My Life, As Told Between Naps

Sorry for the lack of posts.  It’s been a busy month.  To start, T organized a fantastic dinner with friends at C&O, followed by drinks at Glow, a lovely outdoor bar in Marina del Rey, to celebrate my 31st birthday this month.  I got some wholly unexpected but totally awesome gifts. 

The following weekend, T’s mom and his aunt visited on their drive down to San Clemente for their niece and nephews’ (T’s triplet cousins) high school graduation.

This past weekend, we went to a super-cute picnic wedding, complete with fun picnic games like a 3-legged race and an egg relay.  Since the bride was one of T’s best friends from college, we had several of T’s college friends staying over at our place as well as tons of guests hanging out the entire weekend.  It made for a fun, but tiring, weekend.  Sadly, I was inevitably the first to call it a night - although I should mention I’m at least two years older than they are! 

Also visited the korean taco truck for the first time - and on a day they were giving out free tacos for a promotion at that!  Yay for free yummy food! (Updated to add: They were parked in front of Westwood Brew Co., so after lunch we drove through UCLA and reminisced about how easy college was compared to real life.) 

Looked at some houses for sale.  Since housing prices are at record lows, it’s tempting, but we still can’t really afford a house we want in a location we want, so for now, it remains a pipe dream.

In between all this, I’ve been trying to figure out how to make our condo more homey.  We had an interior designer, recommended by a friend of ours, come by and consult with us for an hour, which was surprisingly helpful.  I’m hunting for some pieces she recommended and trying to schedule a date to have some of our rooms painted (the task of choosing paint colors was a large part of this month’s activities).

I’ve been busy traveling the last two weekends and preparing for guests the next three weekends.  T and I were in SF for T’s cousin’s wedding in Golden Gate Park over Memorial Day weekend.  I, as usual, was drastically unprepared for the weather.  I have a knack for packing the exact opposite of what I’ll need on any given trip.   This time, it was much colder than the cool to slightly chilly weather I was expecting and the warm weather I was hoping for and packed for.

Weather aside, it was a great weekend.  The couple, who are both in med school and are self-proclaimed geeks, had so many sweet, personal touches to their wedding and the events surrounding it.  Their rehearsal dinner had a fun trivia game component.  Their ceremony involved the mixing of chemicals in a beaker.  Their reception was at a great organic, vegetarian restaurant overlooking the water.  Post-wedding activities included breakfast and a Giants game (they are huge fans).  It made me want to go back and do our wedding weekend all over again!  =)

This past weekend, I went to Cabo with the Quad for our 5th Annual Quad Trip. Since K is getting married in November, this year’s trip served a duel purpose as both a reunion trip and a bachelorette party.  I had a blast!  The weather was perfect.  Sunny with a nice warm breeze the whole weekend.  The girls got in Wednesday/Thursday and I arrived on Friday.  Although Cabo was less busy than during my previous visits (presumably because of fears over the Swine Flu and increased violence in Mexico), there were just enough people around for it to be festive without being overwhelming.  Plus, we discovered this wonderful, relatively secluded, beach which I’d never been to before.

This upcoming weekend, T’s high school friends are coming to town and staying with us.  Then T’s mom is stopping by the following weekend on the way to T’s triplet cousins’ high school graduation.*  And then one of T’s best friends from college is getting married in LA and many of T’s college friends are staying over.  The next month will be a whirlwind but I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!   (Although the prospect of having that many visitors in the next few weeks really makes me wish we’d actually gotten around to painting/decorating our place and hiring someone to clear our place, as we’ve been discussing for months!)

* Sadly, I have to miss our HLS birthday weekend/reunion in Virginia this weekend!  =(  Unfortunately, it’s just too many trips in too short a span (we’re also going to NY for a wedding in July).  I hope you girls have a wonderful time and will fill me in on your adventures!

I wish I could get married again just so I have a reason to buy these awesome wedding cake toppers…

Available here.

