Rob recently taught Diesel how to “play dead” against The Force (you know, from Star Wars).
Check out Diesel’s new trick here.
OMGHEISSOCUTE. I love the way he just FLOPS on the ground. I’m so proud. 😀
Category Archives: life
my october
The Starbucks red cups are back! WOOT. This signals the start of my ABSOLUTE favorite time of the year. I got my first red cup of the year today. My signature nonfat peppermint mocha. YUM.
So it doesn’t seem like it but I’m around. Just lazy. As per usual.
My “vote by mail” ballot for today’s election arrived yesterday. WHICH MEANS IT IS TOO LATE FOR ME TO DO ANYTHING WITH IT. Considering I live in Northern CA and am unable to fly down and turn it in to an LA County polling place today. You’d think they’d send the ballots out early enough to give the voter enough time to you know, MAIL IT BACK.
I know, I know. I’m disappointed in myself for not registering for my ballot earlier. 🙁
I just finished watching McCain’s concession and Obama’s acceptance speeches. WOW. I teared up a few times. It’s an amazing day and even though I did not participate, I’m glad I am here to witness it.
So I’ve been meaning to share pictures of some recent events so here goes…
October 18
Rob and I attended our friends’ Eric and Amy’s wedding at the Trump National Golf Club in Southern CA. It was a wonderful event! I definitely appreciate all the little details now that I’ve planned a wedding myself. Some of the gorgeousness…
The pretty, pretty placecards. Amy embossed the cards with a lovely brocade motif. The colors of the wedding were various shades of purple. So lovely.
Trump’s outdoor ceremony site boasts an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean. WOW. And look at all the purple yumminess! The rose petals along the aisle, the hydrangea balls hanging on the shepherd’s hooks, and the pashminas laid out on the chairs.
The gorgeous bride coming down the aisle…
They had my favorite Sprinkles cupcakes instead of a traditional cake. Terrible photo but YUMMY cupcakes.
A picture of the husband and me during cocktail hour. (It is still SO WEIRD to say “husband”). And yes, I wore that blue dress to yet another event this year. 😀
October 26
Rob, Diesel and I were invited by our friends Shirley and Grantland to attend Farm Day with them at the Terra Firma Farm in Winters. It was a gorgeous day — perfect for the farm! Shirley prepared a picnic lunch for us (turkey sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs, chips) and the farm provided freshly squeezed juices to drink (the apple was particularly yummy).
Sitting on the picnic blanket waiting for treats.
Rob and Diesel enjoying the day in the sun.
Rob picking strawberries. They were SO GOOD.
As we were leaving, we walked past a large dog that kinda looked like a pitbull. He was tied to a tree with his owners nowhere around. When Rob and Diesel walked by him (I think it was a him), he jumped for Diesel and started biting his poor little face. Rob got in the middle and Grantland pulled the crazy dog away by his leash (luckily he was there because I didn’t know what to do and totally froze). After a few tense minutes, they got the dogs separated. Diesel was shaken and had a cut by his nose but he was his old self in no time. He’s a tough little guy.
October 31
Halloween!
But also Girls Weekend in LA with my best friends. We didn’t dress up but I wore purple cat ears. 😀 No picture, though, sorry. We spent the weekend eating, relaxing at Le Spa, shopping, watching Center Stage… it was great. AND I got to have Pinkberry! YAY.
Now I’m gearing up for a tough few weeks at work and looking forward to the holidays. I love this time of year.
october wedding
I get lazy when I’m sick. Hence the lack of blogging.
I’m finally feeling better and now we’re off to LA for a wedding this weekend. Pictures when I return!
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
yay bday
YAY Birthday!
Too bad I’m sick. I have a cold. And a runny nose. Not the greatest way to spend my birthday. Oh well.
At least I have lots of CUPCAKES to make me feel better. 😀
One of my managers made chocolate cupcakes with strawberry frosting for me. They were so yummy. We enjoyed these at work yesterday after an unexpected birthday lunch at One Market Restaurant.
Then I got home to find that Rob went to SPRINKLES! in Palo Alto to get my favorite red velvet cupcake along with some other flavors to try. SO YUM YUM YUMMY. Their Red Velvet is the BEST light chocolate cake with the most amazing cream cheese frosting. Black and White (dark chocolate cake with vanilla frosting) is a solid classic, Chocolate Marshmallow is a unique treat (dark chocolate cake with marshmallow cream topped with chocolate ganache), and the Strawberry (strawberry cake with strawberry frosting) just might be a new favorite. MMMM. (Don’t worry — Rob and I split these cupcakes. I admit I’m a piggy but I do exercise restraint sometimes).
Rob even picked up a couple of doggie cupcakes for Diesel — carob and yogurt flavored. He totally went crazy over these.
