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.

movie weekend

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Last call for holiday cards! (Yes, I’m still making/writing them — I am notorious for procrastinating). Please leave me a note in the comments if you’d like one. 😀

I’ve finally been watching my Netflix movies as soon as they arrive… quick thoughts…
Liked Dreamgirls. I expected the singing and acting to be solid (and they were) but I was not expecting Jennifer Hudson to blow me away the way she did. She was *phenomenal.* Recommended.

Also liked Catch and Release. To be honest, I only rented this because I love Jennifer Garner. I didn’t think it would be very good and it really wasn’t. Part of the problem was that the movie was trying to be so many things — a romantic comedy, a chick flick, a drama — and it didn’t succeed at any of them. Plus, I thought it was strange that JG’s character didn’t have any friends other than those of her fiance’s. JG was still awesome, despite the story flaws… she’s great at conveying so much emotion on her face. I’d only recommend this movie if you’re a JG fan. It doesn’t really have anything to offer if you’re not. :/

Hairspray was AMAZING! It was so fun and engaging — I loved every moment of it. Go see it now! Highly recommended.

And today I saw Superbad. Surprisingly, I really liked it. It’s not normally my kind of humor but the characters managed to take the raunchy jokes and somehow make them… charming. CRAZY. Recommended (as long as you know what you’re getting into).

Also, I’ve seen so many commercials for Atonement that I totally want to read the book (and see the movie). Has anyone read it?

oc series finale

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Sarah, your holiday card was the first I received of the season! Whee! Alie and Marianne, yours arrived today. So exciting. Thank you, thank you. 🙂

I’m super behind on current TV (Grey’s, Ugly Betty, Private Practice, etc) but instead of catching up, I decided to open my OC season 4 DVDs and watch the series finale instead. 😀 Plus, I figure with the writers strike, I’ll have time in the next few months to get up to speed.

Gawd, I miss this show. I don’t think I ever blogged about the finale so here goes…

I really adored the entire episode. I was touched by the callbacks to the first season… from the score to the flashbacks of pivotal moments from the pilot (Ryan meeting Seth, Ryan gazing at Marissa as Sandy drives him back to Chino). But what I loved the best was seeing where the characters ended up.

The Coopers (Julie and Kaitlin, that is) are made of awesome. 🙂 I didn’t particularly like Kaitlin when she first came back to Newport but in the last season, she showed vulnerability and heart and that was reflected in her relationship with Julie. They turned into such a great mother-daughter team. And when Julie got her college degree with Kaitlin in the audience cheering her on… well, that was icing on the cake.

Seth and Summer getting married was totally expected but I still loved seeing it happen. Their best moment of the finale by far, though, was their goodbye scene. When Summer sat down on the bus, looked at Seth through the window, and put her hand on the glass… Guh. I fell in love with them all over again.

Ryan and Taylor’s ending was left open-ended (damn you, Josh Schwartz!) but I think their scenes left pretty good hints of what’s to come. 😀 Or at least that’s what *I* like to believe. I mean, come on — did you SEE Taylor rip Ryan’s shirt off as soon as they had a moment alone together? They ooze sexual tension.

I do wish that there would have been some room in the finale for one last Sandy/Ryan scene… and I wish they would have filmed the Berkeley scenes on location. The UCLA and Caltech campuses are gorgeous but they just don’t look anything like Cal.

But back to my other favorite moments…
— Summer giving Julie the locket with Marissa’s photo. I always tear up during this scene and I’ve seen the finale at least 4 or 5 times now.
— The Valley meta… “Real life Jake and real life April broke up!” I know it can be overdone but I like that the show can poke some fun at itself.
— Ryan taking Flapjacks out of his hoodie pocket. Awww. Though I admit his pocket was not exactly the best place to hold the little guy.
— And THE BEST scene of the episode, was definitely this exchange between Ryan and Seth…
Ryan: “I’m a lot better off than when you found me.”
Seth: “Me, too.”

*sniff*

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. 🙂

tv update

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Is it just me or is this TV season kind of… blah? I haven’t been excited to watch my shows in the same way I used to be. I think the only show I really look forward to each week is Gossip Girl. I mean, Chuck and Reaper are solid but don’t really inspire the same giddiness I used to have when watching shows like Alias or Buffy, Heroes and Grey’s Anatomy just aren’t the same anymore, and let’s not even talk about Smallville. And with the writer’s strike taking place and reruns to look forward to for an undetermined amount of time… I just don’t see the season getting any better.

HOWEVER. One Tree Hill is coming back in January as a mid-season replacement and I am *ridiculously* excited, especially after finding this season 5 preview about Brooke. 😀 I think the “fast forward” is going to be AWESOME.

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.

heroes s2

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I am SO not feeling Heroes this season. :/ It’s really disappointing.

In other Kelly news, I went to the doctor last week for a physical and she told me I have high blood pressure. Great. Well, at least now I *really* have the motivation to exercise more and eat healthier now. She thinks it might be more closely tied to stress and anxiety, though, so I guess that means I have to start working less. 😀