Or at least the polite request of a good friend.  =)

The weather was a little muggy and overcast in LA this weekend, which was apparently better than the blistering heat up in northern California.  I had a dentist appointment for a cleaning Saturday, which is pretty uneventful except that I love my dentist and want to be her BFF.  A friend/co-worker of mine had recommended Dr. E and I’ve since recommended her to a couple of friends, T, and my brother-in-law.  Dr. E’s really good at keeping track of all of these relationships and what everyones interests/hobbies/jobs are so it’s always fun to visit her.  I just wish she wasn’t, you know, doing dentistry on my mouth so we can actually talk!  =)

After the dentist appointment, I met up with T and his partner for lunch across the street.  Well, T and his partner ate and I watched since I was heading to the Peninsula Hotel to meet up with friend for tea later in the afternoon.  I love afternoon teas.  Yummy food, nice ambiance, and great company.  Plus, the tea service at the Peninsula is one of the best in LA.

Sunday, T and I started the morning with a lovely run on the trails behind our neighborhood followed by brunch at Picnik (banana chocolate chip pancakes!), a Laker’s game (T)/reading (me), and Star Trek.  I’ve never been a Trekkie, but I thought the movie was entertaining.  Just don’t think too hard about the characters’ motivations, which don’t make much sense.  Bonus - we saw the movie at the Landmark which is the only place I know of that sells Tim Tams.  Yummmmm.  Tim Tams.   Now available in chocolate hazelnut mousse!

All in all, it was a nice lazy weekend.  Between all the lounging around, we continued our year-long discussion on whether to paint our place, but (again) didn’t reach any conclusions.  We are paralyzed by the overwhelming color choices!

Oh - I almost forgot to add - we had a small earthquake Sunday night.  First one we’ve experienced in our new condo I think.  Always a little nerve-wracking.  It was cute to see T so concerned about Alfie though!

I’ve been on a major geeky reading spree lately, devouring Brandon Sanderson’s fantasy novels.  I’d stumbled upon his work because he was selected to finish the Wheel of Time series after the author’s death.  (The WoT series, by the way, is one of T’s favorite series and something he suckered me into reading last year.  I still don’t know how he managed to do it.  After all, he’d already informed me only the first 5 books of the, currently, 11 book series were any good and the remaining 6 books should be read only to see how the series unfolds.  We both hope the next 3 books, which are supposed to conclude the series, make this long journey worthwhile.  I’m optimistic given how much I’ve liked Sanderson’s books to date.)

When not obsessively reading, I’ve been trying to figure out how to decorate our place.  I’m beginning to realize I have absolutely no eye, or patience, for design (esp. when I have to accomodate T’s taste too) and I fear our place looks just as sterile now as it did when we moved in last year.  So, if any of you happen to be aspiring interior designers who’d love to decorate our place for free, let me know!

Next month’s update may be marginally more interesting as T and I are going to SF for a wedding next weekend and then I’m heading to Cabo for my annual Quad trip.  =)

Wedding season has started!  We went to our first one this past weekend in San Francisco.  One of my best friends from law school, R, got married at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square.  We had such a fabulous time.  I got a chance to catch up with lots of old dear HLS friends and T, to his surprise, managed to enjoy himself despite not knowing many of the guests (the open bar probably helped).  It was the first wedding after our own that we’ve attended and I was looking forward to being a guest.  Putting together our wedding has given me a greater appreciation for the effort that goes into organizing one and I enjoyed all the little touches that I probably wouldn’t have noticed before.

We also got to spend some time with my family, which was lovely.  I’m touched anew each time I see how well T gets along with them.  My grandmother, despite severe back pain, looked fairly healthy.  (She adores T.  I think it’s because he always remembers to greet her in Vietnamese and smiles when she talks to him in Vietnamese like he understands.)  We also got to spend a lot of time with my parents and my sisters and their boyfriends, which was great.   Despite some snafu’s - I had to make a last minute trip to the mall to buy a new dress for the wedding since my sisters confirmed mine was entirely too informal for an evening wedding in SF and T forgot his dress pants in LA which necessitated a second last minute trip to the mall just as we were supposed to head up to SF for the wedding - the weekend couldn’t have gone better.

We had beautiful weather this weekend!  On Saturday, we took advantage of living next to the beach and went biking along the ocean (since we pay such a premium to live close to the beach, we really need to take advantage of it more).  We met up with our friends J and M for a bike ride along the ocean and lunch near the marina.  Then T’s fabulous brother came over to fix our computer and grabbed dinner with us a Piknic’s.  I think we’ve become regulars there.  It’s a little weird since I prefer anonymity when I’m dining.  Although (I think) we’re always perfectly polite and tip well so I don’t know why that should bother me.

