Calocaisms

Eventuality

2010-10-04T21:25:00.001-07:00

In just under a month, I will be a stay at home mom. Well, mostly. I'll still work Mondays at Scheu Plumbing, and I have some other opportunities lined up to work from home.

BUT, for the most part, I'm hoping to find lots of ways to save money. Ways to use coupons creatively to get stuff for free or cheap. Homemade Christmas gifts. Homemade... mozarella cheese? Dishwashing detergent? Homegrown zucchini? Tomatoes? Who knows?

I know some of it is overly ambitious since I have a baby who will soon be a toddler. And then who knows, maybe another baby eventually. But I figure I can aim high and if I miss the bar at least I'll have tried.

It will be fun. It will be rewarding. It will help us get out of debt. If I find a cool creative way to tie it all together and market it, maybe I'll start a blog akin to MoneySavingMom.com.

For now, 4 more weeks of work at Flipside. Then we'll see how things go.

Stupid spammers!

2009-11-21T21:36:00.000-08:00

Guess I have to turn back on comment verification! Stupid spam commenters, I don't even know what they hope to gain from leaving viagra filled comments on MY blog, anyway. Jerks.

Maui, Day 1

2009-06-12T22:25:00.001-07:00

Today has been fabulous. We naturally woke up early (thanks, Time Zone!), and leisurely made our way around the island. Now we're enjoying dinner and drinks and taking in the sunset.

TGIF

2009-05-22T23:53:00.001-07:00

For the first time in a long time, I actually get to sleep in. Like I really don't have anywhere to be until a grad party at 7.

I'm writing from my phone on a nearly dead battery. Better post tomorrow... :)

How To Spy On Your Dog

2009-03-10T12:55:00.000-07:00

After getting a note and a stern talking-to from my neighbor about my dog's "constant barking", I started to despair over having to crate my poor mutt all day long while Aaron and I are at work.

And then I thought, I should observe this before I change up her routine. Make sure that I'm not just throwing her in a 3x3 box at a time of day when she wouldn't be barking anyway. If only there was a way I could RECORD the sounds from the backyard... old school tape deck from a thrift store? Call the house from my cell phone and listen in all day? No, the cordless phone battery would die.

AHA! Rock Gtalk on my laptop, hook my corded headset to my blinds by the open window, and voila! I am spying on my own backyard. Not only that, but I'm able to listen right from my desktop at work instead of having to wait until I can come home to check. I just have to explain to my coworkers why they might hear a dog barking coming from my speakers...

If you want to try the same setup, here's what I did. There may be an easier way, but I am loving the flexibility of this:

Step one, if you don't already have two gmail accounts, go ahead, make yourself a second one.
Step two, go to www.logmein.com and create an account and install it on your home computer.
Step three, sign in to Google Talk or enable Voice and Video chat in Gmail. Make sure you use your secondary account to get all signed in on your home computer.
Step four, plug in your headset and rig it so you would feasibly hear loud noises such as clapping coming from the target area, then drive to work or wherever you're going.
Step five, open Firefox and go to www.logmein.com, and in another tab, open your primary Gmail account. You'll have to enable Voice and Video chat in this account as well.
Step six, once you're logged in to Logmein, open up the Dashboard for your home computer and click on Remote Access.
Finally, From your primary Gmail, "Call" your secondary Gmail account and accept the call via remote access to your home desktop.

Now you are listening in and able to see if the neighbor's claims are fact or fiction. Of course, if you work somewhere that is a little more stringent on installation or your coworkers would raise eyebrows if your dog DOES actually bark, you can always make adjustments.

Option 1, plug in headphones to the work computer so nobody can hear it but you.

