Monday, October 10, 2011

(Ten and) One-Year Anniversary

Today is our one-year anniversary. 

Cheers!
One year plus the 10 years we were together before we got married, that is!  You know, I think this is a great opportunity for me to say to everyone who told us that things would feel different after we got married.... you were wrong.  Thanks for the advice, though!  It feels exactly the same.  That's because commitment and what constitutes a family lies within your heart, thoughts, emotions and actions.  Not in a piece of paper, a ceremony, a few words or any other pomp and circumstance.  Well, I guess commitment does lie within a ceremony if that's what you choose.  We give things meaning and power in our lives.  A wedding ceremony doesn't carry any power until someone decides it does.  For us, it held no power.  It was a great reason to get all of our friends and family together at the same place and time, though!  Which is the wonderful thing about weddings in my opinion.  When else does that happen in life on such a grand scale?  I love weddings for that reason.

The decision to go on a trip somewhere for our one-year anniversary was an obvious one.  I constantly have the urge to travel.  I'm a bit of a wanderlust, if you will.  Luckily, Andrew enjoys me dragging him all over the globe.  He enjoys it so much, a dragging doesn't even actually occur!

No
Yes

At first I wanted to go back to Europe to catch some things we missed. Okay, we missed lots of things on our trip last year so I'll be more specific.  I was thinking Switzerland, Southern Germany, or Ireland.  Unfortunately, however, trips to Europe are expensive.  And while we can swing the expense,  do we really want to?  What else will we have to give up in order to do that?  Do we really want to see our savings account dwindle so soon after the big trip we took last year?  Are politicians honest?  The answer is no, folks.

So I was thinking maybe something on this continent.  Boring, I know!  First thought was some place we've never been and one city that came to mind was Montreal.  I loved Paris so much, to get another little taste of it, even if only by imitation, would be wonderful.  My second thought was New York.  I am dying to see Book of Mormon and I'm sure Andrew would enjoy Spiderman.  Besides, I always love New York.  I've gotten so familiar with the neighborhoods and subways, I don't feel like a traveler when I'm there anymore.  It's like visiting an old friend!  The last thing we considered was Disney World.  Exciting, yes, but there is no way to avoid big expenses with a trip like that.  So I wasn't setting my heart on that one.

Upon pricing out all those options, it got to be a little more than I wanted to spend.  Even with hotel discounts (we have points and gift cards) and 1 free flight we've earned on Southwest!  Not to mention that every seat is sold out for Book of Mormon for as long as shows are scheduled.  The resale value on middle-man vendor sites?  $700 for orchestra seats.  $250 for nose-bleeds.  Booo!

So this brought us to the decision to get the most bang for our buck in lovely Vancouver!

OOOOH!

AHHHH!

(Not my photographs above, which is obvious from the fine quality.)  I have plenty to tell about our trip and a few pics to share but I will have to do so on another day.  I have laundry, grocery shopping and sewing to do.  Holy crap, I guess marriage does change people!  No, wait.  I did all those things before marriage.  Never mind.  Phew!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Frosted or clear?

We need help!  You don't hear/see that coming from my mouth/fingertips often so lets take a moment to acknowledge this.  "Great job for admitting you need help, Christina!"  Okay, done!

Andrew and I have to decide on a new shower door.  We had a new tub and shower put in about 2 weeks ago and we had to special order a shower door if we wanted frosted glass.  We decided we wanted frosted glass so we waited for it to come in.  Well the door was broken when the contractor went to pick it up from Home Depot so now we either order a new one and wait again or we just get what they have in stock, clear glass.  This brings back the frosted vs. clear debate and we're suddenly more torn this time around.  What should we get?

Only a stock photo, our shower is not this nice!
Clear glass pros:
  • It makes the bathroom seem bigger and since the shower is the first thing you see as you go into the bathroom, it will be nice to have a bigger, more open feel.  
  • We can get it quickly.  
  • It might motivate us to keep the bottles of beautifying agents more tidy. 

