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Company

You all read that list (that I can’t find to link to) and know by now that we’ve been running a hotel. It was my idea. We’re somewhere cool – tell everyone to come. Big hits in Seattle and San Diego. It helps us see more of where we’re living. And cuts our travel time a little. πŸ˜‰

Well, KD and JC were here when I found out about Grandma. And as awful as I felt having to deal with it in front of them, I can’t imagine doing it without them. ND and NN being here probably got MK out of not knowing what to say or do. I bet he was grateful. I’ve had KJ and RJ here cooking for me and letting me nap. We all know these people aren’t just my company, they’re my friends. But it’s also nice to be reminded what a smart friend picker I am.

In other good news, it finally snowed again for the first time in weeks, just in time for ASH and NH πŸ™‚ It seems like forever since I skied, I hope I can figure it out again!

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That Time Again

So it’s that time of year, when the blogging is slim, the holidays are abounding or whatever it is they do to you, and we’re planning on starting over fresh.

Our little plan kind of backfired. We wanted to wait until after Christmas and splurge on some things for each other. Nothing we really wanted was even on sale, and there’s actually not much we really want, or need. So far I’ve spent 7$, on some eye shadow. We’ve been down in our bat cave playing the new Xbox 360 MK got himself for his gift. That is when we’re not skiing. Skiing Christmas Eve Eve was a blast, and the day after Christmas TB’s family got to watch us come down the most challenging runs I’ve done yet. Living at the mountain instead of visiting really does do wonders.

My Christmas Eve this year was similar to last year in only one regard: fajitas. TB invited us over and we hung out relaxed style as the snow storm began. Christmas day we opened the great gifts MIL had sent, watched parades and ate junk food. The rest of the week we skied, as I mentioned, and got to hang out with the TB family. I even got my first (of many to come…) Cranium night.

The end of a year is always a fun and unique time with us, but I always get a little lonely even though I got to visit my family this year. So it was extra special to steal a little TB family love. Now the tree is down, the tourists are everywhere, and we’re looking forward to another storm and some more good times.

I’ve got my cousin JM coming, then WB, KD, JC, NN, ND and co., SH, JM, A and NH, and maybe even a SF. So the fun for us is just getting started. These folks should keep me busy. So the break in excitement is good, I’m going to be cooking and cleaning until March. And there’s nothing that could make me happier! πŸ™‚

I’m going on auto post for a few days, see you here next year!

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Thanksgiving Reminiscing

Thanksgiving this year got me thinking about the fact that I’ve been doing this a while. I always question the cheesy autobiographical nature it tended to take on – but right now I can be thankful. Even MK has noted there is a bit of worth to being able to check here to recall our adventures.

Here’s two years of Thanksgiving’s at my fingertips.

November 2006

November 2007

I especially enjoyed the Thankful Challenge that I participated in last year.

I can easily remembering sharing Thanksgiving with my in laws and my crazy new San Diego friends. This year, we’ll be with great friends in Utah. Yet another day to write about, share with you, my friends and family, and make you a part of right here. So this year, I’m most thankful that you stop by, that you participate, that you keep me blogging.

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Good For Everybody

BB and MK are in the same business. And business is good these days. In all sorts of ways. BB is getting famous, and not from repeated blog mentions! TB and I are in the same business – having fun and getting skinny. Business is picking up. πŸ˜‰

It’s not just waiting for the skiing and the guests and the friends that’s fun, it’s right here and now. I’ve been working on that and enjoying every morning I wake up to coffee in my big house, and every night MK falls asleep in front of a fire. I’ve enjoyed working on my all but horrific pool game. And finding my way around a new place. Hanging out with the world’s cutest kid is good. I’ve learned a lot from some great parents about what the future could hold. My kids just won’t be allowed to go to the zoo. Even if they are cute.

So that shot glass I bought MK today as a joke, the one I was going to use as my outgoing message tagline, that says “Eat drink and be merry, you might end up in Utah” well, that’s funny and all to joke about, but it’s not so bad here. In fact, it’s pretty amazing.

I mean, I saw three moose yesterday. I didn’t get a picture of them, but I did catch the snow-bow.

snowbow is a rainbow when it's snowing...

Beat that. πŸ˜‰

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We Did Chicago

There was a period of time there when I felt like I had a traveling job. We were flying so much I lived in an airport. We were pretty good at it. We recently changed that up for some road trips and so getting to the airport on time, parking, and checking in all had to be relearned.

