Happy Holidays!

As time around the holidays usually does, this fall and early winter have nearly come and gone before I even noticed. I suspect the consistently sunny and 70 weather at home might play a role :). Since I last wrote, here's some of what we've been up to:

1. We had a wonderful visit in CA with Greg's family the last weekend of October
2. Had our first Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween
3. Spent a long weekend in Las Vegas for a Risk Modeling conference at which Greg spoke
4. Saw the Chargers play at Qualcomm Stadium on Monday night football vs. the Broncos
5. Flew to New Jersey for Thanksgiving with Hallie and Sean and the rest of the family
6. Visited New York City and saw a show, the NASDAQ, and very cool Brew Pub
7. Greg went home and I went to Galveston for work; then I came home and Greg went to Toronto for work (on his birthday of all days!!)

The pictures below are my favorites from the last couple of months, and summarize, at least in part, our activities...

San Diego Zoo Panda Exhibit - I love the baby in his hammock!

Greg on Halloween wishing he were a Pirate and Patrick a Maine Coon

On a more serious note, Greg spiffed up before presenting his paper at the Risk Modeling Conference in Las Vegas. His presentation sparked a lot of fascinating discussions with other conference attendees, and several strong prospects for work resulted!

Below are our fun times in Vegas after the work week ended.

Andrew, Cat and Lance joined us for the weekend!

GO CHARGERS!! As an early birthday present for Greg, we went to the last home game of the season that we could attend. San Diego versus the Denver Broncos. San Diego whooped the Broncs, and we had a great time.

Greg at the NASDAQ in NYC. I'm not a fan of big cities - no exception here - but it was interesting to see the major landmarks of the big apple. We watched the Macy's Day parade on the same streets we visited the day before, from the warmth of Hallie and Sean's home.

The Thanksgiving Day FEAST!

I didn't know very much about Galveston, Texas before I got there for my last project. It's a beautiful place with old world architecture and the feel of a beach town. We stayed just a block from the Ocean, and this is a picture of the sunrise I took one morning from my room.

Now I will be home for a week while Greg works in Toronto, and we will both be out of town the following week (me in El Paso, Greg in Sacramento I think). There haven't been many times as busy as this since we moved, but I don't enjoy being away from Greg for weeks and weeks. One thing we discovered just this weekend was the video chat on Google - much better than talking on the phone, but still not the same as being together for "real". I joked about him being my cyber husband for the week.

Our holiday time together will begin with a trip to Florida to attend Greg's brother Chris's graduation! We fly from there to Oregon the week before Christmas, and hope to see lots of friends and family while we're there. After THAT, it's off to Mexico with mom and dad!!!

I can hardly wait........

Fun Weekends

Our visit with Greg's family was (and still is) wonderful! We've had some nice time to relax and catch up, and a few outings for entertainment, exercise and food. Last Sunday we went to the San Diego Zoo, which was beautiful, and much nicer than most zoos I've seen in the past. Highlights for me included the lush forest-like vegetation in and between each exhibit, an extended rhino play fight, and Pandas!

Halloween evening we had our very first trick-or-treaters (ever!), and that was fun too. All of the cute little kid costumes, and Greg's Pirate hat topped off the night.

Tonight Greg and I, his parents and Grandma Betty are driving to Las Vegas! Greg speaks at a Risk Modeling conference there tomorrow, and some friends are flying in to meet us for the weekend! We are currently about 4.5 hours away from Vegas, which is a longish drive, but cheaper than flying. I look forward to getting dressed up and going out once or twice while we are there.

We had a busy few weeks preparing for visitors and this weekend out of town, and now I'm enjoying - so much - getting to relax a little, and finally feeling settled in our new place. What fun!

Here is another sunset from the top of the hill we run near our house...I LOVE being able to see the ocean!

Catch Up

So, it's been a while...new stuff since my last update include:

1. Girl's weekend in Oregon - an absolute blast! We shopped, enjoyed some great meals, had lots of good belly laughs, and fun time with the first baby of our generation, Ari. It was really nice to catch up with the women in my family - I'm so glad this has become an annual event again!

2. Cleaned out the Garage - MUCH needed, and quite refreshing once done. The burden of that huge mess of boxes, tools, and stuff we didn't need anymore was a very nice one to have lifted. We now have - and can use - a spacious garage with everything in it's space and/or place. This means fewer hiding places for the kitties, but we think they will adapt.