Clear glass cons:
  • If we don't keep the beautifying agents tidy, it will look terrible.  
  • Water spots will show a lot easier.  
  • We have to clean more often.


Again, a stock photo.  Our shower is not this sleek and cool.
Frosted glass pros:
  • Shows less spots.  
  • Clean less often.  
  • No biggie if bottles of magic potions aren't tidy.

Frosted glass cons:
  • The shower is the first thing you see and creates a narrow walkway into the bathroom so it might make the room feel smaller/more crowded.  
  • We have to wait to get it.
So, what do we do?  Are there some pros and cons I'm leaving out?

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Andrew, the video game star!

Last  year I posted something on facebook about Andrew taking a trip to Liquid Entertainment in Pasadena because his friend Steve works there and decided Andrew's likeness was exactly what the company needed in their new game!  So he went up there and they photographed him and a bunch of time passed, then just yesterday Steve emailed him that the game was up and running.  He got the email on our evening walk around the neighborhood with our dogs but Andrew couldn't log into the game right away (No Flash? Still, AT&T?  Really?  Lame!) so he had to wait a whole hour to see it!  It was torture I tell you, TORTURE! But when we got home, he rushed to his computer and logged onto the game.  The game is called Deadline Hollywood.  I guess it's like those other online games like Mafia Wars and Farm Town, etc.  I don't know exactly because I don't play those games.  But that's besides the point.  Andrew is in the game!  He's one of the characters you can choose!  Take a look:


That's so cool, right?  We think it's so cool.  It's very clearly Andrew... not just a "sorta" image, it's totally him!  I made the image his new profile pic on facebook:


My husband is a video game star!  But don't worry.  We'll remember the little people.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

To Utah or Not to Utah?

That is the question!  A couple of months ago I announced on here that we were moving to Utah.  Andrew had been accepted at the University of Utah in a dual-degree MBA and MS in Engineering program.  Cuz he's a smarty-pants.  He was also accepted at UCI and USC, both of which are local but have less-appealing programs.  So we began hatching a plan to move to Utah.  It has been very exciting to think about moving someplace new!  I like new stuff!  But there are a lot of other things to consider as well:
  1. This program in Utah would be full-time so Andrew would not be able to work.  And here's some shocking news: engineers in the biomedical industry make more money than university administrators (at any level, not just my lowly slave-girl level which it doesn't seem I'll ever be able to break free from unless I start doing such a crappy job they'll do anything to get me out of my position as opposed to how I think they feel now, that they want me doing the same thing until I DIE, which will happen sooner rather than later if I am doing the same job forever!).  *** Sorry, where was I?  I blacked out for a minute.***  Oh yeah, so monetary issues are a big consideration.  We could get by on 1 income in Utah and be happy... if it were Andrew's income.  On my income alone... let's just say we'd have to make some serious life changes.
  2. I don't know how well we would fit in in Utah.  I don't know how well I would fit in, in particular.  I'm not sure if anyone knows this about me but I tend to have a difficult time keeping my mouth shut.  Utah is pretty politically conservative.  We are (mostly) not conservative.  Also Utah is well-known for a particular religious group and Salt Lake City is 50% Mormon.  We are (very much) not Mormon.  I know that this might not seem like a big deal to some people but I am a social being.  I am interested in those around me and I like interacting with people.  I love hearing other perspectives but constantly being bombarded with ideals that are not your own, whilst considerably outnumbered, and possessing the temperament I do (Lady Gaga tells me I was "born this way, baby" so I accept it) with the burning need deep inside my soul to be heard and understood and given just a modicum of respect from time to time... well, these are just things to consider (to say the least).
  3. Andrew and I really like the freedom we currently possess.  That freedom comes at a price (discussed in item #1) so to give up income is to give up those freedoms, including making choices like flying to New York for a long weekend just to see Spiderman on Broadway, going to visit a new country every year on our anniversary, eating dinner out "just cuz we feel like it" or having kids when and how we want to.  Yes, school would only be for 2 years, but we are not making the choice between school vs. no school, we're making the choice between [good school + fun life] vs. [better school + less fun life].  And let's face it, we're not getting any younger.  Two years can make a world of difference if we want to have children.
  4. In addition  to those freedoms we enjoy, we also enjoy having a savings account, stocks, 401Ks, etc.  We might have to make a serious dent in those if we go to Utah.
  5. Despite my rant in item #1, I like where I work, I like my job and I like my friends there.  Andrew likes his job too.  He's doing really important (and currently well-recognized) things there.
  6. We like living in Southern California: our condo (which we just fixed up), the dog beach, theme parks, the variety of things to do or little cities to visit every weekend, the weather, how close we are to family and friends throughout California and in Vegas.  We would be sad to leave here.
  7. Our dogs don't like snow.  We drove with them to Colorado once, in December.  They got out of the car to go potty along the route and each time they would hurriedly jump back into the car and sit there shivering for a good 5-10 minutes.  We ended up bundling them up in blankets.  Such California dogs!
So, as you can see, we have a lot to consider.  But we've come to a conclusion.  We decided "not to Utah!"  I mean come on, how can I stand to watch my puppies shiver every day in the winter?  They'd stare at me with those big brown eyes, "Mommy?  Why are you doing this to us, Mommy?  Why don't you love us?  Where is the dog beach, Mommy?  Why won't you take us there?"  Have you seen Maisy's face, people?  She has powers.