Rob *also* surprised me with the metallic rose Nintendo DS. (Please excuse my crazy face and the laundry behind me — how embarassing). The only game I have right now is Mario Kart and it’s THE BEST.
Didn’t do anything at all today since I wasn’t feeling up to it but I managed to get myself together to have a low key birthday dinner at Santa Ramen, my favorite Japanese ramen house across the bay. Soup was a good choice for this little sicky.
Then we headed to San Carlos and the newest Bay Area Red Mango location. I know it’s a trend but I seriously LOVE LOVE LOVE tart frozen yogurt. And Red Mango’s yogurt is pretty awesome. It’s nice and creamy with a really subtle tart flavor. I do wish it was slightly more tart than it was (like Pinkberry) but overall, it was excellent. Rob and I got our usual Original flavor yogurt with strawberries, captain crunch, and mochi toppings.
It was a good day. Despire being sick and all. 🙂
Random. I cannot send or receive text messages on my cell phone. UGH. I think it stopped working about 4 weeks ago when I went into the AT&T store and had my SIM card replaced. GREAT. I cannot wait to get on the phone and deal with AT&T on this. They are SO HELPFUL. Umm, NOT.
feeling random
UGH. Last Friday, I discovered that I made a HUGE mistake at work and even though I’ve already told my boss (the most fair and understanding boss EVER), the situation keeps running through my head causing me to second-guess myself and be totally paranoid about every little thing. It’s such a mindf**k. ARGH.
I need to think about positive things…
First. It is now October, which means it’s my birthday month. Woot. 10 more days til 29.
Second. Rob, Diesel and I are heading to LA in 2 weeks for our friends’ Eric and Amy’s wedding. I’m taking the Friday off beforehand to have some extra time to spend with family.
Third. High School Musical 3 arrives in theatres on 10/24. AND I AM TOTALLY GOING TO SEE IT. I think I can convince Rob to watch it with me. 😀
Fourth. My best friends and I have our annual Girls’ weekend scheduled for the end of the month. It’ll be an awesome weekend of spa treatments and girly time.
Hmmm. Now that I see it all listed here, I have lots of good things to look forward to this month. I’m excited!
photobooth
YAYAYAY. Our FABULOUS wedding photographers posted a slideshow of some of our wedding photos on their blog… if you have a few minutes, check it out here. I have watched it so many times, it’s ridiculous. It also reminds me that once I get the digital proofs in my grubby little hands, I want to do a kind of “look back” series of blog entries as a way to share the details with all of you and also for me to relive the day all over again (humor me). 😀
But first! I don’t think I ever mentioned one of THE BEST things we had at our wedding reception — a photobooth. It’s kind of a “trend” at weddings nowadays and at first I didn’t think we could afford it but Rob really wanted it… and since it was really the only thing he had an opinion on, we made it work. And I’m so glad we did. It was SO FUN — the booth takes 4 pictures and prints out 2 copies… so we asked that guests keep 1 copy for themselves and then insert the other into an album and write us a quick little note. It was a hit! We have such an amazing memento that was put together for us by our guests.
I thought I’d share the ones of Rob and me (click for bigger)…
SO FUN.
I have to thank Cheesy Photobooths for being so awesome to work with. They answered all my logistical questions quickly and offered their design services for the custom banner (I ended up making it myself). And the attendant on the day of our wedding totally ROCKED. We had some… uh, rowdy (read: drunk) guests and when the booth tipped over TWICE, he quickly fixed it and Rob and I were none the wiser. I HIGHLY recommend them.
In other news, I listened to Britney’s new single Womanizer on BritneySpears.com. I pretty much love it. YAY.
kaua’i minimoon, part 2
Had a day off today. Woohoo for 4-day weekends!
Ok, here’s part 2 of my Kaua’i recap…
Thursday, 8/14
Did a whole lot of nothing. I think we were at the pool most of the day so no pictures… not even of food. We were supremely lazy.
But here’s a bonus pic of some roosters. They are EVERYWHERE in Kaua’i. And they crow at all hours of the day, not just in the morning. So annoying!
Friday, 8/15
This was the first day we had to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. We made reservations to do a Na Pali coast tour and we had to be at the pier by 8:30am. So painful after days of sleeping in.
We were the last ones to board so we got stuck at the very front with no shade. This boat ride is the whole reason I got so sunburned. OH! And sitting in the front was incredibly bumpy. We felt every little dip and swell. At first it was fun (like being on an amusement park ride) but after a few hours, I started feeling nauseous. Rob kept making me drink water and carbonated lime soda, which helped. At least I didn’t get sick.
We saw dolphins!
Look how gorgeous the coast is!
Guh. Soooo pretty!
I also tried snorkeling for the first time (no pictures though — we don’t have an underwater camera). It took Rob awhile to coax me to get in the water (I am a terrible swimmer and was freaked out) but when I finally got in, I really enjoyed it. 😀 I wasn’t crazy about the water filling up in my ears, though.