3. A week of work in Honolulu, Hawaii! I traded in the rainy CA weather for 80 degrees and sun last week. The work was very interesting and kept us busy, but we had one evening at the beach and stayed for dinner in North Shore, which was very fun.

I found out while in Hawaii that I passed the exam to become an Associate Value Specialist! This is the midway point to becoming a Certified Value Specialist (like Greg and all of the other team leads at VMS), and makes me more valuable to the company. I took my exam the Friday before and didn't expect the results so quickly. It is both a relief and source of pride - I am an AVS!

After an all-night flight from Hawaii, a long nap was in order when I arrived home on Saturday.

4. We cleaned and organized the last bedroom downstairs later that day, and yesterday we pruned, weeded and re-landscaped! Here is my favorite new little garden - a shade garden!! It was no wonder my vegetables didn't thrive here; it receives very little direct sun throughout the day. Transforming a sad plot of scraggly unproductive veggies into a lush, manicured garden with plants that should thrive there was hard work, but quite satisfying. Plants include an australian tree fern, two types of philodendron, a gardenia, and a few other shade-loving species. I have space to add a hydrangea and a few hostas, which I plan to do soon! There is something about the finished look of landscaping with barkdust that I love so much. Hopefully this will help keep the weeds down, and the moisture in!

We had more rain last night and this morning, but the forecast is all sun after today. Even with the intermitent light rain, I can't really complain because it's still in the mid-60s, and nearly November!

We are preparing for a houseful of guests this weekend - Greg's family is coming to visit! We are so happy that everyone is able to make it, and that we finally have comfortable spaces to accommodate guests :) Can't wait to see you guys!

One more thing......Before I left for Hawaii, our boss Terry asked for a picture of Greg for marketing materials, and to keep on file. We walked around our building looking for good lighting and backgrounds, and this one turned out especially well. Terry liked the picture so much he asked Greg if he could put it on our company website! The "visionary" look was apparently a big hit.

Magical Moment

Yesterday as Greg and I reached the peak of a very steep hill in our neighborhood during an evening run, we witnessed a little bit of mother nature's magic. Although the ocean is at least 10 miles west of where we live, and despite the fact that low clouds and fog typically hide the water from us completely, right at that moment we had a magnificent ocean view. A long, thin break in the low coastal cloud layer allowed dozens of beautiful sun rays through - my mom calls this "God Light" - which were reflecting brilliantly on the great Pacific ocean beneath. It almost made me cry! And if my breath hadn't already been taken away by the hill, that sight would have done it. I don't know if we'll ever be there at just the right moment again, but I will never forget that view.

Renovations and Rain!

I feel like I have little to say, but we've been extremely busy the past week....maybe I'm just sleepy. Last week, after carrying all of the upstairs furniture downstairs room by room, I painted two bedrooms a nice shade of green and a dusty blue color in the master. Greg then ripped out the flooring in preparation for new carpet, which was installed on Friday. Over the weekend we bought, cut, painted and installed new door casings and base trim for the bedrooms upstairs, and the hallway connecting them. Over 350 linear feet in total! Quite a few late nights and a lot of heavy lifting all in all; in addition to our continued P90X efforts, we're both feeling a little beat up. The work was worth the effort, and we are thrilled with the results. The door casing and base trim installation was probably one of the most technically challenging projects we've completed so far, but with the right tools, team work, and determination it came together beautifully. The new colors look better in real life...you'll have to use your imagination until you come to visit :)

Just in time for us to finish our project (our cutting and paint stations were set up in the front yard and driveway), it rained!! It hasn't rained here since May - can you believe it - so this is a refreshing bit of wet we are having now. After a few days of this misty rain however, it is already seeming dreary, reminiscent of the Willamette Valley November-April. Last week temperatures were over 100 degrees, and by Friday we had a soggy sunset like this:

Today we spent nearly 4 hours at the DMV getting our California licenses and vehicle registrations. What a hassle! Fortunately, we both passed our written exams on the first try, and somehow they managed to take a beautiful picture for my license. Why not look on the bright side, right?

This week will continue to be busy, both at work and at home. We are still moving back in to our upstairs - closets and guest rooms especially. Greg flies up to Fresno on Thursday for a meeting, and I leave for Oregon early Friday for a weekend with some of my favorite women in the world - my family! I can't wait to see everyone!!