Option 2, instead of "calling" from your primary Gmail, use the secondary Gmail to "send voicemail". I think this option only works in Google Talk, so you'll have to have that installed on your home computer. I discovered this only lets you record 10 minutes at a time, so you would have to log in remotely every once in a while and grab another 10 minute capture. Plus the audio files take up a HUGE chunk of gmail space, so you might want to actually set up a third account to do this. Now I'm going to make Google mad at me... sorry, guys, you're just too dang useful. ;)

Option 3, go old school and just use Audacity and set it to record all day, but you don't get the same super-sleuth MacGuyver satisfaction of being able to listen and sit smugly as your dog does not actually bark all day while you're at work.

I am feeling better by the minute.

Joe and Nathan are crazy!

2009-03-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

I can haz haircut?

2009-01-30T09:10:00.000-08:00

Funny Home Video

2009-01-14T18:50:00.001-08:00

I felt that this was worth sharing. It's from Thanksgiving, when Scout was nervously watching this stuffed Tiger every time she walked by it. My sister, April, and I decided to capitalize on that and capture the hilarity on film.

Wind

2009-01-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Note to self: Buy more earplugs. Lack of sleep on a windy night makes Kim a tired girl.

I'm off to the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens to hang out with Eliz. Should be a fun day.

Aaron is fishing with some buddies. If they end up catching anything, he'll have a fun day, too.

Hopefully Scout doesn't get blown away.

Happy Scout Day

2009-01-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

One year ago today we brought home this loveable mutt. :)

Ahhhh.

2008-12-25T20:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-18T16:17:00.001-08:00

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.

2008-12-12T10:54:00.001-08:00

Happy Friday. Enjoy.

Nor Cal

2008-11-29T00:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-23T22:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-15T11:22:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-03T10:08:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-10-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

Holy 15 Freeway, Batman!

2008-09-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

Cool. :)

Scout's new look

2008-09-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Our House

2008-08-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-05T07:15:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-08-03T08:12:00.001-07:00

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

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Leavin' on a jet plane

2008-08-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

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

Last Day

2008-08-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-02T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, at least it was only lke this today.

Pictures Again

2008-08-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

This is the coolest.

On the lake

2008-08-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

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

A walk in the park

2008-08-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

Oops

2008-08-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

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

Pictures

2008-08-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-31T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

Sub(?)way

2008-07-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

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

Lottery Tickets

2008-07-30T23:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

thanks, Dottie! this is bomb!!!

Wicked

2008-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-30T00:09:00.001-07:00

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

So far, so good

2008-07-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T13:05:00.001-07:00

Clever...

Conan O'Brien

2008-07-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

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!

So how is the weather?

2008-07-27T13:27:00.001-07:00

Well, at least we're not the only ones sitting around in allentown, pa waiting for the weather in NYC to clear up. We circled around for a long time before we just got too low on fuel to make it in to JFK.

The people behind us are whiners, and the captain has an English accent and promises to update us every 15 minutes, so we're keeping entertained. PLUS we each have the coolest media setup... more on that later. :)

NYC!

2008-07-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, Aaron and I are off to the big apple in 3 days. I can't believe it! Finally!

Anyway, keep an eye on this blog if you want to know what we're up to, I'm planning on documenting all of the exciting details.

We leave at 7:15am Sunday and return the afternoon of Sunday the 3rd.

Multimedia message

2008-03-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here's a sad story. We're in Vegas for Nicole's big 2-1, and i forgot my awesome still new Canon Powershot. So there will be some pics, but not many.

Scout

2008-01-31T23:06:00.001-08:00

Sorry, but you can't say she's not cute. :)

Multimedia message

2008-01-17T14:16:00.003-08:00

Rad.

Multimedia message

2008-01-17T14:16:00.001-08:00

My most frequent lunch date. :)

The Dog Blog

2008-01-02T14:23:00.000-08:00

This is the long and somewhat sordid tale of our search for a dog.

It all started with our friends' dog, Otis. Otis is part Pug, part Boston Terrier. He is basically an awesome dog who really pushed Aaron and I over the edge as far as wanting one soon. Aaron wanted a dog exactly like Otis, and me, I would have settled for a pug. We agreed, in November, to talk about getting a dog in February.