Mommy, Daddy, I'm a California girl!

So, in California we shall remain.  And we're happy to do so.  Okay, so there's a little bit of remorse, "But the program was so great in Utah."  But we'll get over that.  The nice thing about all of this is that we had 2 wonderful choices in front of us.  If only everyone had that problem!  By staying in Cali we kind of  get to have our cake and eat it too.  Trust me, we'll enjoy every bite!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Our New Car!

So, the new car we picked is..... THE FORD EXPLORER!  The Mazda just didn't have enough room in it, the Enclave wasn't awesome enough to pay more for it (and too much wood trim), and the Highlander was too small and not comfortable enough.  It came down to the Traverse and the Explorer.  We really wanted to buy American and both are great SUV's.  The Traverse had more room in the back but the Ford was so awesome for the driver and passenger.  And Andrew was so darn happy in it with all of it's toys and features.  I think we'll love it and it'll be an exciting, yet comfortable car for us for YEARS.  Here are some lovely pictures (again) to help you get a better idea of what we love.


Modern, yet classic looks.  Ours is white just like this!


Sleek, beautiful interior.  Ours is black just like this.


Modern console - the big selling feature.  We love!!!


Car Hunters

Is there a show called Car Hunters?  If not, there should be.  Finding the right new car for your family can be very challenging.  I also find it a rip-roarin' good time!  I like shopping.  I like new things.  I am a good candidate for retail shock therapy.  When I started college, there were tons of credit card companies who set up shop on campus during the first week of school, seeking out fresh meat to attack and turn into consumer zombies.  I was one of them.  I thought it was so awesome that I could have my own credit card and buy stuff I didn't have to pay for... yet.  The "yet" part didn't really matter that much to me then.  If I had a bad day at work, I'd go buy a new outfit or pair of shoes, then just pay the minimums on my credit card.  Well, after a few years, that didn't turn out so well for me and the "yet" now matters, quite a bit!  I'm just glad I made those mistakes when I was young and now I am so much more careful about what I buy and I've turned retail therapy into something that works for me and my bank account.  It's all about the research!