Making Lemonade out of Lemons - Indio, CA

A short while ago we found evidence of dry wood termites in and around our house. And by evidence, I mean poop. We had an inspection performed, at which time it was determined there was a 3-5 year old infestation in our attic and several other places in and around the structure of our home. Southern California is prime real estate for termites too, apparently, and they are a common problem here. The solution is to tent the entire house and fumigate, with annual inspections and spot treatment if needed. The fumigation process takes 2.5 days, during which time all living things must be out of the house, and anything edible (food, drink, medicine, even some make-up) must be double-bagged and sealed, or removed.

We decided that a mid-week fumigation would be very inconvenient, but that if we timed it right, a weekend fumigation would provide the perfect opportunity for a mini-vacation weekend getaway. So we packed up and headed for Palm Springs! Our timeshare, Worldmark has a new resort in Indio, just a few miles outside of Palm Springs, and surprisingly they had vacancy! Below are pictures from our journey there - made more interesting by the presence of our cats - and some of the beautiful scenery along the way.

Patrick is deceivingly calm in this picture, riding in the back seat. He would relax for a bit (cue photo op), then stress himself out and meow, and pant, and eventually he got a little car sick - no puke, just drool.... Kennels might have been a good idea.

Traffic was very slow on our way out of town Friday afternoon, but cleared up immediately after we passed the brush fire that everyone was gawking at. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you should see some dudes in yellow fighting the fire! Shortly after, we passed one of the prettier bridges I've seen in California.

The landscape started out fairly green, and became progressively desert-like. Beautiful mountains and rock formations the entire way reminded both Greg and I of where we grew up.

We apparently did not give Patrick enough time to use the rest room before we scooped him up for this car trip. Around sunset when we were winding our way down the mountain into the desert valley below he pooped a little. Fortunately, right then we came to the one safe pull out we could have used during the last hour of the trip - a viewpoint overlooking the entire Palm Springs desert. Thankfully it was not a messy poo, and my car suffered no lasting damage. Our little pit stop allowed us to take the next couple of pictures...

We had a quick dinner out that night at a nice mexican place before going to see "Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps" with Michael Douglas (really good, but not quite great). Saturday we endured a timeshare owner update presentation for the $100 gift card incentive they were offering, did our P90X workout, and layed by the pool for a few hours with some fruity drinks. While we were at the pool, I was laying on my stomach and had just undone my back swim suit strap to avoid the tan line, when a group of 11-12 year old boys floated by on the lazy river near us. Both Greg and I heard one of them exclaim, "Hey look! She looks like she's from a rated R movie!" in a little high 12-year-old-boy voice. I laughed because it was a funny thing for a kid to say, not knowing they were talking about me!!! Greg saw them point and look in our direction, and he was really laughing. I wasn't sure whether to be embarrassed or proud that I looked so "rated R", but in the end I was a little of both.

We got dressed up for a nice dinner in town that night and enjoyed a pretty sunset on our way.

Sunday we slept in, worked out and layed by the pool before checking out at noon. For the drive back we took the freeway (as opposed to the scenic route over the mountains) both to avoid any kitty car sickness, and because it's faster when there is no Friday night L.A. rush hour traffic to contend with. It was quite a bit faster, but still offered some interesting views.

The 105-112 degree heat over the weekend was awesome - very dry heat - and made it no shock that fires are prevalent in the area. Here, an example of a small fire and the natural succession that has taken place in the months since it occurred.

Just before entering Riverside County (east of LA) we passed a wind farm of some sorts...there were probably a dozen different types of windmills, many of which I had never seen before. It was very interesting, and earily beautiful with the mountainous backdrop.

We'd love to go back again; it's a great spot for golf, shopping, and relaxing. We are glad we took the trip, and that we were able to turn the unpleasantness of a termite fumigation into something so fun and relaxing.

P90X - The Journey Begins

Last Friday, September 17th, Greg and I started an Exercise Adventure, if you will. P90X is a set of 60-90 minute DVD workouts that we'll do for three months to get back in shape. So far we have completed the chest and back workout, plyometrics (really hard!!), biceps, triceps and shoulder workout, and the yoga routine. I can't believe I got Greg on a yoga mat; he did great though, deep breathing and all! We're already seeing improvements - though not enough to post our "before" pictures yet - and we are feeling quite motivated. This is the type of program that fatigues muscles you didn't even know existed! There is an awesome ab routine we do at the end of several of the videos, and after the first time, I couldn't believe how much of me hurt just to sneeze.