Then there was the IGE weekend in Big Bear. En route, we discovered that a friend of a friend was going to be giving away some pug puppies. Yes, giving away. So we got our name on that list quickly, and waited a couple weeks to hear how many puppies there were and when we could get ours. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little puppy.

Then came the sad news of how our Mama Pug gave birth to 8 little puppies, only to have 2 of them survive. Those two had already been spoken for, leaving us feeling a bit disappointed. We really discovered just how badly we wanted a dog.

So we decided to go looking at shelters. You hear all the time that shelters are a great place to find a great dog, right? You're a hero, you're saving a poor little dog from a terrible fate, it's less expensive than buying a purebred puppy, it's humane, yada yada yada. Well, maybe if you have the option of having any size dog. But when you are limited to a 30 pound weight restriction and a small apartment, really, it's a fight to get a dog in that range. Want a puppy? Forget it! On our first visit to the Rancho Cucamonga animal shelter we found this guy the shelter was calling Nutter. This picture doesn't really do him justice, but here he is. He was a sweet dachsund-beagle mix (yes, I wanted to call him the Oscar Meyer Snoopy Dog), who warmed up to us immediately in the meet & greet room.

Our happy little bubble got burst when someone from the shelter came in the room and said he had just been approved for adoption to another family, so they took him out and we were quite sad. We went looking at several other shelters, but no one compared to this guy and his little perma-puppy face (he was full-grown but still had the look of a puppy). We were out of town for the weekend so we gave it a rest with the shelters, but went back today and got to meet someone who we are hoping to bring home very soon. We tried to adopt her today only to find out she's not available until tomorrow (doh!) because of the holiday. So we'll be there when the shelter opens at 1pm to secure her for sure. Her name is going to be Scout, and she is the sweetest mangy mutt you'll ever meet. Aaron was convinced he wanted a male dog, someone to be his buddy, but when she ran into the room and went straight to him, she had him. :) I'm very excited, but trying to keep my head on straight in case we have yet another shelter mishap. I think the worst that could happen is that her owner could claim her today, but I am doubtful of that happening.

So here is her picture from the website, not very flattering, and a couple I snapped while we were in the meet & greet room with her.

Multimedia message

2007-12-26T13:41:00.001-08:00

This is Casey. She apparently had a great Christmas, as did we. The real post will come later. :)

Rob Thomas

2007-11-20T22:04:00.001-08:00

Okay, so we have this XM radio thing courtesy of my parents and i swear i have never heard more rob thomas/matchbox 20 in my life. Well, since high school.

And here are the rest of the pics from our jaunt up to NorCal.

Kim's Birthday

2007-11-19T20:29:00.001-08:00

Aaron is a wonderful husband. I know, right, like there is any question about it. :)

He made my birthday fantastic.

On Saturday night, he surprised me with a dinner party. We had planned to go out to dinner at Viva Madrid with our friends Nick and Alicia. But then while we were getting ready to leave, Lori and Ryan showed up with grocery bags full of food. Aaron had looked up recipes for Tapas and shopped on Thursday, then stashed all of the goods at Ryan's apartment.

So, instead of going out and waiting 1-2 hours to be seated at a restaurant and then having to pay lots of money and deal with all of the other restaurant snags, I got to relax in my living room, watching Scrubs season 6 with my girlfriends while our men were in the kitchen preparing awesome food for us. It was amazing. I was completely surprised, and we had a lot of fun.

My actual present was tickets to see Ben Harper in San Diego. And we got to stay down there in a hotel that was right on the beach (so cool!).

We got a late start getting down there, so we opted for dinner after the show. The concert was amazing, I had been wanting to see them live for a while.