I had so much fun researching cars!  I started with the basics of what Andrew and I wanted: the smallest SUV we can find with a comfortable 3rd row, some fun toys (electronics), leather seats (dog hair), a sun roof, decent fuel efficiency, fun to drive (fast) and all at a reasonable price.  I found the potential in several vehicles: 

The Chevy Traverse


 The Mazda CX-9


The Buick Enclave


The Ford Explorer


The Toyota Highlander

At just the first glance, my favorite cars are the CX-9 and the Traverse (the first 2).  I like sleek, simple and a little curvy.  For Andrew, the CX-9 was his favorite on looks alone.  The looks of the Enclave drove me to that, even though the Traverse and Enclave (and GMC Acadia too but it's more boxy ) are virtually the same cars on the inside with some little features here and there that drive up the price.  We test drove each of these cars.  Here's a little summary of each experience:


The Chevy Traverse is nice, comfortable and pretty darn roomy!  You can actually seat adults comfortably in the 3rd row.  Big plus!  It also offers 2nd row captains chairs so getting into the 3rd row is easy (it's just like a minivan on the inside with this setup).  It drives nicely, is smooth and quiet, has a decent get-up-and-go when you put the pedal to the metal and the sticker price is very pleasing!  The sun roofs are awesome.  There is 1 in back and 1 in front. The car has USB ports for our iPhones and an AC power adapter to plug in our laptops on road trips.  We love that!

The photo doesn't really do it justice but it IS roomy in there.  And what's really nice is that the 2nd row seats recline and they shift forward and backward in case you've got adults in the 3rd row, you can make more room for them. This car has the option for navigation and DVD player and power seats, etc.  We do not like that when you close the sun roofs, the cover is this net fabric and the sun still shines through the net.  Kind of annoying! But one cool feature is the back-up camera.  It shows up in a square on the left side of your rear view mirror, then disappears again when you're done reversing.  Love that!  It's not an option, though, if you buy the navigation.  Then it's just in the dash on the regular screen.  Boring! 


The Mazda CX-9 is a little different from the Traverse in good ways and in bad ways.  First, it has all of these really cool features.  It has a blind spot detector - there's a little amber light that glows when there is a car in your blind spot and there is a beeping noise if there's a car in your blind spot while you have your blinker on.  Cool factor and safety factor!

The console was beautiful and modern with lots of digital stuff and best of all, this SUV is fast and maneuvers like a car.  We were thrilled about that.  Zoom zoom, indeed!  The big problem with this Mazda, though, is that the 3rd row seats 2, not 3 and is built only for children.  Which is fine and dandy if you will only haul children.  But we want the capability to put anyone back there.  We want to keep this new car for 10 years or so.  We've got to have the option to seat more adults.  The price of this car, was surprisingly low, though.  Even for a fully-loaded one!


The look of the Buick Enclave really grew on me as I was looking at cars.  It's just really pretty - the shape of it, that front grill, the chrome trim.  A lovely car.  And we already knew it had the same roominess as the Traverse.  But we wanted to drive the car, sit in the seats and see the dash and extra features.  The inside is very comfortable, maybe more so than the Traverse.  It drives a little more sluggishly, though, just because it's a bigger car, I'm sure, but that doesn't make us happy.  

The dash and console are nice but it's geared towards the luxury car lover with a lot of wood trim.  Honestly, too much wood trim for us.  We feel about 20 years older just siting in the car.  The wood would have been nice just on the dash but you can see in the picture that it's on the steering wheel and the gear shift and cup holders, etc.  We don't love that.  The car did drive more quietly than the other cars, though, which makes our road trips a lot nicer!  But that comes at a price.


The 2011 Ford Explorer is a brand new model.  It is definitely more truck-like and more boxy than the other cars we've looked at so far.  I don't love that in general.  However, there's a modernness to the car that makes the overall look pretty pleasing.  It drives really nicely.  It's probably not more quiet than the other cars but it seems to be a bit smoother ride compared to the other cars.  I hate an SUV that rocks you all over the place on every dip and pothole.  This didn't do that at all!

