Category Archives: life

holidays 07

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Just wanted to sneak on here to say I’ve been MIA lately because I’m in Southern CA for Christmas. My dad has the worst internet access at his house (DIAL-UP… can you IMAGINE?!) so I try not to be online for very long because I know I’ll be tempted to throw something at the computer for running so slowly. It’s painful. I mean, the Google homepage takes about 5 minutes to load. Seriously.

Before I take off, I want to apologize to Alie and Kelly because I completely spaced and forgot to go to the post office to mail your holiday cards. 🙁 They’re going to end up as Happy New Year cards. :/

Anyway, I’ll be back in the Bay Area by the end of the week and I’ll post more then.

😀

the tree

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December is flying by waaaayyy too quickly. Starting next Thursday, I’ll be done with work for the year. I’m taking advantage of a couple of vacation days and then my company is closed the entire week between Christmas and New Year. YOU GUYS. That means I have 13 days of time off. Seriously, I’m so ridiculously happy I could cry. But first, I have to get through 3 more days and a mountain of work to complete before that time. EEEKKK. I’m not going to think about that right now. :/

Today, I’m going to head into the city for afternoon tea with my old college roommate Shirley and her friends. Should be fun! While I’m downtown, I’ll probably attempt to do some holiday shopping… if it isn’t too crowded. I have so much to do and so little time! 😛

Before I go, I want to share my Christmas tree! It’s the same gold/ivory theme as the years prior…

Mmmm. Sooo pretty.

wedding dress shopping, part 2

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You guys up for more wedding dress talk? 😀

I’ve actually been dress shopping a few more times since my last post on the topic.

First up — Neiman Marcus

I was actually really disappointed in NM. They don’t have very many dresses out on the floor (and what they did have on display were more “high fashion bridal” than “regular person bridal”) so you have to tell your consultant what you want and then she’ll select dresses in the back and bring them to your dressing room. I had a good consultant, though, so this wasn’t a problem… but I still wish that I had the chance to browse through their selection on my own and leisurely study the beautiful details on each piece. They do have a really nice, spacious dressing room, which was great — with the 3 of us in there (I brought my future sister-in-law Susie with me), it never felt cramped. I didn’t really care for the dresses I tried on… but there was a memorable Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier that I’ll post pictures of at the end.

I also visited Clarissa Bridal, which is a really nice family-owned salon. I had such great service here! Unfortunately, they seem to be about 3-4 seasons behind in the dresses they carry and while they had a solid selection, I didn’t find any that were my style.

After visiting these salons, my mind kept drawing me back to 2 Monique Lhuillier dresses that I saw on my first shopping day. Because I didn’t want to go back to the Unique Bride (didn’t like my consultant), I went to Bridal Galleria instead (they carry similar designers). I tried on the dresses again but still couldn’t decide. I even dragged my cousin in when she visited back in October and she was no help. She insisted that she liked both.

So finally, during my trip to Southern CA a few weeks back, I dragged my best friends, my aunt, and my cousin to the Monique Lhuillier flagship store in LA. They overwhelmingly liked one over the other so when I got back to the Bay Area on Monday, I went in to Bridal Galleria to get measured and put my deposit down. THE DRESS arrives in mid-April. SQUEE.

Want to see some pictures? 🙂 (Rob, this is when you stop reading).

Continue reading →

thanksgiving 07

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It’s been an awesome Thanksgiving weekend so far… until yesterday morning when I woke up with a massive headache and sniffly nose. ARGH. Rob and I didn’t really have any plans yesterday but STILL. It sucks being sick during a long weekend.

So what else have I been up to?

On Wednesday after a completely useless 3-hours at work (our network and internet were down so I ended up cleaning my desk and filing the entire time), Rob and I had a “His and Hers” movie night with our friends Ruby and Jason. Ruby and I watched Enchanted and the boys saw Hitman. 😀 Enchanted had its cheesy moments (of course) but overall, it was a really sweet movie. And Amy Adams was *perfect* as Giselle. Loved her.

For Thanksgiving we went over to Rob’s brother’s new condo in the city where we stuffed ourselves silly with food. Rob’s sister-in-law Susie made turkey, the BEST stuffing ever, cornbread, green bean casserole, asparagus wrapped in ham, mashed potatoes with gravy and we brought over candied yams, pumpkin pie, and Rob’s special maple chicken wings. WOW… it didn’t seem like a lot of food on the table but now that I listed everything… it seems a little obscene. Besides eating, we watched a lot of football, played with our dogs, and ate some more. 😀 It was a lazy day. Just the way I like it!