After our very late dinner, we were driving around the downtown area on our way back to our hotel, and we noticed people hanging out by the theatre where the loading dock was, along with tour buses! We worked our way back over and parked and decided to be adventurous and wait to see if we might be able to get pictures with guys from the band. And we did! It was so cool, these guys were so nice. Well, except for Ben Harper, ironically, he was the least nice. Whatever, he's still a good musician.

So that was exciting, and we got to sleep in today and then enjoyed a great view of the beach. After checkout, we ventured out in search of a unique place for breakfast and ended up at The Mission. And the food was great! Then we worked our way over to Ikea to make a return and, of course, wander around. I know it's weird, but I love Ikea. And we picked up a few items we had both been wanting for a while, plus I got some inspiration for decorating our apartment for Christmas.

Then we had a long drive home because we hit some traffic, but all in all, it was a great birthday. I am very thankful.

If you want to see more pics, check out the slideshow.

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2007-11-04T14:14:00.001-08:00

Me and April are celebrating the month of November. :) And while we're on it, what a horrible picture! Oh well. Here are our stern Buzz Lightyear faces. Hehehe. It is best to sit on the left side on this ride, our little experiment proves it. Also, a huge thanks to those who helped to make my Annual Pass possible. I was sad without it.

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2007-10-20T10:26:00.001-07:00

What is this?

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2007-10-13T14:13:00.001-07:00

Squirrels in LA. Who knew? Sad how something so cute can be so rabid. Lol.

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2007-10-13T14:04:00.001-07:00

While I'm sitting here i might as well get these photos out of my phone. These are my coworkers at the plumbing company, Rocky and Lady. They're both pretty cute.

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2007-10-13T13:56:00.001-07:00

As for what we're up to today specifically- We're helping Nick, who often goes by Niko, move from his aptly named apartment complex in LA to a small studio in Long Beach. It won't take us long. I'm keeping watch over the u haul, hence the blogging from my cell phone. Here is the photographic evidence:

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2007-10-13T13:51:00.001-07:00

Life is not exactly going according to plan, but does it ever? The leaves are starting to change, yes, even in California... And that signifies to me that there is a year full of seasons ahead.

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2007-10-03T19:56:00.001-07:00

Chillin with Brianna at Disneyland!

Don't mess with ME, Space Scum! I mean business! lol

One of my favorites: Viva Madrid

2007-08-09T23:36:00.001-07:00

Tonight we went with the "Link Crew" to Claremont to socialize and bid some more fond farewells to summer. I like Aaron's coworkers and he likes it when I can actually make it to hang out. And I like it when I'm not too tired or insecure or any combination of the two. ;) Meaning, I like to seize those opportunities. Even when I am feeling tired and/or insecure, I still find myself having fun with the English department from EHS. And I assume that since this was a Link thing that not everyone there was English, but you get the point. We went to the best restaurant. I talk about it often, but I've never blogged about it, so here you go.

If you have not done yourself a favor in a while, go to Viva Madrid in downtown Claremont. Okay, so maybe it's only a favor if you truly enjoy garlic and flavorful food. This place is my favorite restaurant, hands down. It has awesome ambiance, the food is delectable and the Sangria is amazing. In moderation, of course. ;)

It takes a little bit of preparation, so you either want to read up here or go with someone who is experienced. Unless you're feeling adventurous. First and foremost, unless you get there early (as in, 5pm when they open), expect a wait. And expect for the whole experience to take some time. The food is very fresh and everything comes out at different times.

Once you decide you're okay with that, you're going to go to Claremont and park near Rhino Records. Between Rhino and Starbucks, you will see an hallway that looks like this:

When you go down that hallway, to the right, you will see the entrance to Viva Madrid. The wall is red. There are white Christmas lights hanging in the windows. There is faux front entrance shrubbery. There are old chairs mismatched with old tables, and even a church pew, out in the waiting area. If you look inside, you will see a mishmash of tables and chairs, paintings, ceramics, garlic hanging from the walls... it sounds so chintzy now that I'm writing about it, but it really is a cool place.