We stayed at the Blackstone Hotel Thursday. I’ve never been to another hotel where they waited on us hand and foot. We ate and caught the VP debate. Friday MK traded a little from the hotel, which got us to a late start. BB and MB showed up and we met them at the Chairman’s Suite of the Sax Hotel. It ruled. There were a dozen TVs and a bar, dining room, living room, and enough hallway space for us all to try the moon walk. MB baked cookies and cakes and chex mix and brought all kinds of snacks. I decorated and covered the place in balloons and banners.

Three more friends of theirs and two of ours and it was a party. We almost didn’t want to leave! We checked out the bar scene and totally decided our room was more fun and went back.

The next day we enjoyed giant breakfast and some sightseeing, the Michigan Mile, Millennium Park, and had a drink at the top of the Hancock Tower. We went back for a little more drinking and football until we were starved enough to order pizza at Lou Malnati’s, then ate until we thought we might die. BB’s friends took off and we took MK out for birthday drinks. He got old at midnight and we went to our other not as big but still swank hotel room.

The next day was overcast but we ate and shopped and when the rain started went bowling. The hotel had a Microsoft Suite so we jammed a little Rock Band before MB and BB headed back home too. I took MK out for a birthday hamburger (his request) and we watched the end of the Red Sox game.

The next day we went to Navy Pier, then decided to challenge Lou Malnati’s with Giordano’s. It’s a tough call. Pretty much the only thing I learned about Chicago is the locals are overweight and I would be too if I lived there and ate Chicago stuffed pizza all the time…

So just like I told you here – we did enough but not too much. The idea was to be somewhere other than San Diego and to be with our close friends. We pulled that off and had a fun little break from reality. Now it’s back to work packing and planning. We’ll let my Daddy take us back to see all the good stuff we missed some time.

Don’t forget to read all my captions. They’re painstakingly there just for you.

Pictures Set One: Camera Phone pictures.

Pictures Set Two: Our Camera pictures.

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October

October is a hilarious month around here. By around here, I mean around me. MK’s birthday. CH’s birthday, and now BB’s birthday. Pumpkins are exciting, and this post that I put up last year is very popular. I can’t tell what it is that you search on google that pulls me up, but I had more hits last October to this blog that all of the first year’s worth of posts.

So before I even put anything up today, I see this giant arch up in my blog stats. The market may be tanking, but my value is epic this month. πŸ˜‰ Somegosoftly likes October, it creates self worth.

We are taking a trip tomorrow, a trip that has a funny story. The last time I tried to do this trip, I canceled it all and virtually moved out. For a reason we no longer remember. But still. This trip is a dangerous trip. So since we’ve never been on this trip, we’ve decided to do what no one’s ever done after flying somewhere they’ve never been: nothing.

That’s right, for MK’s BIG ***3-0*** we are planning on doing nothing. He hates sight seeing. Not gonna do it. He hates touristy stuff. Not gonna do it. He hates big fancy dinners. Not gonna have one. We got a giant GIANT room and we are going to sit in it. It has a media center fancier than anything. We might play Xbox all week. Who knows. We have some friends that we’ve tried to prepare. As in “you can come hang out, but if you’re gonna do stuff, well, we aren’t.” They seem down, so we might hang in PJ pants and drink wine and eat birthday cake and watch football – well, I might sneak in football if MK naps. I’m almost jealous of this birthday.

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Fun Running Around

Sometimes half the fun is in the normal stuff. Truth be told, we don’t DO normal stuff all that often. We skip the errands and get spoiled never driving during traffic. We walk around our little neighborhood and shop at the Farmer’s Market. This past week MK’s birthday necessitated me doing a little real shopping. I am lazy and got some things online, but finally decided there were things easy to pick up I couldn’t justify shipping costs for.

So I went to the mall. I haven’t been there since my little cousin visited. I don’t really need anything and have been pretty good about not wanting anything too. But it was great and sunny and the walking around put me in a great mood. The sales were good (which also helped my mood) and I found my dream purse (since I can’t NOT shop for myself – so much for not wanting anything). I went back later with MK since it was a lot of money, he had to approve. We also made a huge steal on new ski boots (mine were 400$ on sale for 74$, brand new, seriously) check them out:

After all the fun shopping we spent the end of the week and weekend watching football and doing a run and volleyball party with our running and volleyball club, kind of an end of summer party on the beach. It was a blast. We’ve made a ton of great friends here that we’re really going to miss and the change of the seasons and us telling everyone we’re leaving has had that awesome effect of just making everything really enjoyable.