The inside is decently roomy.  Technically, there is just as much leg room as the Traverse and Enclave but unfortunately the 2nd row seats don't slide forwards and backwards to give more leg room in the 3rd row when needed.  It's not hard for adults to sit back there, though it's only built to seat 2 people.  This car does have some pretty awesome gadgets on it: USB and AC power, everything is digital aside from the speedometer and our phones can integrate to load all contacts and play music that you can control from the touch screen.  Andrew spent a good amount of time playing with the electronics with a big grin on his face.


The Toyota Highlander had the best fuel efficiency and they make a hybrid while the other cars we drove do not.  With the long-term investment we're making on a car, spending money on a hybrid would be worth it.  It drives nicely, doesn't stand out or fall behind the pack in speed or maneuverability but it does seem like a bumpier ride.  I like the console, the way the buttons were set up and what was really cool was that the center seat in the 2nd row can be removed and replaced with a center console.

The 3rd row, however, seats 2 and is small.  It's hard to get into as well.  The 2nd row seats fold in half, then scoot forward, but don't fold forward a second time to give you a clear path to get to the back.  You end up kind of having to step over the 2nd row seat.  Not awesome.  Lastly, the storage space in the back wasn't great.  I didn't mention it with the other cars because it was equally good in each of them.  This one left something to be desired.

So, this is our hunt and these are our choices.  It was exhausting driving all the cars and researching everything, but for me it was really fun too!  It feels so great to gather all of this information in order to make an informed decision.  In some cases I knew more about the car than the salesman did like towing capacity and where the USB was located and whether or not sun roofs were available for front and back... it helps that I have a good memory but trust me, I did my research.  I will say the only problem is when you have a lot of information, it makes it more difficult to come to one conclusion sometimes.  What are the sayings?  "Ignorance is bliss" and "Analysis Paralysis."  Oh, they can be very true!  But I would rather err on the side of too much information than not enough.  What feels REALLY good is that at the end of all this, we purchased a new car and we feel very confident in our decision.  Any guesses on what our final decision was?

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Christina Can Cook!

Alright, I can cook SOMETIMES! When I want to, basically. Just like everything else in life. Last weekend we were stuck at home nursing Maisy back to health. I use "stuck" loosely here because I happen to like my home and my husband and my silly little dogs. I have the comfiest bed in the world, a nice TV, TONS of DVD's, a plethora of kitchen gadgets at hand and the disposable income of a dual-income household with no children. Home ain't so bad! So over the weekend I decided to put some of those gadgets to use and make some recipes I've been holding onto.

I read a few blogs. One of them is The Pioneer Woman. I like her a lot! She's funny, charming and talented. And although she lives on a sprawling ranch in the middle of nowhere, she doesn't act like it is the ONLY way to live your life. I appreciate anyone who doesn't come across so egocentric. I like to LEARN about other people's lives, not be beat over the head with how much better theirs is than mine. She gets it.

The Pioneer Woman has an AMAZING food blog! AH-MAZE-ING! I love it! She's a little too spicy for me but I just omit the spice and everything turns out oh so nice! Let me share with you what I made last weekend. Not all of these are her recipes, but I got all of them from her page.

The first thing I made on Friday night was this delightful little twist on a burger:



It's a Long Boy Burger from this website. FANTASTIC! Such a "DUH, why didn't I think of that?" kind of recipe. A french bread burger, just like the (brilliant) french bread pizza! Delicious and fun to eat! The only change I would make is to saute the onions a little bit first. These don't stay in the oven long enough for the onions to caramelize. I also added more garlic to the recipe. I do that to most recipes. With the exception of cakes.

The next thing I made was this wonderful Strawberry Buttermilk Cake, recipe found here:



I screwed up this cake. I will never forgive myself for it. I made it in the morning so I was still kinda sleepy. (Yes, for breakfast. If you can have buttermilk pancakes with strawberries for breakfast then why not this? If you still question that perfect logic, check out Jim Gaffigan's "Cake" segment on YouTube. He'll set you straight!)





