding invitations!! Yay!

I did not finish (or even start) any of the Economists piling up on our coffee table. Boo. It turns out our friends are right. There’s definitely a certain sense of guilt that develops from not reading the Economist after one subscribes to it. It’s like not doing your homework. Well, maybe this weekend. . .

And I’m not ashamed to admit it. T, on the other hand, apparently still likes to pretend he’s cool. =)

We’ve both been reading and enjoying the first book in this sci-fi/fantasy series (which may be coming out as a movie next year). As is often the case in sci-fi/fantasy books, dragons play a pivotal role. I casually brought up, over lunch at Baja Fresh, that I had a question about how the dragons in the book learn English.

Rather than respond, T briefly froze, then quickly looked around the room, mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and hurried us out of the restaurant (fortunately, we’d finished eating!). Apparently bringing up dragons in public is a huge social taboo because it outs him as a dork. Or at least the guy eating with a dork. =)

Ugh, how is it Monday already? This weekend has flown by. We had a lot of fun and got a ton done (but left even more undone). I’m feeling exhausted today. It probably didn’t help that I skipped my long run this weekend, and my shorter run this morning, and have been eating badly the last couple of days.

T’s high school friends came to town on Friday so we had dinner with them and then played video games all night (which I realize doesn’t sound super exciting but considering we’re often in bed by 9:30 on a Friday night, this was quite an adventure).

Saturday, we hung out with his friends at our place. Then while the boys went off to play football, I started putting together our wedding programs.* Later that day, we met with our friend H for engagement pictures at UCLA. We also tried to take some on the beach in Malibu at sunset but were thwarted by the fact that the sun sets behind a mountain in Malibu and there were no pretty beach pictures to be had. After chasing the sun for an hour, we all got frustrated and gave up, opting instead to have a nice, relaxing dinner at Duke’s.

On Sunday, we met up with T’s friends again for lunch before they headed out of town. Then we ran errands. Or tried to. We successfully bought a new desk chair, hairdryer, laser level and stud finder. We failed to find any dog adoption fairs (although we found several cat ones), failed to buy a rug (the one we liked having been discontinued), and failed to buy a doormat (last one in the store was damaged). Since we’re spoiled and things weren’t going our way 100%, we sulked a bit.

Fortunately, we perked up in time to meet up with H again. H, being a phenomenal friend, had volunteered to rescheduling our Malibu beach picture session. Unfortunately, we may have choosen the windiest day of the year to try and take beach shots. Nevertheless, I wore my cutest sun dress and tried to smile through the pain as ferocious winds whipped past us. Lucky for us, H is a genuis and the pictures turned out great!

* I’m kind of enjoying the craftsy aspects of the wedding, although the programs have been more work than I intended, mostly in tracking down the specific discontinued paper I’m using for the cover. Even that’s been fun since I find it satisfies my neurotic, obessive compulsive side. However, it may not so much for my friends, whom I’ve sent out on a massive paper hunt.  Luckily for them, I recently tracked some sheets down in Malaysia so I’m only 10 sheets away from calling off the hunt!

Just got back from a fantastic trip with my Quad friends! This marks our fourth annual Quad trip. A few years ago, the four of us were able to get away for a weekend trip to Vegas. We realized during the trip that since we see each other so seldomly throughout the year, and usually with significant others and friends in tow, we really needed to make an effort to spend some quality time reconnecting and strengthening our 19-year friendship. History alone wouldn’t always be enough.

So far, we’ve been to Vegas (’05), Tahoe (’06), and Santa Barbara (’07). This year we went to Mendocino. Just north of Napa, Mendocino has gorgeous bluffs and beautiful vineyards scattered between some amazing redwood forests.

On Saturday, we went hiking along the bluffs, got massages and facials, had a delicious dinner at the Stevenswood Spa Resort (the cute bed and breakfast where we were staying), and played a rousing game of Taboo. On Sunday, we went on a wine tour and sampled wines at Husch, Lazy Creek, Navarro and Esterlina, had a picnic at one of the vineyards, relaxed in the hot tub when we got back, grabbed dinner in Mendocino, and roasted s’mores in the wood-burning fireplace in our room (um. . . but definitely did not set off any fire alarms. . . twice).

Between it all, we took a ton of cheesy pictures (thanks to the indispensable gorillapod!), caught up on a year’s worth of life and made memories to sustain us until the next trip. Love you girls!

My parents and T’s mom finally had a chance to meet at a lovely BBQ hosted by T’s mom this Saturday. My parents brought the meat (three different kinds of beef) and T’s mom provided the setting and the sides. The Fresno weather cooperated and gave us a beautiful sunny day in which to sit and feast. Aside from introducing my mom by the wrong name (I inadvertantly introduced her by her last name rather than her first – What? I rarely call her anything but “Mom”!), it turned out to be a great first meeting. And, as always, Buddy Lee (see below) was a big hit.

Sunday, we went to Yosemite, which was a first for me. Still covered in a blanket of snow, it was beautiful. I’m looking forward to another trip back in the spring, when we can bike and hike around without fear of losing fingers to frostbite.

Oh, and somewhere between all this loveliness and fun, we made the mistake of seeing Jumper, despite being warned by several people that it was the worst movie ever made. I wish we had listened because it’s two hours of my life I won’t be able to get back. In fact, I still have haunting visions of suffering through this movie. Please, for your own sanity, do not see this movie.