The world of Podcasting

In the past month or so, I have discovered Podcasts (and ebooks).
I mainly started listening to these with the idea that I could listen to them at the gym. I have ended up mainly listening to them while I am working, and not at the gym (that's another topic, entirely, see below).

Podcasts are kind of fascinating. I have started listening to:
The LOST podcast with Jay and Jack
The Dawson's Creek podcast

Those that know me know that I love D.Creek, and I think it's intersting that this podcast is aired by another D.Creek fan. What's more intersting is that this just started airing last year (even though the show has been off the air since about 2003). That means that there are other D.Creek fans who still love the show, and there are other D.Creek fans who actually listen to this even though the show is in syndication. Amazing, and see, I am not the only freak. Although I may be 10 years older - but hey, it's keeping me young!

I have also realized that I cannot listen to something well, and do anything else at the same time. I'm not counting mindless listening to the radio or humming along to a tune while you do chores. I should have known I would have this problem when I noticed that I cannot talk on the phone and have anyone else talk to me at the same time. I can only listen to one person at a time, and usually the one who is louder wins. But while I have this podcast on - I notice that I stop typing, then I sit back in my chair, and then I realize 20 minutes has past and my screen saver is whirling around. And when I notice that I have been able to keep tying and get some work done, I have not listened to a word of this podcast and must rewind the entire thing. Those people that work and listen to eBooks, how do you do it?

Anyway, I have found another mindless way to pass the time, and I need to start listening to these at the gym - that is my March resolution!
Also , does this mean that any old Joe Bloe can air a podcast? Will there someone in the universe who will listen to any silly old topic that someone wants to talk about? Hmmmm, maybe I can start "A day in the life of Chewie and the Bear"...

A walk in the clouds

This past weekend, Scott decided we needed a weekend away. He just got back from his 2 week business trip, and had a 4 day weekend to enjoy. I didn't have a 4 day weekend, but we decided to kennel the dogs and spend the weekend in Temecula wine country. We have been meaning to do this for a couple of years, and finally made it out there for a tasting.

We stayed the night at the South Coast Winery, and their villas were very nice. I loved how they were each separate rooms with no sharing walls. This means that you had no neighbor's walking heavy above you, or loud neighbors next door (like we do at home most nights...). There was a bottle of wine for us in the room, and Jacuzzi tub.

We started Saturday out with a wine tasting, and it shocked me how Temecula wine country has turned into the bar scene of he SD area. It was packed, and you had to fight for a place up at the tasting bar. There were people drunk, and loud, and just hanging out. Granted, I had a buzz going after our 5 tastings (and the 2 extras that she gave us), but I don't think I would just hang out in there. There is a separate area with tables for Wine Club members, which we were considering (and still are), and I could see myself hanging out there for a few hours on a nice day. If we actually lived in Temecuala (which we did find our dream started home out there 3 years ago), we would definitely be part of the wine circuit.

We then headed over to the restaurant for a little appetizer and a bottle of wine. After relaxing for a bit, we headed back later that night for a superb dinner. Scott had the Lamb chops, and I had veal and beef riggi's. It was excellent, and worth the drive out here for a nice dinner out (more reason to become a club member).

Sunday was our tour of the winery, and it has sparked the dream of having a vineyard in both of us again. We learned a lot from the tour guide, and ended the tour with a tasting and tips about pairing wine and food. We learned that the sweet wines I like (like the white Germans that we always buy) go really well with spicy food. Scott knew a lot of the workings of the winery because of his Gallo experience, and I think we should start looking for jobs or ways we can become active at the wineries in Temecula (it's not that far of a drive).

On our way back home, we stopped at one other winery for a tasting, and in comparison to where we just were, it was on a different scale completely (small, with 2 people working the tasting room, and nothing fancy about it at all) and the wine was not as great in my opinion either (I didn't say, let's buy a bottle to any of them). Maybe I was wine'd out by this point in the weekend, but I wouldn't want to go back there.

The man who owns the vineyard for South Coast bought the land only due to his father's pressure to buy it. It sat there for years, and he saw the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" and thought that his land looked a lot like that setting. So he went out and tested the soil and now has this thriving vineyard (the largest in Temecula).
I think I'm going to go out back and test our soil now :-)

Jan, Feb, March - oh my!

I bought this little planner (pocket size, really) so that I can keep track of the things that are happening, the things that I need to do, etc. I am managing to write things down in it, but then forget it on my desk and end up never taking it with me. But it's a start, and I have 10 more months this year to perfect the idea of keeping a planner (right now, I just know that I need to go to work at 7am, and then my Outlook calendar keeps me in check).

But it's nice to see the things that we have done, and the things that are coming up this year. Now, there is no excuse for forgetting to put key events in Scott's Xmas letter. I will proof read his letter with my planner in hand.

After our great trip to NYC, I got sick - the worst sick I've been since moving here. I blame it on the East Coast weather, which is why I am even more adamant about not moving away from SD :-) It knocked me out for about 2 weeks, and I spend a good number of days in bed.

I was still slightly ill, but recovered enough to head over to a NFL Playoff game (to watch the Giants win) and then we headed to the House of Blues to see Social Distortion. It was a sold out show, and I was glad to see the mix of demographics in the audiense. I didn't want to be the oldest in the crowd (which we definitely weren't since this band started when I was 2 years old), and we weren't the youngest either (since they can still sell out every show). It was great, and Scott really liked them. I wasn't sure how much he would enjoy it, since he didn't know them too well, but he is now a big Social D fan.

They have Reastaurant Week here in SD, which they also had in DC and we used to love it. Basically, restaurants put together a fixed price 3 course menu, so that you have the opportunity to dine at some really nice places for a reasonable price (although one of our restaurants still came out to a $200 dinner with wine). We ate at the Hotel Del, 1500 Ocean Restaurant. It was very good, and we each had a wine sampler which I think was the best part. We each left dinner that night with 3 glasses of wine, and I have a new favorite Chardonnay. At the end of the week, we went out with some friends to Pacifica Del Mar, a seafood restaurant in Del Mar. It was highly recommended, and the food was excellent. My only complaint is that I thought it was going to be right on the water - but the pictures were deceiving and we were actually off the 101.

We decided to throw a Superbowl party at our house, and went all out with over 100 wings, pizza, lots of munchies, and Giants decorations. I think it was our balloons and good mojo that sparked the win. Way to go Giants!

The week after the game, Scott left for a 2 week business trip. You know, 2 weeks seems like nothing now, and it's actually kind of a nice change of pace to have 2 weeks to myself (with dogs, who slept on the bed with me of course). I lost 4 lbs that trip - I think it's becuse Scott wasn't home to cook for me. But by Wed of week 2, I was definitely ready for my hubby to come home. while Scott was away, I drove up to Santa Monica to meet up with Tricia who was in town for the Grammy's (I know, how do you get her job, right?) and I caught up with Steven, who I hadn't talked to since our wedding. Needless to say, we had lots to catch up on!

That pretty much takes us right into March, and I can't believe how fast time is flying! We ended the month of Feb with my parents over for dinner, and Scott made his (now becoming a fav) lamb stew. My parents then left for a trip to Alaska, and I can't wait to hear all about it when they get back.

Having a planner is coming in handy - and it is making me plan lots of fun things for us to do! We've got Def Leppard coming up this summer, and hopefully many more fun things to come.

Happy New Year! a little late, I know

I know, but better late than never, right?

To catch the 1.2 people who read this blog up to date - we spend New Years in cold New York city. It was soooooo cold, but a very fun trip! We got to see lots of good friends and family, we ate spectacular food, and overall it was a great way to bring in the new year (although no one wanted to play Singing Bee with me).

Day 1 and 2:
We had a very easy and drama free trip for San Diego to LaGuardia. Poor Keith and Kara just got back from their cruise that day, and this was their second trip to LGA which was the most crowded I have ever seen it. That's what you get for flying on a holiday, huh?
The next Day (New Years Eve) we toured around Queens and Garden City. We then celebrated the New Year at Casa de Weinsaft. Kara made an amazing dinner that night (which I still need the recipe for).

Day 3 and 4:
On New Years Day, we recovered from the night before, and then headed out to see Jeff's apartment near Mid-town. It was very nice and very small. Just yesterday, Scott and I were in a hotel room (I will post details of that shortly, not to worry), and said - Man, I think this hotel room is just a little bit smaller than Jeff's apartment. We concluded that as a single person, we could live there and get rid of all of our earthly material possessions. But married, no way in hell would we fit. That night we headed to Chinatown and had another great dinner with Bryan.
The following day consisted of walking around NYC, and finding the Saltena place in Queens. Mixed into our sightseeing was Keith's cupcake break - yummy, although when did cupcakes get so popular? We ended the night at Gotham Bar and Grill for dinner, another great meal.