MK and I took SH and JM out on the Hobie Cat after we checked out the Adams Ave. Street Fair. Then they picked up Chinese after deciding a bag of Doritos wasn’t enough while we watched football. JM said “Best Sunday ever” and even though it was a simple one, I had to agree.

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Collegiate Memory Inspired Antics

I’m not gonna lie or sugar coat this situation. I in a moment of insanity forgot my friend’s birthday. Her 30th birthday. SB, my college roommate, had to go so far as to call me and remind me I missed it and I suck. To be fair, we were planning a Mexican getaway to honor the event, and its cancellation is what prompted my forgetfulness. It’s not like I didn’t have it written down. Also in my defense (ask my mom), not having anything to do all day makes them all blur together and oftentimes I just honestly don’t know what day (week, month) it is.

Anyway, to apologize, I got SB here to SD. Her arrival late Friday was pretty exciting, as I hadn’t seen her since our road trip through Denver to Seattle. We commenced celebratory drinking at the La Jolla Brewhouse, ran kicking and screaming from stupid old Jose’s, and did a little late night drive through La Jolla Cove, calling it an early night so we could make the most of the long weekend. Did we, and how.

Saturday morning we had some technical difficulties with the car, as in we had to have it jumped. We walked the Cove again, stopped in at Karl Strauss (another brewery, already)

Mmmmm

Mmmmm

for a sampler and a Bloody Mary, and then meandered to Porkyland, our tourist coming armed with plans had suggested this place – it was great Mexican food.

Car fixed we drove to Balboa Park and paid 4$pp for the lamest Japanese Garden (it’s really 100ft. long) and wandered a bit taking pictures. When we were read to go, the car was not. Seriously, stupid car…so loving Super Husband let us cab it to Old Town while he waited (and waited) for the solution, which was determined to be a new car battery.

SB suggested the Jolly Boy Saloon in Old Town since she wanted absinthe. (She does not mess around). What I saw and we chose first was a sight which my eyes have never before been blessed with:

Wheel, Fire, Beer-Margarita

Great Inventions: Wheel, Fire, Beer-Margarita

Yes, a beer IN A GIANT MARGARITA. Or, a GIANT MARGARITA with A BEER in it. Whichever you prefer. It was AWESOME. Due to it’s size, we shared it responsibly. Then shared the absinthe. Then we were totally roasted. It was, maybe 2pm. We wolfed down some ice cream (yup, still gorging on that) then husband picked us up. We made it to Del Mar just in time to bet on the last two horse races before – seriously, she planned the whole trip, basically – we set off to the infield to attend the last concert of the summer Del Mar series that SB had discovered: DEVO.

Seriously. DEVO.

Seriously. DEVO.

As you can imagine, it was pretty hilarious. We topped out at about 30 minutes of rediculousness and headed home to clean up to head to the Gaslamp District. We had some dinner, some more drinks, and gussied up. I know it was a holiday weekend, but I’d never seen the bars so busy. There were lines everywhere, except (thankfully) Mr. Tiki’s, our staple starter bar. From there we hit up The Field, staple number 2, and some super cool new bar I forgot the name of.

Sunday morning we headed up to Mt. Soledad, then found the SDSU library and Dr. Suess statue (that was mostly for me). We went to the Gliderport, where it was super windy and there were a ton of paragliders out. We tried to get to Lahaina’s in PB but again, the beach was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it, even more than 4th of July. We changed-of-plans it right to Cass St., who serves up 4$ rice vodka spicy Bloody Mary’s. Are you seeing the theme yet? Back to our pool for some more drinks at sunset, a fashion photo shoot, and then off to the Pink Elephant, a pretty great neighboorhood hipster theme bar.

Pink Elephant Bar

Pink Elephant Bar

We got convinced by running club to meet up at Bourbon, where there was, no lie, a foam party. I tried my best to stay away from the madness, but we did have some fun dancing.We got home and totally ran through the parking garage, pool room, and etc. making messes like we were 19 again. Good times.

The next morning, hangover free, miraculously, we hit the Cove for snorkeling and the Shores for Body Boarding and Bahia Don Bravo’s for lunch all before getting SB on the plane ride home. We managed to squeeze quite a bit in.

Here’s the rest of the silly photos.

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I Know The Band – pH10

SyBO T. just visited me. Now she’s famous. Click the pic for the link to the full post, there’s more: A heartwarming love story of two souls fused over sick beats.

see full post at gitpop.com

see full post at gitpop.com

Here’s another link to a review full of praise.

And another, I promise I didn’t write the comment but I love it.