Anyway, I screwed up this cake because I set the temp too high. It scorched on the top and it was goop in the middle. I (by "I," I mean Andrew) caught the temp problem early and we turned it down to save the majority of the cake. Thank goodness! Because it was friggin delicious!!!! You have got to make this cake. But don't screw it up like I did! There is lemon zest in this cake. Do not skip that part! That gave it this bright, summery flavor that just made your taste buds do a happy dance. Bake this today! Don't change a thing in the recipe!

I also made an omelette for Andrew & I to split that morning. Omelettes are boring. Moving on.

The next thing I made in the afternoon (by "I," I again mean Andrew) was homemade guacamole. Andrew always does great with his guac but this time it was magnificent! There's no recipe, we just wing it. Works every time.

To go with the guac, I made these super delicious Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos:



OMG, OMG, OMG! This is my new favorite recipe! I followed it exactly with 1 exception - only use 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling in each tortilla. Otherwise too much of the creaminess oozes out and/or your tortilla will split and then get soggy! I used the extra thin tortillas but there still would have been oozing if they hadn't broke. By my second batch these were perfect and let me tell you... they are the ideal balance of creamy and meaty and the tortillas actually get nice and crispy without frying! I did do one extra thing the recipe doesn't say to do. I squeezed lime over them before I salted them. That was a nice little something extra. Make these! You won't be sorry!

Okay everyone, are you ready for some indulgence now? This isn't going to make some people very happy. But this is real life. And cake made from candy bars happens in real life. So just man up and deal with it! Ladies and gentlemen... I bring you... the Milky Way Cake:



I both love and hate The Pioneer Woman for sharing this with the world. It was thoroughly delicious. I followed her steps to the letter and clung to every photograph like a life preserver bobbing in the stickiness. The milky ways melted weird and I was worried about the frosting but it all turned out just grand! I halved her recipe and made an 8x8 cake. It was so rich and beautiful. The frosting set nicely and I didn't have the problems she described about the cake not holding together. Perhaps because I was patient and let it set before cutting it! The cake was actually more like a brownie by the time I cut it. It was even better the next day. You need to make this cake. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next day. But put it on your bucket list, okay? It's so unique yet you feel like you've known it your whole life with those familiar milky way flavors all throughout. It was kinda shabby-chic!

For dinner that night I made beef stroganoff. Nothing new and exciting for us. It's a regular 'round here. Snooze.

On Sunday I made my second batch of taquitos and then mozzarella sticks from scratch. With panko crumbs, of course! Because there is no other way to make them. Just go out for fast food if you plan on making them with regular bread crumbs. Save yourself the hard work that will be worthy of excellence but only produces mediocre results. I used some tips from Pioneer Woman for my sticks, found here, but I pretty much know how to make them. It isn't hard! The trick is getting the breading to stick and then figuring out your heat so you get that sweet spot between un-melted cheese and exploding cheese. A few of mine exploded. But they were STILL delicious!

We had leftovers for dinner on Sunday night so this ends our culinary weekend. I am so proud of the stuff I made! I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. I get frustrated very easily when I screw something up. But then when I do something well, I think to myself, "Big deal! People have been cooking since the beginning of time. Put down the wooden spoon and go create something new in the world, dummy." I'm finding the balance between the challenge, the enjoyment, and finding my favorite recipes. That really helps, to find your favorite foods are things you make yourself - it's kinda cool! My love/hate is turning more love and less hate. But it's not likely I will become one of those people who takes pictures of my food and posts it on facebook every night. I just can't shake the, "Big deal!" feeling or the feeling that I'm being braggy or being inauthentic. I'll do the occasional cooking post here, I guess, when appropriate. Maybe pictures too. When I have better lighting in my kitchen and everything doesn't turn out dull and yellowy! Bad food pics just aren't appetizing, people! And sometimes bad pictures happen to good food. Not in my house, sir. Not in my house!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend

Andrew and I spent our entire Memorial Day weekend indoors. What a shame, I know. It was beautiful outside. People were out at the beach, on road trips, BBQ'ing, boating, visiting farmer's markets, being Californians. And we weren't. But that was fine by us. We had an injured baby to take care of. Somewhere during the week leading into Memorial Day weekend, our Maisy-girl got some sort of a bug bite on her tail. It was a little red spot and it bothered her and she gnawed at it a little but we figured it would eventually get better. I mean come on, it's just a bug bite. But this is our Maisy we're talking about. The dog who has, on 3 separate occasions, been stung by a bee and had her face swell up like a balloon. The dog I came home to once, to find a bloody massacre all over our apartment... she had so much blood in her stool, it was everywhere, it looked like someone was killed in our apartment. It was very scary.

Sorry to get graphic. I just have to give you some examples so you know the medical mayhem Maisy can get into. So of course we should have known this wouldn't be a regular ole' bug bite that would heal in a day or two on any other dog. No way, no how, not on Medical Marvel Maisy. The little red spot grew bigger and bigger on her tail and she chewed on it more and more and by Saturday she would no longer let us touch it to look at it or wash it or put neosporin on it (yes, I did that) so we had to take her to the vet. They shaved her little tail and cleaned it and sprayed something on it with alcohol but also a soothing agent, gave her an antibiotic and prednisone to take (YAY, pills in peanut butter... that made her happy) and, much to Maisy's dismay, the latest version of the "cone of shame." Except it's no longer a cone! It's now a "foam of shame." It's this foam donut she wears around her neck like a life preserver so she can't reach and bite at her tail. She looked like she was ready to go boating. Take a look for yourself!


Sitting by the door, waiting for us to pay and leave this horrible place that [GASP] shaved her tail! (We heard her give her desperation bark when they had her in the back, shaving it.)


Blurry, happy face because we're about to leave.

She hated the foam of shame. She tried to pull it off and succeeded several times. We hated it too. She slept with it on the first night. Well, she TRIED to sleep with it on. Not much sleeping was had. Not by anyone! We put her in between us in bed so we could keep an eye on her and she kept waking up and rolling over or turning around and kept hitting us in the face with the foam. No one got much sleep that first night!

As the weekend carried on, we kept her on the couch, close to one of us at all times, with the foam of shame on her head as little as possible. She just couldn't sleep and be comfortable with that thing on! And she needed to sleep and forget about her tail. Andrew and I rented movies and cooked and stayed in the entire weekend. It was kind of nice. It was especially nice because I made some AWESOME food! I'll share with you what I made but not now. I'm tired.

So how has Maisy fared since last weekend? Luckily, she began to heal pretty quickly. The red, fleshy, constantly wet spot turned into a dry, scabby terrain and she no longer tries to furiously chew off her entire tail. She sleeps next to me right now, content and comfortable. YAY! The foam only lasted for that first 2 days. All her medicine is gone so no more peanut butter. BOOO! We are all much happier and even managed to make it to our beloved dog beach this weekend. YAY! But my knee started acting up again at the beach. BOOO! And it's Sunday and the weekend is over. BOOO! But we both have jobs to go to tomorrow so YAY! Also we managed to squeeze in X-Men First Class this weekend so YAY! And the "YAY"s outweigh the "BOOO"s so life is grand. I hope you can say the same for yourself!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Things You Don't Know About Christina

I haven't blogged in a while. Okay, that you DO know. That's not part of the "Things You Don't Know" segment of this blog post. That's just the intro. Okay? Okay.

I've been really busy so I haven't had much time for blogging. The free time I have had was spent far away from a computer... like at the dog beach or at the movie theater or eating out at restaurants. Just add traveling to that and you've got 4 of my favorite places to go/things to do away from home! No time for travel though. I'm feeling angsty about that but that's another blog post.