Sunday, T had to work so Alfie and I met up with some friends in Pasadena for a doggie play date.  We love the Pasadena Dog Park, which is spacious and clean and always seems to have the best behaved dogs.   (Btw, Alfie’s ears are doing much better!  Thanks for the concern everyone.)

Oh, and in the inbetween moments,  I read on my Kindle.  I love it.  I can’t wait for our flight to Nor Cal this weekend so I can use it on a plane!  =)  I want to buy all of my favorite books on Kindle so I can have them on hand all the time.  I also want to buy books I already own and haven’t yet read - partly because they’re too cumbersome to comfortably read - on Kindle so I can cart them around with me and, maybe, actually read them some day!  The possibilities are endless…if a little expensive…

Poor Alfie has an ear infection.  He came bounding up the stairs at 4am today, sat quietly next to my side of the bed, and then shook his head violently until I woke up.  We tried to get him to stop, but even when his head wasn’t shaking, it was tilted far to the left.  A quick google search indicated he had an ear infection so we rushed him to the vet (whom we love).  Unfortunately, the vet was in the middle of surgery so we had to wait awhile to see him, with Alfie getting more and more anxious (he doesn’t love the vet nearly as much as we do) and stressed out.  It was a harrowing visit.  It took three grown men to get Alfie still enough to look into his ears.  Then, after the vet diagnosed the problem, we had to muzzle him and pin him down to get the ear drops in.  He got so worked up, he ending up peeing all over T!  We’re going to have to apply the drops twice a day for a week.  Fun.

He calmed down once we left the vet and seemed to be settling in okay at home, so I hope the worst is behind us.  Given that this is the fifth or sixth time we’ve been to the vet this year (routine check up, eye surgery and follow up, ticks, ear infection), I joke with T that we got a broken dog and we’d have to be more careful the next time we get a used one.  =)  Honestly though, I’m just glad he’s okay.  And in retrospect, it was even kind of cute how he rushed upstairs, sat down and started shaking his head, as if to say, “Um, People, my ears hurt.  Please fix them.”

I finally found the motivation to do a long run by myself on Saturday!  T and his partner met up with me around the first mile of my run (which happens to cross through T’s patrol area), so I stopped and chatted for a bit.  I managed to do the other 9 miles at a relatively constant (if slow) pace, although, unfortunately, my ankle started bothering me so I only did 10 rather than the 11 miles I had planned

Later that night, we had our friends S and K over for dinner.  I made hoisin-honey pork riblets, which are super easy and delicious, with white rice and green beans.  For dessert, S made fantastic chocolate chip, oatmeal, walnut, coconut cookies.  I love dinner parties, especially dinner parties where the guests bring fabulous desserts!  =)

Sunday, I met up with T and his softball team at Piknic, our local restaurant, for brunch after their big game (as it started pretty early in the morning, I slept through the actual game).  It was great getting to know the members of the team better. It’s a community team, so they’re all essentially our neighbors.  After brunch, and a short nap, we headed out to the Will Rogers State Park for a real picnic with Alfie and our friends L and E.  It was a beautiful day for a picnic and a relaxing way to spend a Sunday.  We had wine and an assortment of bread and cheese, fruit and other munchies.  They tossed the frisbee around while I tried to keep Alfie from jumping into the mix.

That night we saw Monsters v. Aliens in 3D.  I, naturally, loved it.  It was the perfect way to top off a great weekend.

Yay!  T surprised me with a Kindle for our 6 month anniversary!  He’s either incredibly sweet…or incredibly tired of me whining about how much I wanted one.  =)  I have been wanting a Kindle forever but have been too cheap to buy one for myself.  As much as we’re trying to be practical about money, I can’t return an anniversary gift, so I guess I HAVE to keep it.

I love the idea of having virtually any book I want to read at my disposal at all times.  And not clogging up my bookshelf with books I bought for a short plane ride and never plan to read again.  And being able to read the NY Times in bed.  Best gift ever.

LOL.  Yeah, I’m all sorts of dorky.

Back from a very short trip to Vegas for T’s race, the Baker to Vegas Relay.  It’s a 120-mile relay race for law enforcement personnel.  There were hundreds of teams (each with 20 runners) representing all aspects of law enforcement - police officers, sheriffs, FBI agents, correctional officers, district attorneys, etc.  Most of them were from California, but we saw some teams from Canada and one from Hamburg, Germany.