Day 4 and 5:
The following day was the coldest day that I have experienced in about 3 years. It was miserable. And of course, that's the day that we walked all over the place in NYC (Pomme Frites was our wonderful break!). We had real coal over NY style pizza for lunch at Lombardi's, and ended the night in Brooklyn for dinner at Peter Luger. OMG, this was the best steak I think I have ever had, although it might have been the 2 drinks in me altering my perception. This was totally our kind of place, and we took the T-Bone home for the dogs to enjoy. They are big Peter Luger fans, too.
The next day we flew home (again, hassle free) and recovered from the trip and picked up the doggies from the kennel. Then, it was back to work and the start of 2008.

We'll have to see what kind of surprises 2008 has to bring - although it's been a very low key year so far (knock on wood).
Happy New Year!

Christmas came and went

Well, Merry Christmas.
It seems to have just come and gone in a flash. All the preparation, and the high hopes for "traditions", gone in just one day.
It was hard to get in the holiday spirit this year (as you can tell by my t-shirt). Scott says it's because it's so damn hot here (it was 75 on xmas day), but I think it's because we are getting older and that magic of Christmas is just gone. It might also be the fact that we are away from our families, and although I love you honey, us and the furry kids do not make a large and exciting family.

What was a very nice treat for me this year was that I got 2 whole days off work this year. SoftMed was a grinch and only gave us the 25th off, but 3M gives us both the 24th and 25th off! A 3 day work week is so nice, but I do seem swamped with trying to get everything taken care of and covered while we are out all of next week. There is only one site that I feel that I am leaving high and dry, since they are going live the week that I get back to the office - but I think they can handle it and they will be fine. If everything is not perfect for go-live, I really don't care too much - they will be little things anyway...

So we started the holiday season with getting a tree, and decorating it. Bear and Chewie had their fill of some ornaments, which you can clearly see the next morning on their bathroom breaks. I thought I was doing so well with Xmas shopping, and my goal was to get everything in the mail before Dec 15th. Well, although everything was purchased, it was the boxing and packing up that took us longer than expected. So after 3 trips to Postal Annex and 1 to USPS (and the equivalent in shipping costs than the total presents), we finally got everything packed and shipped only to learn that most things would arrive the day after xmas.

I really wanted to bake some bread (I got these adorable mini-loaf ceramic pans) and make some cookies (I actually bought a cookie press), but these did not get done in time to mail out to family. I finally made the bread on xmas eve, and guess who ate 2 whole mini-loaves of bread... Bear of course. I was pissed. So these cute ceramic pans will wait until next year to be given to a human. Another tradition that was not fulfilled this year was our snowboarding on xmas day. I woke up late, it was 75 degrees, and it just didn't seem worth it to make the trek out there. Oh well...
Scott's xmas letter this year was just not very funny - I really married more of a comic than comes across in the letter. And we missed some key highlights of the year! We went to Vegas (Scott's first time there, you think he would remember it and all those boobies), and he went sea fishing with my Dad in June. The summer was not entirely a boring job hunting summer.

We did have a very nice xmas eve with my parents and their friend Rich. It's very sad, he was all alone on xmas so my parents invited him over. He brought pictures of his grand kids to show us (they are in NC), and he was wearing a very festive red vest. Mom made a pork dish that was excellent, which is a traditional Bolivian dish. Who knew we had Bolivian traditions?! Needless to say, I have never had this pork dish at xmas.. so much for traditions, huh? It's funny - I am completely 100% my dad's daughter. We gave each other the same thing - a wine decanter gadget that decants as it pours out of the bottle. So we did a taste test and this thing really works! I love it!

Scott and I exchanged presents xmas morning - Santa was good to us, not so much to the naughty dogs. We then proceeded to chill the rest of the day and actually found an open grocery store to make my lasagna for dinner that night. Overall, a great xmas!

Now - onto 2008, and I am totally looking forward to our trip to NYC to ring in the new year with the Weinsafts. Woohoo!
Happy New Year everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My husband is making me update this blog. I am not doing thus under my own free will (those of you who know me, if I was doing this on my own this post would not show up for another 2 weeks).

We had a great Thanksgiving and the had a good past couple of weeks.
We started out Turkey day with the Oceanside Turkey Trot (5k). This was our second year running it, and my goal was to run the entire race without walking. I met my goal (it was not fun, considering we hadn't really trained in the weeks leading up to it), but we got through the whole thing in 36 minutes! That is great for me, and Scott's calves were sore the next day because he's a trooper and ran at my pace the entire way.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house (just for a lowly 4 people and 2 dogs). My parents came over and we had a great meal:
Smoked turkey breast, smoked on the outdoor grill
Honey Glazed ham
What is becoming our traditional stuffing (Scott calls it dressing)
Mom's whipped sweet potatoes
"Healthy" mashed potatoes - really, it's cauliflower
Colette's favorite Oceanspray cranberry sauce (jellied, of course)
Pumpkin cranberry bread
Pecan and pumpkin pie
Overall, a great time, and we finished off the evening by watching "Mr. Brooks", which was a very good movie to my surprise.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we went to LA to watch the Ohio State/Michigan game at our friend Eric's. It was a good weekend and we even brought the dogs. Billy and Amy had the baby over the weekend, but hopefully we'll get to meet her in the next week or two. It seems as if everyone we know is popping out babies this year.

Chewie got a new crate, and it lasted less than one week. She ate through the zipper on the front, so I had to sew it up, and now the only way in or out is through the top of the crate. Somehow, she still managed to get out of it last night. Scott is now calling her "Chewdini", a fitting name.

Well, it's time to bring out the "Ba humbug" t-shirt, and see what the rest of the year has in store for us.

Happy Halloween!!

As much as I think that my life if very ordinary and ho-hum, a lot has been going on in actuality.

First and Foremost - my wonderful husband's job search has come to an end! He has decided to play professional poker, and is going on tour starting in Nov. When he is not doing that, he is going to spend his days at the beach surfing :-)
Seriously? Seriously.
No - he is working for L-3 Communications as a defense/military contractor. He is working on base (again) and doing logistics/planning (again), but this time he gets to go to work as a civilian, and he can grow facial hair to his hearts content. He actually is clean shaven at the moment and is growing a nice head of hair in. Just this past weekend he complained about how "conservative" he looks with hair - but I think he's just getting used to it. All these month of hard work growing it out will pay off one day, and he'll find himself looking like Sawyer from Lost soon enough (speaking of Lost, I can't believe they are making us wait until Feb to start the new season!).

Next, on a sadder note - there were some "wicked" wildfires here in San Diego last week. We actually drove right into the fires in Ramona/Julian one day (out of pure stupidity). We were going to Julian to look around, buy some pies, etc, and as we were driving there we did see a huge smoke cloud in the distance. As we continued to get closer we knew it was a fire somewhere, but the roads were not closed. We kept driving, and we were about 10 miles from Julian when the smoke started to get very thick. People driving started to turn around, and people were pulling over and getting out of their cars. We thought we could continue to plow through, especially since we were so close, but then the car filled up with smoke and you could not see more than 1 foot in front of the windshield. Scott says that about 10 feet away there was a blaze - but I missed that. I think I would have freaked out if I actually saw fire. So we managed to turn around and then headed home. It wasn't until we got home that we learned the true gravity of the situation, and we were right there at the start of the Witch Creek Fire. For almost a week, every station has 24 hour coverage of the fires, the evacuations, and the disaster of it all. I must say, NBC San Diego is my favorite news station out here, and they did a great job.

Just to mention some of the things that we have been doing lately:
I just learned how to link URLs to my blog, so watch out!
We went to see the "Last Comic Standing" tour at Pala Casino. Very funny, although we wee bummed that Jon Reep was not on tour - we'll have to catch him later.
We went to see Colin Hay at The Belly Up - he is great, and puts on a wonderful show.

A big congratulations to the many people in our lives who are having children!
It seems like everyone is pregnant right now...

Here is a pic of our fat little devil - Happy Halloween!

Have you ever shot your gun in the air and screamed?

We have been trying to get out and about and do more things around here.
Since we are trying to stay in this area, and my big excuse for not wanting to leave has been "But I want to be close to the beach", we have tried to go to the beach more often. I do like it. Scott is trying to get into surfing and has bought his first surf board. He's not a Point Break surfer yet, but I'm sure he'll get there.
Talking of Point Break - we really liked the movie Hot Fuzz.

In the past couple of weeks, we have gone to see "Mama Mia" downtown, and have also gone to "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Moonlight Theater. It's kind of like Wolf Trap, but on a much smaller scale. The shows were excellent, and I really miss doing things like that. We are heading to a Padres game on Monday - so we really are trying to keep busy and entertained.

I can't believe fall is already here, and we are starting to train for the Thanksgiving 5k again this year. But what I'm really looking forward to our stuffing, yum!

Where is the time going to?

I am sitting here waiting for a phone call from someone at work, and I have a feeling that it is not going to come. But you know how as soon as you start doing something that you probably shouldn't be wasting your time on during working hours, the phone rings... and there you go, the phone just rang!