So, some of the things you don't know about Christina (and Andrew too) are the same things that have been keeping me so busy. Here's a nice numbered list for you. I really like numbered (and bullet-pointed) lists. I like charts and graphs too. I'll work on a blog post that includes more charts and graphs soon!
  1. I am now the proud owner of a shiny new Master's Degree in Educational Administration. YAY! And. The. Crowd. Goes. WIIILLLLDDD! My graduation was last weekend (the 21st) and my parents and in-laws came and we went out to lunch and I got some very generous gifts and some beautiful flowers and it was really nice! It feels great to have so much support!

  2. Andrew is now looking at graduate school. He's trying to be as smart as I am! Silly boy. [kidding, kidding]

  3. It looks like we'll be moving to Utah.

  4. I really hate roaches.

  5. Oh, you want me to go back to #3? Okay!

  6. Andrew wants to get his Master's in Engineering. He also wants to start his own company cuz "the man" is really bringin him down! Well, the University of Utah has a dual degree program, an MBA and the MS in Engineering with the exact emphasis he wants. They offered him a scholarship too because he's really cool and awesome and smart and they are on top of it enough to know that. Also, the company he works for has a facility there (in Salt Lake City to be specific) so he can (make the valiant attempt to) have a job. (It's a valiant attempt because school will be full-time. Yikes!) So, I'm looking for a job and we'll probably be moving in August.

  7. I will really miss California. I will miss the dog beach and Disneyland and the plethora of options I have of what to do and where to go and what to eat every weekend and what is perhaps the best weather on planet Earth! I will miss a lot.

  8. I will NOT miss the traffic and the expensive housing and some of the snobby OC people.

  9. I will be looking forward to some change. I generally like change. It's exciting! Being someone who enjoys change, I have to be careful that I don't want change for the sake of change. That kind of change is stupid. But this isn't that kind of change. This is good, exciting change for a good reason.

  10. Speaking of change, if you have any to spare, please send it our way. We're going to rent out our condo and buy a house. Houses there are cheap but that's still 2 mortgages (1 of which rent will not totally cover) and another down-payment. Bye-bye financial freedom and the occasional, "I'd like a new pair of shoes just because" trip to Kohls.

  11. Kidding about the change. Don't send us any. We'll figure it out. I know all of you were running to your coin jar. Abort mission!

  12. I can cook! I cooked a lot of things this weekend and I only got frustrated a couple of times. Improvement! (Sudden change in topic, I know. But there isn't much else to report on Utah. We're juggling a lot of things now: condo rental, house purchase, job hunt... and the balls are all still up in the air.)

  13. I have an intense love-affair with Showtime and HBO dramas and comedy series. I sit and I wait and I look at the Facebook pages for those shows and I remember the dates without writing them down. True Blood comes back on the 26th. Weeds, the 27th. Yippie!

  14. The wedding photos from my evening wedding reception on Saturday night were all lost when our photographer's hard-drive crashed. I'm super-duper-mega sad about that. If anyone reading this has pictures from Saturday night, please email them to me!

  15. My mother-in-law has been going through a brutal cancer treatment for about 90% of the year so far. Luckily, it was discovered early and they attacked it pretty hard but radiation on skin cancer is very painful and chemo sucks for lots of reasons. She made it through, is still healing but feeling good and we're excstatic about that and we're amazed at what she's been through.

  16. I cannot sing. I wish I could, but I can't. I only sing alone, in a big group or when I'm drunk. However, if you point this out or make fun of it, my feelings will totally be hurt.

  17. My feelings are hurt so much more often than I show. I'm a pro at not showing when I'm hurt.

  18. There are a lot more things you don't know about Christina and plenty of those you never will. Sorry. That's how I roll.
One thing most everyone knows about Andrew and I is that we adore our 2 dogs and we treat them like our children. Our Maisy has an injury we spent all weekend nursing. I'll tell more about it soon. For now I'm tired and am signing off. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Wedding Photos


Our wedding photos (getting ready, ceremony and brunch reception) are posted. Enjoy!
Click here to view photos