My favorite new place to shop is Sprouts, a farmer's market-esque grocery just down the street that sells a lot of locally grown and organic produce. Prices are surprisingly low, and we are eating so well! I've been taking pictures of some of my favorite fresh meals, which is a good way to remember what we like, so here are a couple of our recent favorites. It's so wonderful to finish a great workout and get to hang out with Greg while we watch a game or show and I cook everything from scratch... I just love it! P90X comes with a lot of great recipes, and guidance for building a diet that can be modified to provide the fuel we need as our bodies become stronger and more efficient. It's a pretty yummy program so far!

There's a baked potato hiding under that chili too...

The sauce I made for the fish marinade turned out awesome! Spicy mustard, chopped fresh ginger, balsamic vinegar, lime juice, honey and brown sugar...Sweet and tangy. MMmmmm!!!!!

And, as you probably know I can hardly go a day without taking a picture of Patrick, so here are the latest ones....Cuddling with Peedlo after a hard workout, watching football on Sunday, and Patty playing entertainer this morning while we got ready for work. I just can't stand how cute he is!

Tonight is the Leg workout, which we are both dreading a little based on the intensity of the first four workouts. BUT the season premiere of Glee is on tonight, so I've got something to look forward to, even if I am unable to walk. Until next time......

JUBILANT

Ju-bi-lant (joo-be-lent) adj.

1. Exultingly joyful
2. Expressing great joy




That is how I am feeling today.... How nice! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

Patrick's Pillow

Here is the next round of Before and Afters...I will have a few more of these, but I especially like this one. We are so happy to have a comfy living room, and have enjoyed eating home-cooked/grilled meals at the table now that we have one. :)

Last night we enjoyed our first soak in the new hot tub! It was perfect... Hot and bubbly :) We plan to enjoy using it year round for relaxation, healing, and as a fun way to reconnect after a busy day.

We also decided to begin P90X. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the workout program, it is a 90-day workout regime that focuses on overall fitness using a combination of cardio, strength training and flexibility workouts (to get "ripped"). We've heard some really good things about it from friends and family who've tried it. It is Intense. With a capital I. We decided not to join a gym when we moved, and having a program we can take with us when we travel seemed like a great idea.

If Greg agrees, I'll post before, during, and after pictures of us while we work on getting "ripped" together. Neither of us are in poor shape now, but we've admittedly gotten a little soft and would like to get back to the tighter, leaner days of our youth :) We shall see....

Patrick is back on an "I want to sleep on your pillow even though that's where your head goes" bent, and of course, it's MY pillow he chooses. It's been a year or more since the last time he made a habit of this. Thankfully it's Greg's water glass he likes to drink out of during the middle of the night, so l don't feel too sorry for myself. These pictures are all from the last week... Saturday morning, Sunday afternoon (we can nap again!), and mid-week even after we've made the bed! (Greg is as cute and funny to me as Patrick is in the first two.)

Here at Last

Remember this "Before" shot? Seems like years ago. Greg and I have been staying up until the wee hours of the night this week on the final stretch of our renovation. The last of the tile went in on Monday, marking the last of the major work. What a relief! We've moved furniture back into place and started to decorate, although this is one process I enjoy taking my time on. We have a fully furnished, fully stocked kitchen for the first time since June, and finally - FINALLY! - dining and seating options more comfortable than our lovely wooden stools. (As a side note, these stools have served as our height extenders, dinner table, tool bench, kitchen counter and per usual, cat perch, during this project, and I plan to paint them dark and cover them with padding and pretty fabric as their reward for such dedicated work.)

I'm feeling really drawn to the blues for decorating in this house instead of the reds and greens I liked in Oregon. I'm curious about that, but plan to go with it. I think southern California in general kind of feels like vacation, and when I think of vacation I think of sand and gorgeous clear blue water. Anyway...

"Before"

"After"

Here's a close-up of the tile we used on the backsplash and around the fireplace. Reminds me of the beach! It is several shades of glass tile, a travertine-like stone and bronzy tiles all mixed.

Living room - Still no cable, but at least the TV is in its place!

Dining Area with actual placemats and cloth napkins - we're like real grown-ups! :)

Do you think Patrick is glad to have furniture? I do!