I’m a wimp.
After the 5 hour boat trip, we had the most amazing shave ice at JoJo’s in Waimea. YUMMY. I wish it was closer to where we stayed (it’s on the southwest-ish side of the island and we stayed in the east) cause I could have eaten that every day. I had strawberry, Rob had liliko’i (passionfruit) and we both had haupia cream on top (haupia is like a coconut gelatin/pudding).
After a quick nap, we had dinner at Gaylord’s (this was our big, expensive dinner). No pictures, sorry — I was too lazy. I read about this restaurant on Fodor’s forums and it was recommended to us by family so we tried it. Honestly, I wasn’t that impressed. I had a seafood platter (scallops, fish, shrimp, and lobster) and while it was good, it really wasn’t worth the cost. Their lava flows were yummy though and the Banana Cream pie we had for dessert was solid.
Saturday, 8/16
Our last day in Kaua’i. Or so we thought.
Started out with a breakfast of malasadas. These are basically like donuts (no holes) covered with sugar. There’s a stand in front of K-Mart — they were fresh and soft and oh-so-yummy. Thumbs up. I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of them — you can kinda see them in the very left of the pic.
wedding teasers
Quick break in my Kaua’i recap to say that our FABULOUS photographers, Apertura, posted some teasers from our wedding on their blog. Check them out here.
A quick teaser…
YAY! We’re supposed to get all our proofs back in 2 months. I can’t wait to see them all. Hee.
I also want to do a wedding recap to share more pics with all of you… we’ve been getting TONS of photos from friends and family so just give me some time to get them all sorted!
Also, I have to say that I totally have wedding planning withdrawal. There is obviously something wrong with me. 😛
OH! Our wonderful wedding coordinator, Angel Swanson, blogged about our day here. Same pics but more commentary. Angel has incredible attention to detail and impeccable style — I was so happy to have her as support during the planning and to take the reins from me on the wedding day. I adore her.
kaua’i minimoon, part 1
I just realized that back in late 2006 when Rob and I went to Paris, I started a trip report and I never finished it. OOPS. And since I consider this blog a diary of sorts, I want to write about some of the highlights of our mini-moon in Kaua’i… with pictures, of course (that way, I don’t actually have to write very much :P)!
We didn’t do much but lay in the sun and eat (perfect vacation to me!) but we did explore the island a little so here goes…
Monday, 8/11
After breakfast at Kountry Kitchen (loco moco for Rob and strawberry and banana pancakes for me – forgot to take pictures), we went to… K-Mart and Wal-Mart. Here we are on our mini-moon and we go shopping?!? BWAH! We were actually looking for some flip flops we could trash, some cheap-o sneakers for me (we wanted to do an easy hike and I completely forgot to pack sneakers), and also HURRICANE POPCORN (only the best popcorn ever). It’s basically butter popcorn with seaweed flakes and rice crackers. Weird, I know but oh so good.
Lunch at Hamura’s Saimin. I had the wonton saimin. YUM. (Saimin is a noodle soup dish, similar to Japanese ramen).
After lunch, we visited Opaekaa Falls…
…Lydgate Beach Park (but we didn’t go in the water)…
…and the Sleeping Giant.
And we rounded out the day with drinks on the beach. I had a lava flow (pina colada with strawberry puree) and yes, it was alcoholic. 😀
Tuesday, 8/12
Beach Day!
Started off with breakfast at Eggbert’s.
We shared eggs benedict (YUM), pancakes, and a side of spam. 😀
back to reality
I’m back from Kaua’i. *sigh* It sure was tough going back to work today and catching up to over 300+ emails.
Rob and I had an amazing vacation even though United was at it again and totally ruined our departing flight back to LA. We were supposed to leave Saturday night at 8pm and had even boarded the plane when the flight attendants said there was a mechanical problem they were trying to fix. We deboarded and waited around for 2 hours before they determined that it could not be fixed, the flight was going to be cancelled and we were going to be rescheduled for 2pm the next day. Sure, it was nice to have an extra night on the island on United’s dime but at that point, we just wanted to be home instead of dealing with the line to get our accommodations vouchers and then another line to be shuttled to the hotel. UGH. It was seriously painful. Our time on the island, though, was super relaxing and fun (I have the sunburn and awful tan lines to prove it!) and I’m so glad we had that time to enjoy each other’s company after the wedding.
Speaking of pics, here’s one that my best friend Robyn took of Rob and me before the wedding… we decided to see each other before the ceremony to get all our pictures out of the way. This was taken right after our “first look” — we look so giddy!
YAY! More pics soon.
Thanks so much to all of you for all your well wishes, especially Kelly and Sarah for the awesome cards. It was so nice to come home to them. 🙂
Lastly, I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my best friend Carms! Love ya!