Ahhhh.

Finally in my new comfy pajama pants and slippers, with my feet up and a fire going. This has been a stellar Christmas.

Please, Christmas, don't be late!

One of my favorite Christmas songs is still The Chipmunk Song. You know, the one that says "we can hardly stand the wait, please Christmas don't be late"? 

I remember when I was a kid, it felt like Christmas could never come fast enough. Time seemed to actually slow down after the hoopla of my November birthday and Thanksgiving, just to taunt me with the nearness of Christmas.

Aaron has this theory that when you're young, time goes by slowly because it's so relative to how long you've been perceiving time. I'm really starting to believe that. Every year it seems like the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas gets shorter and shorter. I'm just now starting to feel like it's "Christmas time."

I have other friends who think that it goes by more quickly as an adult because of all the responsibilities; presents, decorations, celebrations...

Whether it's one or the other or a mix of the two, I definitely feel the effect this year. I still listen to that Christmas song, but it seems more whimsical now if only because I would rather say "please Christmas, slow your roll."

TGIF.

Happy Friday. Enjoy.

Nor Cal

Things I love about Nor Cal...
1. It really doesn't matter what you wear
2. Playing board games almost every night
3. Wrasslin' and throwing things at siblings and cousins
4. My "bonus" family... to be utterly cheesy, I've got the best of both worlds.

Goodnight, moon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we're finally technically on our way up to the lovely Orland, California. It's about 530 miles from here, and 25 miles from Chico, California. You know, that big bustling city of CHICO.

More Before & After

Aaron and I tackled our first "all by ourselves" project of refinishing a table that we bought from a family at church. I'm SO glad we finished it! :) Okay, my mom ended up helping a little bit, but for the most part we really did do it by ourselves!

Doh! Aaron had already commenced with sanding before I took pictures.

Scout-tested, Kimbo-approved.

Ta-da!

Completely decorated with Ikea goodies, sans the napkins and rings.

Guess where we are!

Eating lunch early is apparently the only way to get into the Blue Bayou today. There is a really cool Jack Sparrow playing around all throughout New Orleans Square. Apparently it's his last day. I think he beats the guy my dad saw in Yucaipa in August.

New and Improved

We got some good quality decorating time in on the living room on Saturday, plus my Dad and Aaron installed a ceiling fan (and LIGHT SWITCH) in our bedroom! :)

I got sad yesterday when I realized I didn't take "before" pictures of our living room and dining set. You'll have to take my word for it if you haven't seen it, but this is 1,000 times improved:

The couch we bought in September, the same day as the brown and blue pillows. The striped ones came with the couch (on Saturday). My mom and I went shopping and found the pictures at Home Goods and the rug at Lowe's (of all places).

Scout is being a good sport about staying off the pretty new furniture - well, at least when we are in the room. ;) She's been caught napping on the couch now on two separate occasions when either me or Aaron were in the office.

New chairs we found at Sears (2 for $49!!!). The material is a bit "greenish" but that's okay, because my kitchen accent color is green. We took the leaf out of the table and angled it. It makes a huge difference as far as space goes. I think next weekend we're going to try and tackle refinishing the table in a dark color to match the legs on the chairs.

Excuse the mess, we were working on projects ALL weekend. One of those projects is a virus-infected Toshiba you see on the table. *shakes fist at viruses* Sorry, Lori, we'll get your compy back to normal soon!

Pictures!

Alright, I have finally managed to get the pictures that I have of the house up on Picasa. I really haven't taken any of it with everything set up inside yet because I'm just not happy enough yet to document it. But soon... very soon. :)

Look, it's a REAL stove now!

Holy 15 Freeway, Batman!

Cool. :)

Scout's new look

Our House

We are starting to get somewhat settled into our new home. :) I just realized that I never actually posted here about the fact that we recently bought a 4 bedroom house in Rancho Cucamonga. I never thought we would be able to do this, but we've been blessed with a great opportunity.

Pics to follow soon... and family, watch your mailboxes for a change of address card!