Anyway - The most exciting thing in May was Scott finally had his last day of work at USMC! He was able to take leave starting on May 15th, and we promptly went on a week vacation to Upstate NY to visit his family. Although his brother in law, Mike, is in Iraq right now, the family was once again intact.
On a sadder note, a week after our visit, Grandpa Major passed away. So Scott was back on a plane, and this time for a much sadder reunion. The family is doing well though, and everyone is back into their daily routine.

June - What a June! I had a birthday, and I am feeling slighly older. I think it's mainly due to the 10 lbs that I put on since Thanksgiving, but I am definitely feeling like I am well out of my 20s now.
Our good friends Keith and Kara moved away - so so sad. So we tried to see them as much as possible and had many dinners and "So you think you can dance" nights. But it didn't feel like goodbye at all - maybe it's because I know we will keep in touch with them and these are friends that we will surely have well into a ripe old age. They just happen to live a little further away now, that's all!
And Scott is winding down to his last official day in the Marine Corps on July 30. Kinda scary, considering he doesn't have a job lined up yet, but overall I am feeling fine and confident, and we won't be eating ramen noodles for at least another 2 weeks or so - so things are good!

I'll post some pictures shortly, and keep everyone updated. I think I have a pic of Scott with a beard somewhere around here...

Yard Sale Mentality

On Saturday, we had a yard sale. It was one of the strangest things that we have experienced out here.

I put an add in the paper to run on Thursday and Friday. We made signs, and have been collecting things to sell in our garage for the past month. We then got little price tag stickers and spent Friday night pricing all of our items. I must say that we were very organized for this yard sale. I went into it thinking that if we at least made $28, I would make back what I spend in the add.

The sale started at 7am on Saturday morning. I am not a morning person, so Scott was out of bed at 5:30 and getting things ready. He came up to wake me up at about 6am and said that we had stalkers in the front of our house. Of course, I didn't believe him - so it was finally that statement that got me out of bed and peering out of the window. No one was there - ha, I knew he was kidding.

Scott put the garage door up at about 6:45, then came inside to get his cup of coffee. When he went back outside, there was a man in our garage already looking at all of our stuff. When I came outside 5 minutes later, our entire set of pots and pans were already sold and the man was loading them into his truck. Over the next hour, a mass of people (mostly Mexicans, I think) came and bought the majority of our things. They really wanted to bargain, and we got talked down on most of our things. I found it odd, but the main tactic seemed to be for them to make a pile of things and say "If I buy all of this, how much will you charge me?". We added everything up individually, and normally lowered it by about $5, and that seemed to make them happy. Our best sale (although I think we could have gotten more money for it) was our 27" TV, the TV stand, and an old microwave for $80. Very quickly, we watched our belongings drive away...

People also came up to us and asked us if we had specific items. One person asked if we had any sleeping bags, and if I had found Scott's sleeping bag in the garage, it definitely would have been sold. Another person came looking for lamps, and another person asked for clothing. We didn't intent to sell any clothes, but when asked I immediately went upstairs and raided the closet for shoes and clothes that I could get rid of. Selling things is so addicting!

Overall, we made over $400, which is amazing! By 10am, people were just trickling in and we decided to shut down early at noon. It is strange though - they really just wanted our electronics and junk. All the nice thing that were in unopened boxes (picture frames, music boxes, wedding gifts) they couldn't care less about. They really wanted things like Scott's old suitcase that went around the world and had a 2" layer of dust on it. I wonder if we go to the flea market next week, if we will see all of things for sale for twice as much as we sold them... Oh well - I think we are going to have to this at least once a year to clean house!! It's so refreshing!

Latest updates

Scott has been bugging me for a while to update my blog. He said that there are so many things that we have done lately that it needs to be posted. OK - here goes.

First, I do want to say that I am horrified about the shootings at VA Tech, and that my thoughts are with Hokies everywhere, especially those in the Burg.

At the end of March, we went on a trip to Vegas with our friends Keith and Kara. It was a lot of fun, and it was also Scott's first time in Vegas. We stayed on Freemont, in the Golden Nuggett. It was so much nicer of a hotel than I imagined! I guess I was expecting an old hotel, since it was in the old part of town, but it was really nice and they just revamped the pool and put in a shark tank with a water tube slide. I did go down the slide - totally under duress. We gambled and lost a little - nothing too severe, but we are eating Ramen noodles for a couple of months :-) We also went to go see a show called Fantasy at the Luxor. Kara had a friend in the show, who hooked us up with tickets. We were in the second row, and yes, we saw lots of boobies (16 to be exact, over and over again). But it was a very funny and well put together show (we had no idea what to expect when we sat down). I must say that the grand finale of our trip was getting a bit tipsy at the pool bar while checking out of the hotel, and then going for dim sum at Ping Pang Pong! We had seen the billboard for this restaurant starting about 50 miles outside of Vegas, so we had to go see what it was all about. Overall, it was a great trip, and we need to go back again before we leave SoCal.

Scott had his Birthday last week - the big old 34! He didn't want to do anything special for his birthday, so we went out to dinner on Tuesday to Claim Jumper and got him a fattie steak. He asked "Are there going to be people waiting for us when we get there?". I didn't plan anything for your Birthday today, sorry hon. But notice the key word - Today. On Friday we went downtown to pick up my friend Kelli from the airport, and then moved onto Karl Strauss where his surprise party was waiting. I think he had a great time, and it is always wonderful to see him actually surprised and taken aback when things like this pull together. I must say - Kara and Keith went above and beyond ensuring that Scott had a great Birthday, with presents, balloons, and a cake. And of course, their company!! Kara and Keith - you have become such wonderful friends - I am really going to miss you a lot when you move this summer :-(

Scott went to a job fair this weekend, and things are looking ok on the job front these days. I think Scott was able to practice his interviewing skills, and feels much more comfortable with it now. I knew it would only take a couple of times for him to start feeling normal, and less nervous, during interviews. But as the weeks progress, I'm sure there will be more job hunting, interviews, and I'll keep you updated on our progress.

Chewie updates

Our little girl is getting big, and she is such a little devil. I think Bear is scared of her, sometimes!

Chewie got fixed at the end of February, and she did wonderful. She wore the cone for about 24 hours, and looked so adorable! She also had 4 teeth pulled, poor little thing. They said she was looking like Jaws, with adult teeth already all the way in her baby teeth right next to them. But by Day 2 she was a little devil and running around and hopping over gates. The vet said to keep her calm with no stairs or jumping for one week - it was impossible.

Yesterday, Chewie got her first grooming. I kind of miss her old hair - I even asked Scott if he was sure we got the same dog back. She just looks so old, and dare I say MATURE! But underneath it all she is still the same Chewie - who woke me up by howling in her crate as soon as Scott left for work.


Bear, on the other hand, is doing great, although I can tell he is suffering from Big Brother depression. He is much more docile, and he hates it when she runs after him and pesters him. the other day, he was trying to get away from her and he ran into something and split the side of his eye open. It was bleeding and looked nasty for about a day, and now it looks pretty touch. He looks like Poochy Balboa (our version of Rocky).

It's starting to get hot out here - it was 80 degrees yesterday. It's time to get the puppy swimming pool!

It's been a little dreary out here

Well, the past 4 weeks have brought much rain to the SD area. Although it seems like it has rained the majority of the days out here, it beats the 9 feet of snow that some areas of the country are getting. I have no complaints about rain.

We have had a busy past couple of weeks:
We have remodeled out downstairs bathroom, and I must say that it looks great. I think we should think about careers in general contracting. When we get done with this house, we will definitely have some good experience under our belt! The bathroom is now a deep red, has all new fixures, and we call it the "Rome" bathroom.

Chewie still provied daily entertainment, and furstrations for poor Bear. But she is a fat little monster now, and she has learned to go out of Bear's doggie door, and also to scale the baby gate that used to keep her confined to one floor of the house.

My friend Carrie came to visit for a weekend. It was great to see her and catch up, and it's also a little sad to think how different our lives are now, in comparison to those days that we saw each other every day in the old Bell Atlantic building. We are both married, living in different states, and have just been though career and life changes - with many more to come. I think I am just starting to feel old now, and this aching in my knees only reinforces that fact.

We did go snowboarding one more time with our friends Keith and Kara, who push us to our limits and past them. I think that is what we needed, and hopefully we will get at least one more day of boarding in before the spring weather catches up to us. We did make the drive out to Big Bear one weekend, but remember what I said about all that rain...

I had a very short (1 night) trip to DC for work this month, and I do not miss the constant travel that I used to do for SoftMed. It looks like there may be more frequent travel in my future, but it shouldn't be too bad just yet. Our company was acquired by 3M, so there are some changes in my immediate future. I am still finding out what all of those entail.

