Things I like so far about California... You can buy liquor at Costco in Costco sizes. It only takes 2 minutes to dry your hair in the mornings. Gasoline is CHEAPER than in Tacoma. I haven't even laid out in the sun yet and I am already getting a tan.

Today Don and I both started our new jobs. On the way to work I accidently turned left on a street I was supposed to turn right on and drove 30 minutes in the wrong direction. So that made me an hour late to work on my first day but my boss was quite understanding. He knows I am from out of town and still getting to know my way around. It was a pretty easy day. The atmosphere is very laid back and casual. I am definitely the most formal type A personality in the joint. I was wearing a three button pinstriped skirt suit. The owner of the company was wearing jeans. My boss did say that he decided to shave this morning in honor of my first day though. Note to self, business attire and shaving optional.

So the office is definitely disorganized. But luckily I pretty much have free reign to whip things into shape and set up processes according to my own preferences. I spent the first half of the day waiting for my computer to be installed and rummaging through the storage closet for office supplies. Then we broke for lunch at this AMAZING Arminian Deli that had the most incredible pastrami wraps I have ever tasted. I will definitely be going back there... over .... and over... and over. The second half of the day I spent getting my desk organized and starting to go through our existing files to get a feel for what we have going on. Overall the day went pretty quickly and Don and I both were out the door at about 4:30. The funny thing is that we just moved to Los Angeles and both Don and I have a shorter commute than we did when we were living in Tacoma. It is only about a 15 minute drive. Don will probably beat me home most nights which works out well for me because that means he will be able to get the dogs fed and dinner started.

Our house is coming together well. Don posted some pics on flicker. If you didn't get the email link send me a note and I will send it to you. Most rooms are nearly finished but we still have a lot of work to do on the office. Our last load of stuff arrived today at the main warehouse and will be at Don's location tomorrow. So he will bring the remaining few items home with him in a couple of loads throughout the rest of the week. The first priority is getting the barbecue home. Oh, how I have missed my barbecue! I actually had to make ribeye steaks in a frying pan the other night!

Also this weekend, we got to have Matt and Camille over and we had so much fun! Matt helped Don set up the den/gaming room. Camille helped me get my closet organized and then we picked out some recipes for dinner and scoped out our local Whole Foods Market for groceries. At first our Mio GPS tracker lied to us about the location so we spent a few minutes roaming around until we found it. But when we got back we cooked a fabulous four star meal for our men while they played on the Play Station after all their hard work on the Den. We made grilled Ribeye steaks with an Avocado Salad on the side and toasted olive crostinis with sliced mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and melted gourmet swiss cheese. We even topped it off with a blended nectarine margarita that Camille picked out of one of our drink recipe cookbooks. Don and Matt were quite happy. After dinner, we all played a round of Vegas Showdown (a really fun simple boardgame where you compete to try to build the most successful casino) and Don kept pouring Matt glasses of Rum and Coke. Needless to say we had a fabulous time! I think we calculated out that Matt and Camille were here for almost 12 hours but it sure went by quickly and we are looking forward to seeing them more often now that we are down here in cali. Next Friday we are going to see Pirates III with them at a really fancy theater of which I can't remember the name. The show time is 11:40 p.m. Looks like I will have to get used to the night life if I am going to survive in LA!