Home Safe

Well, we made it home safely, but it was a long journey. We first had to get here from LAX, then drive Nathan back to Chino, pick up Scout at Rose & Jon’s, and stop by Aaron’s parents’ house for a little birthday cake.

Today we go to Downey to sign our loan documents at the Escrow office, then we do our walk-through on Thursday or Friday.

Ok, I'm turning off my phone for take off. :)

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Leavin' on a jet plane

We are at the airport. Thankfully Joe's uncle brought us so we didn't have to haul our stuff on trains!

Last Day

Well, it's our last day and I'm pretty sad about it. Normally at the end of a vacation, I'm ready to go home, sleep in my own bed, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to comforts like 2 people in a two bedroom apt instead of 8, a real bed, privacy... but I love this place. It truly is a melting pot, far more diverse than LA. Great public transportation, great food, surprisingly nice people. If it were at all feasible, I could easily move here for a year or two. But, I guess since we become homeowners effective this week, we're anchored. So don't worry, Dad, no cross country moves anytime soon. And I don't think Aaron would go for it either.

I'm going to try to list what we've seen and done this week:
~ Times Square
~ Conan O'Brien Show
~ Today Show (walked by)
~ Rockefeller Center
~ St. Patrick's Cathedral
~ Radio City Music Hall
~ Empire State (not inside, too much $)
~ Statue of Liberty (by way of Staten Island Ferry for FREE)
~ A dive bar and met some local people
~ The Lion King (Kim)
~ Rent (Kim)
~ Spamalot
~ Yankees Game (boys only)
~ Madison Square Garden
~ Greenwich Village
~ Little Italy
~ Flatiron Building
~ The Met
~ The Guggenheim
~ Central Park
including Strawberry Fields and a row boat on one of the lakes
~ Carnegie Hall
~ Wall Street
~ Ground Zero
~ Grand Central Station
~ Coney Island

So I guess you could say it was a full week, and maybe that's why my feet hurt. Next time I'd like to see The Cloisters, more of the Met, get to the top of a building, and see Wicked. Not too much to ask, right? ;)

And we're on what might be our last subway ride if Joe's uncle takes us to the airport tomorrow. Sad. I guess I did kinda get used to it.

Uh oh

Well, at least it was only lke this today.

Pictures Again

A day in the life... Wednesday / Thursday

First stop, Ground Zero, which isn't much anymore but a construction site:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then off to Wall Street..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And since yesterday was probably the most humid day we've had, we were in no mood to wait an hour and pay $20 to go see the Statue up close and personal. But thanks to digital zoom, I got a shot of her, at least:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed over to Coney Island from there for some lunch at Nathan's Hot dogs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the boys went and took a chance on getting Yankees / Angels tickets. So they did that while I saw Rent with Wahima.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first stop today, since we didn't leave the house until 1pm, was Whitecastle. Two words: Over Hyped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop, the Met, and my attempt at a myspace picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did the tourist thing and got a picture with all four of us actually IN it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then headed into the park. How mad do I look that the boys won't stop reading stories with Hans Christian Anderson?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite part of the park, Strawberry Fields:

I heart Central Park

This is the coolest.

On the lake

THIS is where we are, right now! On a freaking boat in central park. Awesome.

A walk in the park

Oops

I forgot to attach this pic from last night at Serendipity:

Pictures

We're on our way!!!

Landing and the skyline...

















Joe says, "Hey, look guys, it's Times Square!"

30 Rock... where's Kenneth?

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Lombardi's... the first "ever" American Pizzeria

We couldn't think of a witty caption for 6 people wearing Conan wristbands:

Yogi's (the dive bar)

And now it's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea. Good Idea:

BAD Idea:

Spamalot

Koronet's...

...has GIANT slices of Pizza

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Sarita's Mac was YUMMY.

Serendipity

The theme of the week and the cafe I'm at withj Wahima. Also a John Cusack movie.

Sub(?)way

We're actually above ground, en route to Coney Island for some skee ball and a Nathan's hot dog.