From there, you'll be seated, hopefully in a reasonable amount of time. Be warned that in most cases if they tell you 30 minutes, it's really 60. Sad, but true. You will want to focus your energy on deciding what "tapas" you want. I highly recommend the Jamon y Queso (two different types of ham, two different types of cheese, black olives, green olives, bread, oil & vinegar), as well as the asparagus with ham, the bread with tomatoes and garlic, and the artichoke. For those sweet toothed friends I also recommend the steamed strawberries with cheese, which is on the special menu. I've had some people say it's too sweet to eat with dinner, but I love it. If you order just those tapas, I don't see why two people should not leave feeling full. You might want to order a main dish to share, depending on your need for actually having a full plate in front of you. But you could really stuff yourselves on tapas and enjoy the ambiance and if you're really lucky, you may even get to experience the guitarist who perches up in the balcony that appears to be faux. ;)

I don't get many opportunities to go, but I love it. And if I love it, there's a good chance you'll at least like it.

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2007-08-09T16:55:00.001-07:00

Isn't it ironic? A little too ironic.

The Beat Rolls On

2007-08-08T22:29:00.001-07:00

Flipside is currently finishing out a 6-week adventure called Summer Hangouts. Normally, during the year, there are Growth Groups (aka Bible Studies) that meet and are broken down according to age, life stage, etc. But with the summer season and everyone being in and out on vacation and with kids being out of school, it gets to be challenging to keep an intense Bible study going.

So for the summer, we opted to try offering various service opportunities. For instance, one group was doing a Bible study for women at a recovery center. Another was going out and handing out food and hanging out with the homeless in Ontario. Another was helping to distribute food at a local food bank. I helped lead what is called The Closet, which basically gives out free clothing once a month on a first-come, first-served basis. We've been doing a lot of folding clothes, figuring out what size and gender they are, and I've been able to get to know a few people from our church. It's really easy to get into the routine of seeing certain people on Sundays as a "hi-bye" friend, so it's nice to get a little bit deeper. I love people. :)

And Aaron got to go help out with our version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The city of Rancho Cucamonga has a list of several homes that have code violations and are facing legal action if they don't fix the problems. Some of these people are disabled, or elderly, or just don't have the financial resources to do simple repairs themselves. I'm sure it's a combination of all of the above that really gets them into that place. Whatever the case may be, it's been cool to be able to help out in that way.

We are trying to find the balance as a couple, as a family... as far as how much time we spend on ourselves and how much time we spend with our family and how much time we spend giving to others. It's difficult, and we're learning, but it's good to have a place like this where we'll be able to look back and see how things have changed over time.

Aaron's Birthday: Part 2

2007-08-07T18:08:00.001-07:00

For Aaron's actual birthday, we pretty much just celebrated the whole day. In the morning, I took him for his favorite breakfast at Flo's #2 in Chino. They have the best biscuits and gravy. Much better than I could have made at home, that's for sure. ;) Plus this way I didn't have to clean up before going to work since we did have company coming later that night.

I worked during the day, and Aaron went to help some guys paint at a friend's house who has a baby on the way. It was really quiet in the office, and Alisha basically told me to go home early. So I did, but not until 4:15. :p I came home and it was pretty much a frenzy to bake a cake and get things picked up at home.

Once the cake was baked and out of the pan, I did the best I could to "gussy-up" and we headed down to Chino to meet the Calocas at their house so we could go to dinner. We had to wait a while for Ashley to get home, and apparently Oscar got stuck at work for a little while, too. Eventually everyone made it to Johnny Carino's, as in, Oscar, Rosanna, Natalie, Ashley, and her friend, Tiffany. The food was great (as usual). That is one of my favorite restaurants, so I was not disappointed at all when Aaron said that was where he wanted to go.