I think the most significant change that we are looking to make is Scott finding a new job. He was working on his resume yesterday, which is always the hardest and most tedious aspect of the job hunt. Don't worry honey, in a month there will be so much activity that time will fly by! So we are seeing where the job hunt will take us, but I have no doubt that we will find ourselves together and happy (just hopefully not cold the majority of the year!).

Come Here, Girlfriend

It cracks me up to hear Scott say this to Chewie. This seems to be his greeting everynight when he comes home from work, and he picks her up and says hello. I love seeing his interaction with her, and it puts no doubt in my mind that he is going to be an excellent dad one day.

Chewie, on the other hand, has become our little monster. She lives up to her name, and has all 3 of us (Bear inlcuded) crying out in pain when her sharp little teeth bite into us. She is so just so darn cute though, and with a swat of a hand(or paw) we can send her flying. But she always come back to try to get one more nibble at us.

Scott has been wanting me to post our snowboarding adventures. I think he would also love it if I posted pictures of my black and blue, swollen knees.
On MLK weekend, we rented a cabin at Big Bear and spent the weekend there with the dogs. The cabin was an adventure (we had 5 blankets on the bed), and we have discovered that the dogs do not like snow. They have been Californiazed. Bear would pick up one paw for 10 seconds, then switch paws, then switch back - too funny.

Scott is really picking up the boarding. Me, not so quickly. I still spend more time off my feet than on them, and if I don't fall getting off the chair lift - that makes for a good day. We did get helmets which saved our lives on these trips, and I am surprised that the helmets are still in one piece. But it is a lot of fun, and we are planning another trip next weekend. Maybe we'll be tackling the blacks be the end of the season!

Happy New Year

Well, our New Year celebration was very uneventful. Actually, one of our more mellow ones - but at least we were awake at the stoke of midnight.

On Thursday the 28th, we headed to LA for a couple of nights. We started the weekend off with a George Lopez concert. Scott likes to say he was the only gringo in the audience, but I'm sure there must have been at least one other. At the very least, the opening act was as gringo as you could get and he was very funny. George of course was hilarious, and once the girl sitting in front of us got kicked out in the first 10 minutes for being loud and rude, we enjoyed the rest of the show. She seemed to get very irritated when George made a comment about Taco Bell. Maybe she works there, but she was very offended and let everyone around her know she was offended.

We spend Friday at Universal Studios, which was a lot of fun. We then met up with my friend Adrian and his fiance, and Eric and his friend for dinner and drink. I somehow ended up drinking way too much and had a horrible hangover the next morning. Scott said that I fell asleep in bed sitting up with all my clothes on, holding a glass of water. I'm a talented drunk - there were no spills! We were your typical tourists on Saturday, then headed home for a relaxing rest of the weekend.

The hotel in which we stayed at was very nice, and infested with Storm troopers. Yes, Storm troopers (oh yeah, and lots of Rose Bowl parade band members). But Scott rode the elevator with 2 storm troopers, and I felt that of all places to be in the galaxy, this was definitely the most intersting. I will post a picture soon of a car that was parked in the lot - R2D2 was watching the car while it's driver was checking into the hotel. Strange, but it was a very neat experience. Apparently, there were hundreds of Storm Troppers in town, since George Lucas was the Rose Bowl parade grand marshal.

Happy New Year, and may the force be with you...

Christmas #2 - another success

We had a great Christmas. This is our second Christmas since we got married, and I think we are off to a great set of traditions.

We started the season by getting our Christmas tree at the same lot on El Camino.
The guys there are nice, and they had a big selection of trees to choose from.
We bought a new stand this year, which is exactly like our old one that we threw away, and just as difficult to screw together. The tree is on the side table in the living room, where we attempt to keep the lower branches and ornaments out of dog reach.

We decorated the tree with all of our ornaments, and we got some new ones this year from Scott's mom. We decided that the Outdoor Santa ornament is going to be the first one we hang each year. We even wrote it on the bottom of the ornament so that we don't forget. It's the ornament that we got from Scott's mom the year that we got engaged, appropriate me thinks. Then we decided that the last ornament to be hung should be the Xmas pickle. The piano again holds all the cards that we received, even the one from our realtor.

Scott wrote our annual letter, and we got most of our cards in the mail by Dec 15th. That is a great accomplishment. It was a challenge to take the picture this year, though. Bear was not cooperating, and when we finally got a decent picture, it came out blurry. So after about 20 tries, we got one that isn't great, but we are at least all looking at the camera.

We baked cookies this year, and although we baked in complete silence because we were both in bad moods, the cookies came out great. Last year we didn't bake any cookies, which explains why we have 3 full bags of sugar in the pantry just waiting to be used. We need to remember not to buy any more sugar for the next 2 years...

We had Xmas eve dinner with my folks, and the meal was excellent. We had ham, a new recipe for sweet potatoes, a modified version of our mashed "potatoes",and of course white rice... :-)

And what is becoming my favorite Z-tradition, we went snowboarding on Xmas day. This year we went to Mtn. High, which they advertise as the closet mountain to us. It was a good day, although we never made it off the green slopes. Scott is doing great and can carve his way down the hill now, but I can't seem to get comfortable on my toe edge. So I just C-turn all the way down using my back edge. Inefficient, but it gets me there. By the time the sun started to come down, it started to get cold and icy, so we called it quits and went for hot chocolate. Today, I can barely walk and my arms won't go past shoulder level, but it was a great time.

Merry Xmas, and here's to a wonderful New Year!

Doggie in a mousetrap

So, have you ever heard of those mousetraps that you put down, and they are just flat with lots of glue? The objective is to have the mouse run on it, get stuck, then you throw it out.

Well, we put one of these traps in between the counter and the fridge, since we though we saw a mouse in the house. Of course, Bear couldn't get his big toe in this spot to save his life. But Chewie on the other hand, not so bright.

Maybe it's because we give our dog's peanut butter and the glue is Peanut Butter scented.
Maybe it's because she is becoming a little monster and runs around the house like she owns it.
Maybe it's because she's little and just doesn't know better.

But yesterday I hear Scott yelling for my help, and when I come into the kitchen he is holding the mousetrap and Chewie's front paws are glued to it. He peels her off, and puts her down on the floor, and she gets stuck to the floor. It is hilarious. She pulls really hard, uunsticks one paw, then puts it down and gets stuck again.
So we had to wash her paws and ended up having to cut all the hair with glue off. I was looking at her this morning, and she still has lots of glue on her right paw. I guess it will eventually wear off.

Chewie, the purchase of the month

Well, we have added a new member to the Zelesnikar household. We picked up a little Brussels Griffon, and have decided to name her Chewie. She is a 5 lb. puppy, who is about 4 months old. Bear doesn't really know what to do with this new addition, but he is handling it very well so far.

We started the morning at the store in Escondido, and they had a Brussels that was already sold. They said that they have a wish list that I could put my name on, and one of the girls suggested that they call the other store in Carlsbad to see if they had any Brussels. They did, put her on hold for us, and we went to go take a look.
When we got there, they brought out a little black and tan Brussels, who was very tiny. We played with her for about a half hour, and were trying to decide if we wanted to take her home. We weren't in love with her, but I was seriously considering it. When we asked for more information and the price, they took us by surprise and said that there was another Brussels in the back who was recovering from kennel cough. They brought her out, and Scott's attitude perked right up. I knew then that this was the little puppy that we had been waiting for. She also has a little shaved part of her leg, where they have her an IV when she had pneumonia. I don't know what it is - maybe we are just suckers for little dogs that have been sick.

Anyways - we decided to take her home, and now Bear has a little sister. I have the feeling that she is going to terrorize him once she gets used to the house. She was pretty calm and sedate all weekend, but is now starting to perk up and want to play a little more. She seems to like biting Bear's tail and then running away.

I was really looking for a boy dog - but I am so happy that we got her. It is so much fun to be able to buy pink items and dress her up. I got her a little pink carry case (that looks like an Uggs bag, with fake shearling), and I got her a little sweater. She is so cute!! As much as I hate to admit that I have a little purse dog, I am really enjoying this...

My first 5k - woohoo!

Yes, I actually put on a pair of shorts and sneakers and went running.
This summer I got the brilliant idea of running in the Oceanside Turkey Trot 5K. It was Thanksgiving morning, and the slogan was "Move your feet before you eat". I thought it was a great idea, it would give me a goal to work towards and would maybe make me loose some weight.

So of course, I didn't train as much as I wanted to. I went running maybe once a week since Scott got home. But as much as I didn't want to run this anymore when the big day came, we went out there and did it. I did walk a little bit each mile, but got through the 3.1 miles in 39 minutes. That's a record for me!

Scott got me the cutest little running shorts, and I want to continue running. It would be nice to do another 5K (with the goal being not to walk at all), then do a 10K, then maaaaaybe work my way up to a marathon. I heard the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Diego is awesome. We'll see - baby steps...