The race began at 9am on Saturday morning for the slowest team (the teams started based on their projected finish time) and ended at 9am for everyone on Sunday.  T’s team started at 5pm on Saturday evening but T’s portion of the race (5.3 miles with a 2% incline) didn’t start until 10pm Saturday night, so we headed out at 7:30 for a small town 60 miles west of Las Vegas, where T’s leg started.

It was  unlike any race I’d ever participated in or seen, not only because it was extremely long, and a relay, but because the roads weren’t closed for the race.  Instead, runners run along the shoulder of the road with “follow vehicles” behind them to protect them from traffic and to provide light (as parts of the race take place in desolate areas in the middle of the night).  It was really neat to see runners and their follow vehicles along the road as we drove past.  The logistics of getting that many people out there and coordinating that many vehicles for that long a race is mind-boggling.  It was amazing how well they pulled it off.

We, on the other hand, did not do such a great job pulling off our trip.  We made the trip too short (given the timing of T’s leg of the race, we weren’t able to do much in Vegas), spent too much on airfare (we both should have taken a day off and driven) and then waited too long to rent a car (they are so expensive to rent in Vegas!).  Plus, T was sick leading up to the race.  All in all, we weren’t particularly looking forward to the trip or the race, but we had a great time when we got there!

Speaking of things I covet, I love this t-shirt design and totally want one.  So cute!

How pretty are these pendants?  I spotted them on the NY Times website.  They’re sold through the NY Times store.

The first pendant contains a quote from a letter the Marquis de Lafayette wrote to his wife (”O! if you knew how much I sigh to see you”) and the second contains a quote from a letter Alexander Hamilton wrote to his wife (”I meet you in every dream”).

Not that I’m making any frivolous purchases anytime soon. (Although I so want a Kindle.)  All this dire economic news has me hoarding my cash and preparing for the worse, which apparently only adds to the problem.

Back from Mammoth!  We had a great time, despite getting caught in a huge storms both there and back.  T was super excited to go skiing.  Unfortunately for T, his ski trips are hampered by the fact that I hate the cold and am way too uncoordinated to master and/or enjoy skiing.  This time however, T’s brother and his friend were able to join us so T had some companions on the slopes.  We also brought along Alfie so I’d have a companion off the slopes.  =)

This was Alfie’s first time in the snow, so I went a little picture crazy.  Below are two of the many pictures I took of him.  I tried to talk T into tossing him into a snow bank so I could take a picture of it, but T refused.  Something about being humane, blah, blah, blah.

Alfie is generally really well behaved. He doesn’t jump on people, won’t be in your face unless you want him to be, and will gladly take any affection that’s doled out. He’s a dream with people. He’s not so great with other dogs, although he’s not horrible either. Generally, he’ll greet them a bit and then leave them alone. If they’re persistant, he’ll play with them. If they’re aggressive, he runs.

However, this Saturday, we took him to our friend’s house for a group brunch/doggy play date and he was a terror. He got along fine with the two corgis there, but turned into a snarling beast around the two chows. We suspect it was because they weren’t neutered. It so so bad we had to keep the dogs in separate rooms, thereby entirely defeating the purpose of the doggy play date. I guess this is a reminder that animals are unpredicable.

Luckily, he was much better at the second dinner/doggy play date we had set up that day. He pretty much ignored the puppy, Sophie, and semi-played with his dog buddy, Baxter. We took all the dogs on an hour long hike in the Valley, which was the first time I’d been hiking in years. I forgot how much I enjoyed it! In fact, T and I are making plans to go on another hike soon!

Oops. Long story short, I (very uncharacteristically!) got extremely upset and vocal with my cable provider today for something. I (very surprisingly) got them to rectify the problem …only to realize afterwards that it was mostly our fault.

Now I feel guilty. T doesn’t seem as concerned.

I love Facebook. I love letting my friends and family, whom I don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like, know what’s going on in my daily life and finding out what’s going on in theirs. It’s those daily details that keep people close. It’s the reason I started this blog in the first place.

I also love getting a voyeuristic peek at what’s going on in the lives of people I’ve lost touch with in the past 10 years. However, I’m starting to feel that my friends and I live in a bubble. No one in my social circle has kids, yet it seems that everyone I’ve reconnected with, mostly old high school friends, has a baby. Which makes sense since we’re entering our 30’s, but still feels weird. Sigh. I guess our 30’s are really our adult years, whereas our 20’s were clearly just a practice run.