Then of course the next day was Black Friday shopping madness! It’s become a tradition for us… Rob and I scour the ads on Thursday night and then wake up early to hit Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and K-Mart. This year we were specifically looking for a digital camera (ours broke a few weeks ago) and a printer (I need one to print out miscellaneous wedding stationery, like programs, etc). The camera we wanted turned out to be least expensive on Amazon so we didn’t even have to brave the crowds for that purchase! Surprisingly though, we didn’t really encounter any insane lines or crowds. But then we didn’t head out until about 8am so we missed the craziness for the big ticket items. Anyway, we managed to get some Christmas shopping done — a GPS system and iPod Nanos for Rob’s parents, DVDs for friends, this HP Photosmart C5280 printer for only $80, and the Justin Timberlake concert DVD and The OC season 4 DVDs ($14.88!) for me. Phew.

Yesterday we bought our Christmas tree! We got a small one this year (roughly 6ft) because we don’t have much room… but it’s so cute! As soon as we get our new camera, I’ll post pictures.

Now I’m savoring the last few hours of the weekend. After such a great few days, I really don’t want to get up for work in the morning. Nooooooooo. *sigh*

palm springs

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So last week, I headed down to Southern CA for the second annual Girls Weekend in Palm Springs with my best friends, Carmen and Robyn. But before we made the drive down to the desert, we spent most of Friday visiting bridal salons in LA.

😀

We started off bridesmaid dress shopping… we hit Bella Bridesmaid (thumbs up — we found some pretty silk shantung dresses in lots of different styles) and Renee Strauss (thumbs down — they had TONS of dress choices but they weren’t very… stylish. Their wedding dress selection looked much better). I had an idea of what I envisioned for them prior to our appointments but I wanted to make sure they were comfortable and liked what they would be wearing. So I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick the designer, fabric and colors of the dresses and my bridesmaids will choose their own styles, be it strapless, halter, v-neck, etc. Yay, they’re going to look so pretty!

Our last stop of the day was the Monique Lhuillier salon where I wanted to show them my top 2 dress choices. They’re both very different “looks” so I was having a tough time making a decision on my own. My cousin (aka Maid of Honor) and aunt joined us for this appointment and all 4 of them unanimously voted for the same dress. I’m planning a big dress post soon and I’ll share THE DRESS then. 🙂

After all that, we finally headed down to Palm Springs for our weekend at the La Quinta Resort & Spa. We woke up on Saturday morning to a beautiful day — warm but not overly so. I think it was in the high 70s/low 80s. Definitely a welcome change from the frosty weather in the Bay Area! I hit the gym to start my day (I am *really* trying to be better at this) and then we lounged around the pool for a few hours before finally ending up at the SPA! I had a milk bath, massage, and facial. Mmmm. We ended the day having a yummy dinner at Azur, one of the resort’s restaurants.

The next day we leisurely woke up, got ready, and headed to Desert Hot Springs to visit our friend Errikka from elementary school who we’d all lost touch with until recently. I haven’t seen or talked to her since high school (more than 10 years ago!) so it was great to hear what she’s been doing since then and also to meet her husband and kids! It’s amazing how far we’ve all come since we knew each other way back when…

And that’s my very belated recap of my Palm Springs weekend. I’m already counting down the days til the next one. 😀

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

girls weekend

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I just got back from a relaxing and much-needed trip to Palm Springs with my best friends.

I’m so bummed it’s over. At least it’s a short work week (yay Thanksgiving!)

I’ll write all about it once I get back into the swing of things. 🙂

the diesel roll

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It’s a lazy (and rainy — boo) Saturday… I really should take this opportunity to do some cleaning around the apartment but instead, I’ve chosen to spend the whole day doing absolutely nothing. 😀 It’s pretty awesome.

So I have a Diesel update. He’s finally learned how to roll over! Awww. I uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube and of course, I have to share them here as well (please ignore the glimpses of my messy apartment)…

The Diesel Roll 1

The Diesel Roll 2

HEISSOCUTE.

wii-kend

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Our Nintendo Wii has been collecting dust… until today. Rob and I went to Target and came home with both Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. (And we’re supposed to be saving money. OOPS). I haven’t tried Guitar Hero yet but I completely suck at DDR. HEE. 😛

burke williams

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I went to the Burke Williams Spa for a facial in the SF Shopping Center for the first time tonight.

OMG. IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING. *happy sigh* I had a gift certificate that I received last Christmas (I can’t believe I waited this long to use it!) and since Rob’s out of town this weekend with Diesel, I decided to leave work early, head over to the spa to take advantage of the steam room, and relax before my appointment. Mmmm. It was a fabulous way to end this excruciatingly long week. I just wish I had enough disposable income to go every week. I guess I’ll have to throw hints Rob’s way since the holidays are coming up and all. Heh. 😀

It’s going to be a good weekend. I can feel it. 🙂

work suuuucks

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It’s 11:30 on a Thursday night and I just finished… WORKING.
I don’t get paid enough for this sh*t.

🙁

In other news, I am ridiculously excited for Britney’s new CD. I cannot wait. Woot!