James Blunt night

Last night we went to see James Blunt in concert. It was a really good show, and it was not as mellow as I expected. Most of his songs are on the mellow and slow side, but he threw some fast paced songs in there, and he is a highly entertaining performer. And the best part of the show is when he wipped out "Where is my mind" by the pixies, with a set background behind the band of a blazing fire. This definitely makes me think of James Blunt in a new way - not only do I think of him as a person who must constantly be high (with a last name like Blunt, it was destined), but he also has great taste in music and he must have a little bit of an alternative rock side.

I though for sure we were going to be the youngest people in the audience - I had images of what a Celine Dion concert audience is like, and pictured us right in the middle of it. But we were not the youngest or the oldest in the crowd, which was conforting. We got general admission tickets, which worked out fine. We were pretty close to the front (it was not a packed house by any means), and there was an opening between the heads so that I could see almost the entire stage. The only drawbacks were:
- Someone near us had very bad BO
- Someone farted, and everyone around us looked like they were going to pass out
- Scott had a screaming teenage girl standing behind him. He fondly refers to her as "yeti".

All in all - a good night, a very easy commute and we had Chick-Fil-a for dinner in the car on our way there! Yum.

Scott is home - an overdue post

Well, this post is way overdue.
The only person who reads this is Scott - and he knows that he is home, so I don't know why I keep bothering...

Recap of the past couple of months:
Sept - Tricia got married, it was a beautiful wedding. Go figure, on the same weekend, Scott got home. We were both massively disappointed with the timing for a couple of weeks, but in hindsight it all worked out fine. I left for DC on Thu afternoon. Scott got into CA on Fri afternoon and my dad picked him up from the base. Scott then spent the weekend at home (without Bear), and then came to pick me up at the airport on Sunday. Our reunion was much more emotional than I thought it would be. He brought me flowers, and all sort of emotions that have been pent up for months came flooding out when we saw each other. It was great.

Oct - Scott and I finally went on a honeymoon trip. We went to Venice, Rome, Athens (for just one day) and Santorini. It was an amazing trip, and we saw way too many things to list here. I am posting one of my fav pics from the trip.

After getting home, we have just been getting into a daily routine. Scott started his new position, and things are starting to calm down with work. Bear is an absolute spaz now that Scott is home. Maybe he thinks that his playmate is home - but you can see a differene in his behavior when he is alone with me during the day, and he does a 180 when Scott comes home.

Overall - things are good (minus these allergies that I can't seem to get rid of).
We have some concerts planned for the winter, and Scott's parents are coming to visit in a couple of weeks. The rest of the year should go by quickly, and I can't believe it's almost the holidays.

I am such a geek

Guess what Kara and I are doing on Sunday?
I know you will all think I should be in highschool, but we are so excited about this! I'm sure all of you other children of the 80's secretly wish you could trade placed with me.

We are going to LA for the day, and we have tickets for a taping of RockStar Supernova. How fun is that? We have to be there at 3pm, so we are going to drive up a little early, get some lunch somewhere, and then go to the MAC store to have our makeup done "Rocker" fashion. We also have to go the store and buy some rocker clothes.

So we will see:
Dave Navaro - who is awesome
Tommy Lee - I adored Motley Crue
Jason Newsted - we all know Metallica rocked
Gilby Clark - Kara and I were both like - who? We looked it up and he played in Gn'R for a bit apparently, and was also in Slash's band afterwards
JD Forune - the winner of last season, who I am guessing is coming to make a guest appearance and hopefully perform. I guess there is no chance of INXS being there, they would have hyped that up.

So I will definitely fill you in on how the day pans out, and where we stood and such. I'm not that excited about being on TV, I'm much more excited to be going to see some live music performed, even if it is these relative nobody's. I am really missing the live music, going to see band play scene. In SoCal, who would have thought that I would have problems finding places like this around us?

Rock on...

Long overdue for an update

I know I have not been good at keeping this up. I think it's because I email Scott regularly, and he is very up to date on what is going on our lives. But it sounded like he missed the blog, so I will try to do better.

Right now - work totally sucks. I am so busy I want to cry. Another PM is going on vacation for a month, and I have "the wonderful opportunity" to take over all of her projects. So my workload has doubled. AND there is a client who is driving me crazy and making all or our lives at SoftMed hell. They are going live this week, but I don't see them going away anytime soon. And I think it is completely manipulative for client to call managers and Directors when they feel they are not getting their way, or to just complain. It is the equivalent of being whiney and a tattle tale - and no one ever liked those kids. I guess this is what they grow into. To top it all off, the PM who is going on vacation is coming back in August and switching to part-time hours. So I'm sure she won't be getting all her projects back...

In June, I celebrated my birthday, and Bryan came to visit. It was wonderful. And we had many great nights out and many great meals.
On the downside of the birthday weekend:
I broke my new sunglasses, expensive sunglasses
I got into a fender bender in the Mini, and the old hag who hit me is denying responsability and lying through her old rotting teeth
We have to cover 50% of the damages to both cars
The car is going to be in the shop for 4 weeks. I will not remember how to drive a manual by the time I get it back...

We got our new granite countertops put in, and the sliding shelves. How quickly the excitement of home improvement wears off. I promised to keep the counters clean and clutter free since they are so pretty now, but the piles of mail are back again. My weekend project: to vacuum and clean the counters off. Organize, organize, organize.

I have decided to sign up to run a 5K on Thanksgiving. I bought a sports watch with a stopwatch and everything. I found this 8 week beginner training program on the internet, and am starting on it this week.

OOH, and one of the best presents that I got for my B'day: the Magic Bullet. For all of you other infomercial geeks out there, this thing is awesome. I now have a reason to look forward to making the stupid protein shakes that I should be drinking. It's such a fun gizmo, and Scott: watch out, cuz Margarita are served when you get home!

BTW - I love my husband, bald head and all. I got to see him on a Video conference last week, and it just made me miss him so much. He's so cute! Can't wait to rub your bald little head, honey. 2 more months to go...

Addicted and pathetic

Ok - so I am picking up some bad habits now that my husband is not home.
Drugs, Sex, alcohol, rock and roll - just kidding.

I am addicted to those stupid PC games that you can download from the internet. For the past couple of months, I've been downloading the free trials or web versions of these games. You know what they are: BeJeweled, Collapse, Mah-jong. Don't even pretend that you don't know what I am talking about.

So these trial versions allow you to play for an hour, and then they expire and you have to move on to another game or buy the full version. The games were not entertaining enough to pay $20 for them - so I didn't mind when they expired, I just moved onto the next game. These kept me entertained when work was slow.

Well, these games have gotten much better. And I have gotten much more pathetic.
I have now found a game that I cannot resist, and have actually downloaded the full version of the game. But - I fell for the marketing ploy. If you sign up to buy at least 6 games, they are only $8 each, rather than $20.

I bought my first full length game 2 days ago - Wonderland Secret World. It has 4 characters and you need to navigate them through levels and find all the friends and save them from the aliens who have kidnapped the town. It is very similar to Mario Brothers (I know, retro, huh?)

I have had this game for 3 days, and I am on level 33, and I was up until 3am last night playing this stupid game. I just couldn't stop, and couldn't will myself to go to bed. I have a bruise on my hand from leaning too long on the keyboard and desk. I need to go buy one of those gel keyboard wrist pads now - I am turning into a geek. I always knew there was potential for this - but I now understand why I cannot live alone anymore.

This weekend - I will return to the land of the normal. My friend Kim is coming to visit, and we have a b-ball outing planned. Wonderland - until next week.... level 34 awaits.

Happy 1st Anniversary!

Well, we made it through our first year. Actually, this year has seemed to fly by pretty quickly. And I am more in love with my husband than the day that I married him. This is a rough 1st anniversary since we are not together, but we have done so much in one year, and there are so many more things to look forward to in the years to come.

One year ago, we kissed under a rainbow and promised to be the most important thing in each other's lives.
We then packed up both of our apartments, closed on my condo, and loaded up the pickup truck with some clothes, food, and Bear.
Then we had a great trip cross-country, managing to take in the sights of Lake Erie, the Painted Desert, the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, and the Flagstaff ER.
We stopped and saw Carrie and Chris in Colorado, and had our first house guests in CA when Bobby and Tracy stopped by.
We moved into our very first house.
We went to Billy and Amy's wedding in LA, and have caught up with them and Eric a couple of times.
We met my dad's side of the family, who live in LA, and Scott had a cake made in his honor to welcome him to the family. Sadly, we all met again at Aunt Katie's service.
Scott was able to meet my grandfather, and we had a lovely service when he passed away, out at sea.
We got to go snowboarding on Christmas Day in California.
We spent a weekend on Coronado Island (or is it a peninsula?)
Scott's sister, Theresa came to visit as they made their way to New York.
We went to New York for New Years, and celebrated Mark's wedding in DC. What a great visit, and a time to reunite with old friends.
We had countless great dinners out, and went to see the Lion King in San Diego.
We drove up to Santa Monica to see the Barenaked Ladies, and had a sighting of Kelly Kapowski.