I know most of my readers (Hello??? Anyone out there?) probably don’t celebrate the lunar new year, but I figure everyone appreciates a do-over, so for those of you who have already failed to meet your new year’s resolutions (like me), consider today a do-over. =)

To celebrate the lunar new year and usher in the Year of the Ox, T and I spent the weekend in San Jose with my family. T may be the best husband ever. He was very good natured about the fact that my parents keep the house at artic temperatures (it’s often much colder in the house than outside). He stoically dealt with my little sister’s cat, to which he is severly allergic. He was great at engaging my parents in conversation, despite only understanding 1/2 of what my dad says, and very sweet with my grandmother, who doesn’t understand anything he says.

Despite the bone chilling cold, we had a nice visit. My parents love to feed us and we love to eat, so during the day and a half we were home, we had dim sum, crab, fried shrimp, filet mignon, and a traditional Vietnamese beef dish. For dessert we had friend bananas and cream puffs. We were definitely waddling onto the plane.

Unfortunately both of my sisters had to work over the weekend, so we didn’t get to see much of them. They’re also in the process of moving out of the house. Little Sis B is finalizing the paperwork on her first townhome and is waiting for construction to finish. Littlest Sis L is moving in with her, as are both of the boyfriends. In the interim, they’re all moving into an apartment (for complicated reasons having to do with the boyfriends’ leases expiring). I feel a little sad that we’re the only ones not part of this little clan, but T doesn’t seem to mind.

I had a lovely long weekend in San Diego with a couple of my Quad friends and their significant others this past weekend. T and I headed down Saturday morning, stopping off in San Clemente to drop Alfie off at T’s aunt and uncle’s house. Despite the nice backyard and houseful of new people to enjoy, we’re afraid poor Alfie was not particularly happy about the weekend visit. T’s aunt and uncle have a super friendly, entirely too curious, and remarkably persistent lab, Beans, who followed Alfie around very closely for the entire hour we were there. We joked that Alfie would probably have a Beans-sized wart on his butt the entire weekend. =) (Although we’re told the wart only last for about 5 hours.)

After reassuring ourselves that Alfie would survive the weekend, despite being pestered by Beans, we headed to the Wild Animal Park. It was the perfect day to spend outdoors, sunny and clear with a mild breeze. I’d never been to the Wild Animal Park before, and zoos kind of make me sad, but the Park was spacious and we had a great time.

After a full day at the Park, we headed to downtown San Diego to meet up with our friends for a delicious dinner at Croce’s, where we ate out on the patio, listened to live jazz, got caught up, and people watched. It was the perfect night with friends.

The next morning, we all met up for brunch on Coronado, and exchanged belated Christmas gifts. Afterwards, T and I heading to Balboa Park, where we enjoyed some more live music and visited the National History Museum (which was disappointingly small). We met up again for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack and then tried to find the exciting night life in San Diego. Apparently there is very little of it on a Sunday night. Or at least none that we could find. We did get a fun night tour of the city though!

I may have gained 5 pounds on this trip alone. I fear not fitting into any of my pants after my trip home next weekend, where I’m sure my parents will be preparing delicious meals and stuffing T and I with all of our favorite foods! The last time we were home, the electricity went out for hours just around dinner time. Undeterred, my parents cooked an amazing crab-centric meal on the outdoor grill using the propane tank and some ingenuity!

Not much to report. I’ve been trying to ramp up my exercise (only marginally succesful in that endeavor) and to cook more often (again, marginal success). Went on a 9 mile run this weekend which involved a few hills. When I’m in decent shape, I can tackle the run and do a couple of extra miles easily. This weekend, it was a bit of a struggle to just finish the 9 miles. At least it’s a step in the rest direction!

As for the cooking, I’ve tried a couple of different dishes recently. I made a chicken marsala dish that was unspectacular to say the least, probably due to my failing to find marsala and having to settle for beaujolais. I also made braised beef and mushrooms last night that, according to T anyways, was good. I thought it was too beefy. T points out that I have a habit of making dishes or ordering meals featuring items I know I don’t like - like beef - which just happen to sound good at the time. Unfortunately, the dish serves 12 so T’s going to be eating a lot of braised beef this next week!