Lottery Tickets

Well, today started off on a pretty sour note. We hustled down to the theatre district to try to get tix for Wicked. The train we were on the longest had a broken ac, and it was miserable. Then we got there too late.

We went to Sarita`s for mac & cheese, and then over to Greenwich Village, where I got separated from the guys via a miscommunication and was standing there wondering if Aaron knew I didn`t have my cell phone (he was carrying the bag).

Then we played phone tag with Wahima and ended up trying again for Wicked tickets. They have a line where you go and they draw names to be anble to purchase the front two rows of seats. We did not win (shocker). While we were on our way there, the engineer on the subway came on and said something about smoke coming from the back of the last car- which happened to be ourcar. So we had to switch trains.

I did get to see The Lion King, and that was beautiful. Now it`s much later than I wanted to be up, but that`s the gist of it so I`ll leave it at that.

let's try this again

ok, this time we actually made it to the line. there are 34 tickets up for grabs, and it's on a lottery. there are 4 of us and we are just hoping one of our names gets called so two of us can go.

s'mac

thanks, Dottie! this is bomb!!!

Wicked

Nothing like riding a subway train with broken ac and hustling through times square to get to the theatre and miss even the chance to get tickets via the lottery. :(

Day 3

It's hard to believe yesterday was only our second FULL day in NY. But I guess that's partly because we ended up staying out until 1am on our first night here after getting in at 6:15!

Yesterday was mostly spent recovering from Monday night. We started moving towards the city around 3:30pm.

First stop was the little deli/restaurant that Joe's family owns. His aunt insisted we go down there and get some food before going to Manhattan. Then we made our way over to Target for a few necessities before hitting the TKTS booth to get some discounted tickets.

The best option at the booth was Spamalot for $60. The tickets were in Orchestra, but had partial view. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go ahead with them or not, and we ended up going back up to the windows a few times after talking amongst ourselves and trying to figure it out. At first they didn't have any two seats that were together, but by the last time we went up they had just gotten two sets of two tickets, and they were actually pretty close in proximity to each other.

The show was "okay", but just okay. I'm a big Monty Python fan, so I guess I had greater expectations for the show than I should have, but whatever. If I can get these boys to get a move on we can try for $25 tickets for Wicked via the lottery, and my Broadway theatre experience can be redeemed!

I'm off to get ready and to try to wake up three sleepy and cranky guys. And don't think me unreasonable, it's 10:40am and I've been up since 9:30.

No pics

Well, no pics again tonight. Maybe tomorrow, if we get in at a decent hour.

So far, so good

There are so many iconic places to see here, it`s actually ridiculous. I`m definitely getting a lot of mileage on my camera, and it`s really fun to try and capture these places on "film."

I really want to post pictures, but I`m still getting used to my dad`s tiny comp, so I`ll recap with words and then post pics this evening.

SO, yesterday we went to get standby tickets for Conan O`Brien. Which meant we were all at Rockefeller Center around 7:30am, what should have felt like 4:30 to us, but thankfully we were super adjusted to the time already. They don`t hand out the "tickets" until 9am, so we were standing around for quite a while. While the rest of the troops held our place in line, Aaron and I went and checked out the Today show people. Once we finally got our blue tickets, we still weren`t guaranteed a seat. For that we had to come back at 4:15 and pray that at least 14 people who had reserved tickets for the show wouldn`t make it.

Once we had secured our standby ticket spot, we walked over to the NBC studio store and then to Nintendo World. We walked around at Rockefeller, and then made our way up to St. Patrick`s cathedral. Talk about breathtaking! The outside is gorgeous, but then you step inside and it`s a whole new level of beauty.

Side note here. When I post the pictures you will see another guy and girl consistently in them. These are not just random people we met in NYC. We actually discovered a few weeks ago that two other Cal Poly theatre friends would be here at pretty much the same time as us, so we`ve been hanging out with them on and off. Then, when we got here, Joe informed us that yet another CPP grad would also be around in the BIG city. We had already let Carlos and Samantha know we would be here, so we hooked up with them Sunday night.