All in all, it has been a great year full of exciting, happy, lonely and sad memories. The year has been complete, and full of love. I love you honey.

Bear's first shoe

I was going to write how nice Bear has been lately, and how well behaved. I thought that maybe he had finally grown up since he turned 2 years old. Last night, I even took him to my parent's house, and he did great.

Until - Bear got his first shoe.
I was rather impressed at the fact that our dog has not gotten into any shoes. No destroyed tennis shoes (ok, the flip flop doesn't count), no pee or poop surprises in the shoe, nothing. He has gotten wallets, credit cards, glasses - but no shoes. The one complaint of all dog owners in the world - my dog destroys shoes - and Bear has managed to stay away from shoes for 2 years. Or rather, we have managed to keep him away from shoes for 2 years. Until today...

I though Bear was being really good, being quiet, and even letting me get some work done on the computer. When I finally take a break and go to see my surely sleeping dog in the hallway - I find him on our bed, surrounded by the pieces and the strap and buckle of my only pair of work shoes (notice, no strap nor buckle in this picture). And he looks at me, as if to say "hi - look what I found, this is really nice. Why haven't I ever seen a leather shoe before?" I'm guessing he also learned how to open doors today, because the bedroom door is always, always closed.

Man - we had such a good track record.

Big Love or Big Trouble

I have started watching the new Showtime series called Big Love. It's about a polygamist family with one husband and 3 wives. They live in a suburban neighborhood, and have 3 houses next door to each other. They have taken down the fences in the back of the house, so all share one huge back yard. The wives make a monthly schedule and have their own "nights" with the husband, and he spends each night in a different house depending on who's night it is.

I wouldn't call this a good show, but it has sucked me in for some reason. It is rather interesting to see how each person in this relationship feels about the life they are living - from the husband, to each of the wives, even to the older children who are old enough to know what kind of family they live in.

I think most people have the notion that polygamy is a sick way to take advantage of younger girls. They have been viewed as sick perverts, and the show definitely is playing on that idea with some of the characters. But the main family is not like that, and they are trying to show that they are normal people with human emotions and problems. The husband is trying to keep his business afloat and his family happy and secure. The wives are trying to raise their family and keep their separate identities and personalities within this relationship.

But this show has made me think that Polygamy is just more trouble than it's worth. We all know how women can get jealous, catty and emotional. Sometimes women can also be downright irrational - I think I've only gotten like this once or twice :-)
I call this my "Ness". It's my moodiness, my bitchiness, my stupidness, my laziness, etc. And to think this poor guy has 3 Nesses to put up with, and you can see how it is running him ragged. One is contantly spending money and running up credit card debt, one is complaining that she needs a new car, one has more loyaty to her father than to her husband, and one is just trying to keep everyone from hating each other. I know I can give Scott a run for his money sometimes, can you imagine if there were 3 of me? All complaining about different things? I don't know - maybe that's why you never hear about women having more than one husband. They are just way too smart to get themselves into the kind of trouble and headache that being married to more than one man holds.

Ryan -vs- The Bear

Last week, I had the pleasure of babysitting Ryan, a 6 month old little angel. I noticed that evening, that I was very relaxed and had a nice quiet evening. Man, taking care of Ryan is so much easier than taking care of Bear. I know that this won't last, and once Ryan starts to crawl and walk he will most likely give Lori a run for her money - but right now, he is such a pleasure to watch.

If you put Ryan down in one spot, 30 seconds later he is still in that spot. If you put Bear in one spot and tell him to stay, 30 seconds later he is nowhere to be found, and most likely has one of your belongings in his mouth.

When Ryan starts to cry, he either needs a diaper change or needs to be fed. Then he stops crying. When Bear barks at you, he maybe wants to go out or maybe wants to play - but most of the time he will continue to bark at you for no reason at all, for about a half hour until he gets tired.

If I leave a cell phone, sunglasses, remote control, keys on the table - Ryan doesn't care that they are there and will leave them alone for the most part. Bear can grab these items, not matter how far back on the counter or high you put them, and will take them out in the backyard and destroy them.

Ryan doesn't jump on the couch. Bear jumps on the couch, and even pushes you over if he thinks you are taking up too much of his space.

When you put Ryan to bed, he only takes a couple of minutes to fall asleep. When you put Bear to bed, you can hear him ripping up his bedding and his new thing is to pull the carpet up and away from the wall.

When Ryan has an accident, he has a diaper on and you just go change it. When Bear has an accident - which he was doing a lot when Scott left home, you have to clean up the carpet and eventually steam clean the thing.

When you go outside with Ryan, he sits in his carrier and enjoys his surroundings. When you go outside with Bear, you end up with muddy paw prints on your shirt and many holes in the backyard.

This list can go on and on - but overall, I think Ryan is the clear Low Maintenance Winner. Or could it be that we just ended up with Satan's spawn as a dog.

Strange thoughts

I find myself counting the strangest things, now that Scott is gone. I go through my daily life and routine, and wonder how many of these things Scott's going to miss.

For example:
- how many bottles of hand soap will I go through before Scott gets home?
- how many tubes of toothpaste will I have to buy before Scott gets home?
- I wonder how many bags of dog food will Bear go through before Scott gets home?
- how many bottles of cascade will I buy before Scott gets home?

I have been doing this for the past couple of weeks, but only realized it today when I was washing my hands in the bathroom and the bottle of soap is getting low. And I don't think these things about the smaller items that I buy often. I don't think "How many cartons of milk will I buy" - it's more those things that last a while and that we don't replace all the time.

Since we've moved into this house, I think we have gone through 2 bottle of soap in our bathroom, and maybe 3 or 4 in the kitchen. I wonder how many items will I,just me (one person), go through in the next 6 months? I'm strange, I know.

I am heading to the post office to mail my first package to Scott. I hope I don't have any hassles about the way I packed it, and I hope I did everything right. I ordered a bunch of flat rate boxes from the post office, and they delivered them to my house. I think I have enough boxes to last us 10 years.

Hon - I thought of somthing for your B'day present - so be on the look out for my package and I hope you like it! I miss you sweetie.

What do you do?

I am currently reading Jimmy Carter's book "Our Endangered Values". This is a book that Scott bought and started before leaving, and now I have gotten quite a bit through it. He makes a lot of good points, that I agree with, but he doesn't seem to be offerring any solutions to the issues that he points out. It doesn't seem productive to me, but it is making me think about my beliefs and opinions. Maybe his solutions are yet to come in this book.

So what do you do when your husband is doing something right now that you morally disagree with? And I have had this opinion for a long time now, but reading a chapter in this book has put my thoughts on paper and backed it up with facts.

Part of me thinks - well, he doesn't have a choice but to be doing this. But really, he does. It was his choice to joing the military. And it was the American people who made the choice to put this president in office, and re-elect him. And it was my choice to marry Scott, and become a part of all this.

So what do you do?
- I guess right now we don't have a choice that Scott is deployed, but he does have a choice when he comes home. So I deal with the days and nights right now, and just hope that the time flies by quickly. I would be very interested to take a poll of the younger people in the military and see if they know and understand the history of the US, the treaties that were made by previous presidents, and see if they really understand what they are all a part of and what it could potentially do to this country. I bet they don't have a clue.
- We all have a choice to educate ourselves on current events and public policy. I admit I am not very up on it, but reading this book has sparked my curiosity and I will continue to read about it and form my own opinions.
- We all have a choice to vote for the people who are in office, and vote for the people that will represent you and your beliefs
- And I guess we all have a choice of what country we live in and what we support. This may be a little drastic, but I do have concerns about the future and American sentiment throughout the world. Maybe buying that vineyard in Canada isn't too drastic of a thought, if we can just get the Canadians to stop hating us.

As soon as I actually make up my mind...

OK - On Saturday, I ended up hanging out at the pet shop for about an hour, SAD - I KNOW! But there was this really cute little Chia Rat in there, who was literally the size of my hand. They said she was the runt of the litter, and that they don't expect her to get over 8 lbs. I just watched her, and tried to play with her (she was more interested in looking at the other dogs and barked a little when a spazzy one came up to her). She was so cute - yet seemed so delicate. So I went home that night debating whether or not I should grab Bear, take him to the store that night before they closed, and be done with dog hunt.

I got home, and then thought - I really need to think about this. I will think and sleep on it, and on Monday I will take Bear in to the store and have them meet. All weekend, about every half hour, I changed my mind.
- I really want this dog, and it seems to be "THE" dog that I am looking for
- I really don't want Scott to miss the puppy stage (not the poop, but the cuteness), and I want him to feel like he was a part of this
- Bear really needs a friend because I just don't really make good friend material these days
- What if Bear eats it?
- I've looked at every add for months, and have not found another dog with this personality and size, and it may not present itself again soon
- I don't want Scott to come home and have to meet our new dog. It doesn't seem fair
AND THEN AGAIN - What if Bear eats it?