After dinner, we had to rush home a bit because some friends were coming over for cake and ice cream. We got home around 9:15 and the McCool's were here waiting for us and Lori & Ryan were not far away. And leave it to me to be frosting the cake as the guests are coming in, and then leaving to get ice cream while Aaron had to entertain. Such is life.

We had a nice time chatting with everyone, it was small enough that we weren't cramped in our apartment, but there were enough people that the conversation was interesting. ;)

Finally Ryan harassed me into bringing out the cake, and we did the whole shabang - singing and all. Only, at first, when we sang, Aaron accidentally started it himself and he was real awkward about it, so here's a picture of that, too. Then we sang a second time to make him feel better. Everyone left around midnight and we were exhausted. But I had planned a day of rest for us on Saturday, so we survived.

Happy 28th, Aaron!

Aaron's Birthday: Part 1

2007-08-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

As part of a clever ruse to cover up Aaron's birthday gift, which was taking us to a Dodgers-Giants game, my parents brought over our patio table. Which was part of our anniversary gift. We had gone shopping for the furniture a few weeks ago, and found chairs at Ikea, but no table. We looked everywhere. My dad is pretty good at handiwork, and the chairs are wood, so I asked if he would try making a table. It took a few weeks to construct and get the stain right, so they brought it over on Thursday afternoon. I was hoping it would throw Aaron off the trail, and it did. :) He was really confused about why they were there.

I had talked my dad into taking me and Aaron to the Dodgers-Giants game on Thursday to celebrate Aaron's birthday (which was Friday). I have known about this plan since June 16th... which is unheard of for me. It was fun to have something to tease him with for a bit. Eventually I found out what his guesses were, and he guessed it on the first try - but I covered it well. So he was still surprised and quite perplexed when my parents showed up here on Thursday evening. The pieces didn't really fit together until he opened his gift, which had the tickets inside, and even then not until he saw that they were tickets to the Giants game - when he realized we were going that night.

We headed out and made our traditional stop at Phillipe's. Home of the world's best beef dip sandwich. Their food really is good, and much less expensive than eating at the stadium. Plus they have quirky things like lemonade and iced tea for 55 cents, or you can just buy a hard-boiled egg by itself, the soda is in cans, etc. And they have awesome (and cheap) coffee. Aaron and I had coffee and lemon meringue pie for desert. :) In case you have no idea what I'm talking about with this whole "Phillipe's" business, take a look:

Then we made our way over to Chavez Ravine and waited with the masses in line to get our Russell Martin bobbleheads. Score! While we were in the car waiting to park, Aaron and I took a moment to think about what faces we would make if Barry Bonds hit his stupid homerun at our stadium. Aaron looked real scary, I just looked kinda confused and irritated. By the way, you can thank our new Samsung Sync camera phones for bringing you this picture-filled post. :)

I'm a very competitive person. So it really chaps my hide when the Dodgers don't step it up, especially on the rare occasions I get to go see them play. But I love those dramatic moments... bases loaded, great hitter comes up to bat (ie Nomar, Kent, Martin). It's just so awesome to have 50,000+ people on their feet, most of them cheering for the Dodgers... chanting, yelling, stomping. It's seriously why I love going to games. That and the garlic fries. ;) Even though we never pulled the game out of that downward spiral, we still got lots of hope-filled moments and loud cheers going. That's always fun. I took several videos with my phone, hoping to catch an awesome grand-slam moment, which, of course, didn't happen. Either way, the video is a glimpse of how awesome that sound is:

But there's a tragic downside to that. More often than not, especially with the Dodgers, apparently, you're going to be let down in those clutch moments. Runners in scoring position just wasted. This game was pretty pathetic when you look at the stats. I think when all was said and done, we had 13 hits and scored 2 runs. One of which was WALKED IN. Oh man. It's games like that that give my friends who are Angels fans room to talk crap about my boys in blue. And why Aaron always reminds me not to get my hopes up when it comes to the postseason. *sigh*