Dave, on the other hand didn`t answer his phone when we called, and we weren`t even sure he was still around.

So imagine Nathan`s surprise when he`s just walked in to the cathedral, and comments about how remarkable it is, and turns around to see Dave standing there. Coincidence? I`m going with no.

We finish up there, Dave and Sio have plans for the day, but we agree to meet up later at a dive bar Samantha found.

We headd over to Little Italy to get pizza at America`s first pizzaria, Lombardi`s. Then we got some rice pudding from this over-priced trendy little joint called Rice to Riches, and to Ferrara to get gelato for Aaron. Then there was a lovely walking debacle with trying to finf the right Subway station, but once we were finally on we still had plenty of time to find the Flat Iron building before we had to get back to the Rock for Conan.

Obviously we did make it to Conan, but unfortunately Kelsey Grammar apparently got shuffled around and the other guests weren`t great. It was still fun to see Conan himself, at least.

When we were done at the studio, we walked over to see Carnegie Hall and then went on some bad directions in search of Gray`s Papaya for hot dogs. When we were back to the M&M store at Times Square, we knew we were doomed. But, we were spotted by Samantha`s mom who recommended we go to Sbarro fr dinner, that they had a good price on a buffet. That was disappointing, and expensive for Nathan and Joe (they charge by weight of your plate), but we were hungry so we made do.

We walked over to the giant TS Toys R Us and wandered around, then started making our way over to the bar to reunite with the rest of the CPP people. Once everyone got there, we were just amazed at how it could have happened. Seriously, we couldn`t have coordinated a trip like that if we tried. PLUS Carlos talked to Wahima, who`s MOVED here, only, she just got here last night. It`s crazy, I tell you.

While at the bar we met and befriended Ion and Gabriel, and had some awesome conversations with them, plus they gave us good tips for where to go and what not to pay for.

Then we walked down to Gray`s, and I`m so glad we didn`t end up eating dinner there. Yuck! But there was a man named Charles there who was homeless, and Aaron and I ended up having a pretty good talk with him, too.

At about the time we started walking to the subway station across the street, we realized Joe had had a bit too much of the sauce. W!hich left us to figure out the trains back to Queens. Oh yeah, add to that that it`s 4 in the morning so some trains aren`t running and some stops are skipped.

A good hour fifteen and four transfers later, with Aaron and Nathan tending to Joe and helping him up and down stairs, we got back to the house at 5:30, just in time to see Joe`s aunt leaving for work. And, at which point, we had been out in the city for over 23 hours.

It`s almost 2pm here, Nathan`s still asleep, and Joe was working on a crossword puzzle, but apparently sleep was calling him back. Once we rally the troops, we`ll go get some mac and cheese per Dottie`s recommendation. Joe says it`s good hangover food. :P

Watch tonight AND tomorrow

So, we got into Conan. You may catch a glimpse of us tonight, but we also got held after to shoot a piece for tomorrow's show, so watch then, too. Can someone tape it in case we're there?

Sandwich Shop

Clever...

Conan O'Brien

Well, we finally landed yesterday around 6:15. Then we hopped on to a train and made our way over to Joe's aunt and uncle's house in Queens. Which, when you're hauling luggage on and off of subway trains and through turnstyles is no easy task. Then we had to walk up a "nice" little hill. Once we got unloaded and slightly cleaned up, we hopped back on the subway and headed over to Manhattan.

Thanks to Joe's cousin we headed to the best hilail place, a stand on 53rd and 6th. Check out www.hilailguys.com. Aaron and Joe learned just how hot the hot sauce was, and then we walked to Times Square.

We finally ended up getting to bed at 1:30.

Now we are waiting and hoping to get standby tickets for Conan. I hope we get in, tonight's main guest is Kelsey Grammar, and then the musical guest is The Ting Tings.

We also walked over and took a peek at the Today show. I have lots of pics to post later!