So today, I finally decide - OK, I'm getting it. If Bear and "daisy" get along, I will bring it home and it won't be bad. I finished work up early, and even decided to shower before 5pm. I then called the store, and they said she was sold on Sunday.
Of course - that is how my life works. Always.

As much as I like to say I am done looking - you know I will not stop. I'm addicted to the Pets section in the classifieds. SAD - I KNOW.

And they are off

Today was hard, but not as hard as yesterday. Watching Scott pack and knowing that this was his last day here was really tough for me, and I found myself moping around and tearing up a lot. As much as I wanted to be in a good mood, it was hard to be in a good mood knowing that the countdown was coming to an end. We ate such fatty and horrible things all weekend - but my consolation was that this was our last In N'Out burger together, our last pizza together, our last Hawaiian plate lunch together - before he left!

This morning we got up bright and early, and I drove Scott to base where they loaded buses to take them to Riverside to fly out. They are going through Maine, then Ireland, then into Iraq. It was kind of nice seeing all the families and the dogs out there, and sad to see some of them with no one there to see them off. I held up ok, I think. I figure: Scott takes such good care of me and doesn't let me get into stupid situations, that I know he's going to take care of everyone and himself out there. I just hope the time goes by quickly and they return with the same enthusiasm that some of them had as they boarded the bus. There were a few that were not deploying for some reason or another, and I was surprised to see how emotional they were to say goodbye to their team and not be there with them. It's not all relief when you find out you can't go - I guess. I wonder if they feel like me - saying goodbye to someone that you see day in and out and the mystery of what life has in store for you without them.

We had a good weekend though - We started it off by going to Roy's Restaurant (Hawaiian Fusion) in La Jolla. The meal was amazing, probably the best meal I have had since we moved here. We are going to have to keep this place in mind and try it out on special occassions. On Saturday, Scott did some repair work and cleaned out the garage. I can finally park my car in the garage - woohoo! We BBQ'd our last steak - no way am I grilling on my own, I'm sure I would set the dog on fire. On Sunday, we took the dog for a bath at Petco, saw an adorable Chia Rat (Chihuahua/Rat Terrier) which may become a part of this family in the next couple of weeks, and went out to dinner with my folks. Monday night was spend with Scott on the phone with his entire family and friends, call after call after call....

I forgot to mention that we saw Eric, Billy and Amy on Thursday night in Laguna Beach. It was nice to see them, and they wished Scott a safe and quick deployment. I think these are the friends that Scott is going to have for the rest of his life, no matter what county, state, or planet we all end up living in. It's nice to see him feel so at home with them. People you can just be goofy with.

Here are a couple of pics - one Scott took of me as he was packing with his 50 lbs. of gear, and one that was taken right before he got on the bus this morning.

Honey - I'm going to miss you like crazy - I love you.

What a week..

This week seems to be lasting forever, although many things have happened. It's a strange feeling.

We had a pretty chill weekend. We started out by getting together at our friend's house for a goodbye party to Virgil, who deploys to Iraq next week. But it really felt like a goodbye party for Kara, who left the following day for Spain. She is over there for a 4 month study program, and I am so jealous. On Sunday, we went to see my grandfather in the nursing home, and he didn't look good at all. We all knew he was in the last leg of his life, but it was a shock to me when my mom called and said that Grandpa passed away on Monday morning. All I could think of was - I am so glad that I got to see him the day before. And I hope he knew that we were there with him that day, if only to say goodbye.

My parents and I had made reservations to go whale watching on Tuesday, and we decided to still go. It was nice, and I would have been happy just getting out of the house and getting on a boat for a couple of hours. But we did see some whales, which was cool. These are the CA Grey Whales, and they are on their annual migration to Baja. We followed 2 whales for about an hour as they kept moving South.

I wanted to also attach an article that Scott sent to me. I know it sounds like something I would tear out of my Newsweek and force him to read, but he was the one who brought this home one day. I thought it was interesting and it's a good piece to spark conversation - I will allow ours to remain in our kitchen, only for Bear and the Cookie Monk to know what was said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein24jan24,0,3682678.column?coll=la-util-op-ed

Happy New Year!

Wow - I have been keeping this blog for a whole year now. This year, I think I am going to use this more as a place to write to Scott, and keep him updated with the things that I am doing and thinking. I am going to write the things that pop into my mind, and the emotions that I am feeling - even if I know that Scott won't want to hear/read them. I would hope that he would feel comfortable telling me things that I know he wants to protect me from, and tell me things that I don't even want to hear - but I think I need to in order to keep myself sane while he is gone and keep things in perspective. Otherwise, I will become even more bitter than I currently am - and honey, I know you know the extent of my bitterness and I am really trying to keep those feelings at bay. I love you and as pissed off as I am at this situation, my love for you will not change.

Scott flew back to CA today (we were in DC this past weekend, more details to come in the next paragraphs), and for some reason it made me very sad to say goodbye to him. It's almost like every day that comes to an end is just one day closer to the time that he leaves. I'm going to have to work hard to not get down, and make the best of this next month. We might as well get this hurdle over, and move on with the rest of our lives which will hopefully not include any more time apart.

We had a great Christmas and New Years. We started the festivities on 12/23 with dinner at Aqua Al 2 (Thanks Kelli and Chris - the meal was amazing!) After dinner we went to the San Diego Civic Center to see The Lion King. What a great show, and it's neat how they stuck to the dialogue that was in the movie. The costumes were the best part - and seeing them all parade into the stadium onto the stage was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eves with my parents, with a whole lot of good food and quality time together. We then went Snowboarding at Big Bear on Christmas Day. Kinda strange to be out in snow (man made, of course) when it's warm enough to be out there in a T-shirt. We came home with lots of bruises.

On 12/30 we flew to upstate NY to spend a few days with Scott's family. There were 21 people in the house for 3 whole days - cozy, but fun. I can't believe how fast the kids are growing, and Megan is absolutely adorable. We took Jordan snowboarding, and she was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. Scott got really good, too - I guess it's just going to be me on the bunny slope next time. I need to work on my toe side - it intimidates me so much. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone in NY, knowing that the next time they see Scott will most likely be this time next year. Of course there were tears, and Theresa also had to say goodbye to Mike as he heads to training until March in AL. We drove him to Bingamton on our way out of town - so it felt like we were stealing him from his family. We then went to DC for my cousin Mark's wedding - which was an entire weekend affair. The rehearsal dinner was on Fri, the wedding on Sat (which was beautiful and interesting, as it was a Jewish ceremony), and then brunch on Sun. I had not idea that Erica's dad was an NPR show host, of "All things considered". I am not an NPR junkie, but I am now very intruiged to listen to his show. He was very captivating to talk to, and thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. Of course, Scott was the popular guy at the wedding. Everyone wanted to talk to him about his work, his upcoming deployment, and of course tried to get him to talk about his opinions. You're captivating hon, face it!

This year, I am not going to make any resolutions. I have some good intentions, which I am not going to commit to writing, and will do my best to follow through with them. I think we have a lot of challenges this year to get through, without the added pressure of resolutions. But I am confident that at the end of this year, Scott and I will be a stonger couple, and hopefully better people individually as well. Happy 2006!

Meet Juanita Yoshida Zelesnikar

The other night, we went to Dave and Busters, the Chuck-E-Cheese for adults. I rock at the first person shoot em up games. I kicked Scott's butt on Ghost Machine and made it up the ranks so much faster than he did - ha! I need to buy one of these machines for our dream house.

There is another game in there called the Gene Machine. It takes pictures of 2 people and spits out what your kids will look like. This is kind of scary, but it was so much fun. Our friends (who are both very fair, and blondish) ended up having two children which they named Pedro and LaFonda. It's amazing how race has nothing to do with what your children will look like! We have fondly named our daugter Juanita Guadalupe Yoshida Zelesnikar. I'm just glad this child didn't get my egg shaped head - which I swear is not like that in person!

A little visit, and off to Sea World

Last weekend, Theresa and her family came to visit (Scott's sister). They are leaving their assignment in Hawaii and moving to upstate NY. I just can't imagine the shock their bodies will go through from living in Hawaii's climate for 3 years, to deplane into 6 inches of snow. I don't think I want to ever leave California after only 6 months here. I like having the option to go to cold weather and snow when you want it - not having Mother Nature force it upon you. We are planning on going snowboarding for Xmas - that's what I mean - go to it when you want it.

It was nice seeing everyone, and the kids gave Bear a full weekend. Actually, I think Bear behaved wonderful with the kids. He was so gentle and patient with then, even with the tail pulling, the teasing, and the occasional kick - which Jessica got in biiiiig trouble for. It's amazing how much I often say I hate the dog, I'm tired and frustrated with him - but when someone does something mean to my dog I go into protective mode. "DO NOT be mean to MY dog". But all my fears about how Bear will react with little kids have been alleviated. Once we break him completely of the jumping on people, he will be perfect with kids.