There was also a chance that Bonds might hit his 755th (fraudulent) homerun. And that redeemed the game a bit as well. Aaron was ready to throw the ball back if he caught it, in which case, my mom and I had a plan to tackle him because that would be worth some serious cash. Ha. Every time he was up to bat, we booed so loudly. It was awesome. And at one point pretty much the whole crowd started chanting "steroids", a la the tone which Aaron described to me they used to use to chant against Daryl Strawberry back in the day. I took a video with my cell phone, I was a little late on the draw - so this wasn't the booing when he came up, which was the loudest. It's just booing as he was swinging. And if you look accross the stadium you can see all of the flashes of those so-called haters trying to get a picture of that record-tying homerun. :PDon't get me wrong, I don't hate Barry Bonds - but it's just not right that someone who is so obviously using steroids is taking a record like that from someone who actually earned it and worked for it. Hopefully A-Rod will smash his record quickly.

We stayed until the bitter end. That end being a 4-2 loss. We stopped at McDonald's in Covina on the way home for some comfort food - aka $1 sundaes. At which point my dad realized that his wallet had fallen out of his back pocket at the stadium. :( We tried calling all kinds of phone numbers to see if we could get a live person on the phone to no avail. Sorry, Dad.

That was the kick-off of Aaron's birthday celebration. Part 2 to follow...

Ebb & Flow

2007-08-01T13:38:00.001-07:00

Serve Day has ended.

It was a learning experience. I think the thing that made it the most difficult was the intensity of the communication... I sometimes felt as though I was talking to so many people about so many different issues that I couldn't keep track of who needed what or who I had talked to about their project, or being at a meeting in Costa Mesa, or... you name it. At one time I had a pretty good memory - I could remember exact conversations, details, dates, etc. I suppose with not doing theatre anymore and thereby not memorizing scripts anymore I'm not putting that muscle to use.

Aaron and I actually didn't do one of the various Serve Day projects. We opted, instead, to take the huge binder I had put together with project information and maps and go driving around the Inland Empire, finding people doing projects and handing out ice cold water and checking on any supplies they needed. We also got some granola bars in case anyone had forgotten to eat breakfast. :) Much to my surprise, most project leaders were a step ahead of us on that side. But there was one project, the car wash at Albertson's in Upland, who had almost run out of water. So they were grateful and we were able to give them a whole case of water.

Then we had planned to head down to San Antonio park, where there was a homeless BBQ going on to give out the last of the water. Wouldn't you know we passed the street I had intended for us to turn on to get down to the park, and we ended up on Grove:

Which is near where I used to live in some apartments on 9th street. We saw day laborers there all the time. And sure enough, they were waiting to be picked up on this hot July afternoon. So we drove up and down the street and gave them water and granola bars. They were extremely grateful, and I think a bit surprised that people stopped just to give them some water... huh, just like it says in Matthew 25, right?

37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

And after that, I recalled that we saw some homeless people on Mountain, so we headed back over there and gave out the last of our water and granola bars. I felt a little bit guilty that we hadn't done an official project, but the day laborers made it all worth it. I think we could easily incorporate that into the Mobile Closet and send out a team to go hand out water to them on the same day we go hand out clothing & toiletries to the homeless in Ontario.

Hopefully next year I will either have someone else be the Anchor for Serve Day, or I will just be able to handle the workload better as I hope to grow into my role in ministry. I don't regret taking it on, it's just that the inner perfectionist wishes I had done a better job with it.

I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business.
Michael J. Fox (1961 - ), quoted by Lorne A. Adrain in 'The Most Important Thing I Know'

Always undecided

2007-07-31T12:20:00.000-07:00

I'm not new to the world of blogging... but I would like to start a more benign version that is you know - attached to my email signature, given to family and friends, for posting pictures of yet-to-be-born (or conceived, don't get any ideas out there!) children, etc, etc.

So here it is, my new blog. Hopefully I'll keep it from getting too dusty, and I'll write something more interesting when I've got some spare time.