We went to Sea World on Saturday with everyone. It was a good day. Our only regret was waiting until the end of the day to get on the roller coaster, which got us completely soaked and frozen. We drove home in wet clothes. The neatest part of the park was being able to touch and pet the animals - like dolphins and sting rays. The shows were entertaining - here's a pic. I wish I went to Sea World as a 5 year old, and had the brains to look up the job posting for Sea World on the internet and base that on what I chose to major in school. I think I am going to push my kids to pursue their interests as careers very early on. Hmm, you like playing with legos, that's what architects do!

BNL is still the best

On Tuesday, Scott and I drove up to Santa Monica for Barenaked Ladies concert. It was the best BNL show I have ever been to (and this one makes 5, I think). The show was amazing - it was their Xmas concert. They did a lot of xmas songs, in the BNL style, of course - as well as some of their classic hits and one new song that is coming out shortly on the new album. These guys are just so much fun to watch live, and they had us both smiling and laughing throughout the whole thing. Once of these days, I would really like to be up front for one of their shows.

The opening band was a group called the LeeVee's. They were hilarious - they get together every holiday season and perform songs they have written about Hanukkah. We ended up buying one of their CDs as a present for a gift exchange we are doing some friends this week. The band then went out in to the hall and signed autographs, so she's getting a copy signed by 4 band members! That's a keeper! And it makes no sense, but we are exchanging Xmas gift this week with our Jewish friends. And this was their idea!! AND, Kara want to come over to help us decorate our Xmas tree!

While standing in line for autographs, guess who walked right by us and hung out waiting for her friend to come out of the bathroom? Tiffani Amber Thiessen!! Saved by the Bell, in person 2 feet away from us. I was kind of shocked that in the 10-15 minutes that we were standing next to her, no one said anything or approached her. Then again, neither did we. But that was kind of neat, right after Scott said during dinner "I wonder if we'll see anyone famous?".

And I really like the Santa Monica Civic Center. It was small, a great place to see a band perform. And we were able to park at the Center, walk down a few blocks onto Main Street where there were lots of little shops and places to eat. We then walked back to the Center for the show. It is neat how it is such a walking and small community, and it was 2 blocks from the beach. This beats driving to the metro, taking the metro to MCI, fighting the crowds and waiting in line for any type of food, and having seats so far away you only see the color of shirt the band members are wearing.

Overall, a great BNL experience - see you next year!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone - I wanted to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, and thank you for being such a huge part in our lives.

Here are some pics of the airshow that we went to down at Miramar (these are the Blue Angels, not the Hell's Angels as I always want to mistakenly call them), and really cute pic of the boys at Billy's wedding. The wedding was beautiful.

I'll write more soon - and Scott is finally getting back from 29 Palms next week. It'll be good to see him (I miss you, hon).

Welcome to the Kirby family

Ok - Yes, I am a sucker. Anytime an infomercial comes on TV, I always end up believing that this is the greatest product invented, and that I have to have one. Fortunately, my lack of motivation of actually picking up the phone and ordering something usually wins. Except for that one late, lonely night that I ended up ordering the Double CD set of 80's Monster Ballads - although it is a rockin' album.

Well, as cliche as this is going to sound, I had a vacuum salesman come to the door last week. Actually it was a woman, who said that they are doing a promotion and will vacuum and shampoo one room in my house for free. This is a promotion, and there is no obligation to buy anything - they just want to spread the word about their product and cleaning services. Then Joe, a really nice college guy looking to start his own business comes in and cleans the stairs. This vacuum is amazing!! In hind sight, amazing might be exaggerating a little, but it is a really good and multi-functional vacuum, shampooer, sweeper, and hardwood floor buffer. So 3 hours, a trip to go pick up Bear at the kennel, and $1600 later, I was welcomed to the Kirby brand family. Scott wasn't at all surprised when I told him I bought a vacuum (I have been eying the Dyson for months) but when he heard how much it cost - I could hear his eyes pop out of his head. Oh well, maybe this will be the motivation I need to try to have a sparkling clean house!

This darn PC

Ok - so when I bought this thing, I thought it was the coolest damn thing on earth. I would load all of my pictures on here, be able to edit videos that I take with the digital camcorder, store all of my MP3 files and learn to use my ipod... Endless possibilties, right?

Last week, the thing crashes. I am not doing a single thing - it' is basically just sitting there with the desktop up and no applicatons running. All of a sudden, I hear a pop and the thing turns off. Then it magically starts up again, then before Windows even boots up, it shuts itself off then starts back up again. I watch in horror as this cycle continues 5-6 more times. Then I turn it off, let it rest for a little bit, and try again. The cycle starts over.

I had to completely do a recovery on the harddrive, meaning that I lost all my pictures (which of course I deleted off my camera when I transfered them to the PC), and didn't have a back-up. Thanks to Brian who helped me find a way to get all the music that I had on the iPod back onto the PC - but still - I am pissed!

I have learned the lesson of backing up. The stupid eMachine didn't even do this in the 4 years that I owned it. Hmmmmmm....

Coronado - an island or peninsula?

This past weekend Scott and I decided to take a weekend for ourselves and have a little getaway. Scott was out in the field all week, and I was out most of the week in DC. We had to kennel the dog, and decided to let him stay the weekend and enjoy ourselves.

We went to Coronado Island for the weekend (which is really a peninsula). I cashed in tons of points and got us a nice room at the Marriott resort and spa for the weekend. It was right on the water (bay side, not beach side), and backed up to a trail that allowed us to walk along the water, walk to restaurants and bars, and a little shopping area. I booked us both appointments at the spa - thinking that Scott could use a massage after a strenuous and sleepless week in the field. Little did we know that the masseuse would be a large lady who liked to use elbows on his back. The poor thing looked more weary coming out of the massage than going into it!

All in all, a very nice weekend, and the dog got to spend a week at doggie camp. He was very well behaved the night we brought him home - but now he's back to his usual antics. We did get him into a 6 week group training course that starts this Saturday - so we'll see how that goes!

And they go round and round

I had another great time this trip back to DC (although the monthly meetings are starting to get old and pointless, and this flight is way too long to do every month). I came in a couple of days early to stay with Tricia, go to a Nascar race, see my family, and go out to dinner with friends. Other then the work stuff, it was a very productive coupel of days!

The Nascar race was in Dover, Delaware - the Monster Mile. Tricia was able to get great tickets, which allowed us to go into the pit area and our seats were in the suite. Nothing beats watching the race from an air conditioned room with free food and beer! So this Nascar experience was completely different from any other race I had been to. There was no tailgating, there was no paying $20 to park in someone's lawn and then walk a mile to the track, and there was no sitting in the sun wishing the race was 100 laps instead of 400. I still think the greatest part of the race is the flyover by the airforce planes. Another very neat part was being in pit row. We were there for the first part of the race, and were there when they yelled "start your engines"! We stayed there for about 20 laps or so, and got to see a tire change from right behind the stands.

Here are a couple of pics, and thanks to everyone for another great trip home (yes, VA is still what I call home).

So you wanna be a rock star?

Is anyone else addicted to Rock Star INXS? Scott and I are completely addicted, and we find ourselved having conversations about the show during dinner. Is this what married life is?

I do not want the show to end - what are we going to do on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednnesday nights now? We are going to have to fill the void with something productive, I guess.

Here are our thoughts on this - Scott and I actually agree:
Marty is going to be the big winner. (JD is too "fly by the seat of his pants", and Mig is too nice for them)
Jordis, Suzy, Mig and JD will all get record deals or start their own bands.
And honestly, if INXS chooses someone that they end up not liking or working well with, they can just fire them!

I do think Marty will win, but Mig is my favorite.

On to more practical topics! I am volunteering with our local humane society, and this past weekend we had a pet adoption at PetSmart. I was in charge of a little chihuahua mix, and he is so darn cute - I am tempted to adopt him myself. He is older - maybe 7-8 years old, but he is well trained and so cuddly. He sat on my lap in the car, and he seemed to really bond with me. He wouldn't walk with anyone else unless I was with them, and he kept looking up at me asking me to pick him up. There was one couple that was interested in him, and hopefully they go to the shelter and get him. Otherwise, maybe we'll take Bear and see how thy interact with each other. :-)

Labor Day weekend

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.
Here's a guick recap of what we did:
- we did not buy any more cars this weekend! yippee!
- we went to the "conert on the green". This is an annual orchestra concert at my parent's community. It was fun, and they played the exact same songs as last year. There was one song, that as they were ending I wispered to Scott "I think they are going to play Tomorrow from Annie next", and sure enough...
- we went to the San Diego Zoo. Scott says it was much more impressive when he was little, but we had a good time and it was nice to get out of the house and do some major walking
- we broke in our new patio fire pit. I love this thing. We took down the gazebo siding on our back patio, and now we have firewood for at least 5-6 burns :-)
- Bear got his first ride in the Xterra, when we took him to the dog park

Stay safe everyone - and I'll talk to you soon.