Conquering the Coffee

I made an espresso all by myself this morning without any help from Don. Even though I had casually observed Don several times make the coffee with his Aeropress coffee contraption, I still couldn't figure it out and ruined two cups before I finally went to the computer and found a step by step demo on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31KKAWZd1N8. How did we ever survive without the internet? True there are other sources of information, but none that are awake this early on a Sunday morning!

The Right Spot

He fell asleep like this.

Sushi Night Pictorial

Needed to get out of the house a couple of weeks ago and decided on Sumo Sushi. Don and Nathan had been there before for lunch and the lunch specials are amazing. Dinner time is a little different story. Aside from a little grumbling about overspending, we had a good time.

At night time, the place has totally different atmosphere than the day. The room is dimly lit with black lighting which made my white shirt look really cool. Fun!

This was by far the best thing we ordered. Fresh Roll with Eel and LOTS of Avocado. It was beautiful and delicious!

Oysters on the half shell. I did not partake in this menu item, but it was pretty enough to take a picture of.

Back to the car and happy from Saki. Why am I the only one smiling? Is it because I just scolded Don for ordering too much food and going over our budget?

What's the best way to finish off sushi night? How about heating up a blackberry pie made with 100% marionberries. Uh, I think this is one for the FAIL Blog.

Vacation & Goals

I've been having a lovely three day weekend with my sister. Much more enjoyable than when she was here last year over Labor Day weekend and we had a heat emergency. Couldn't do anything outside! This time, I think we've found a good balance between activity and relaxation. Feels like the way a three day weekend should feel like, family outings, fun and down time. We've been enjoying catching up, creating new recipes, exploring hiking/walking opportunities, a movie at the Arclight (Terminator IV) and yesterday, a really nice afternoon at the beach just north of Malibu near Zuma Beach. We picniced, layed out in the sun, and did a nice little hike to the cliff top with a gorgeous ocean view where we spotted dolphins, seals, and even a cute friendly neighborhood squirrel that some other tourists nicknamed "Rocky."

Today, we're winding down our weekend with some productivity: Kristy working on her Resume while I do some chores and errands to get ready for the week. It's been a refreshing weekend and I'm feeling a bit inspired to change up my routine a bit when I get back to everyday life. Now that Don is getting into his job more, I have a lot more "me time" and I'm starting to think about how I want to invest that time. Of course one of my big goals coming up is a half marathon with my sister-in-law so part of that time will be spent focused on training.

Also, the simplest image of a girl reading a book on the beach yesterday sparked my appetite and interest to get more into reading. So I'm thinking about setting a goal to read 25 books in a year. That's about two a month which I think I could do. If anybody has any good suggestions on what to read I'm open to them. For the most part I like to read for entertainment so I'm drawn to fiction. I also love period pieces, books that incorporate lots of natural elements such as environment and weather, and books centered on strong female characters.

Finally, I plan to get back more into blogging. I want to continue to become better with my finances and the Cheapskate Blog has really helped me to keep on track.

Schedules & Phones & Stuff

Don has a schedule! And it's really not so bad. They have two shifts, an 8:30 to 5:00 and a noon to close which they alternate every other day. One weekday off a week plus every other Sunday. I'm sure I will miss him on the weekends but at least I am seeing him more on the weeknights than I thought I would be. And a day off in the middle of the week might be a nice change too.

He seems to be happy so far with his choice although a bit frustrated that the dealership is taking their sweet time with getting him set up with computer access, etc. Kind of prevents him from being able to start the sales process which sucks since that's what he gets paid for! But he has made use of his time by getting familiar with the cars and stock. Still a little mind numbing though with long hours not really being able to fully dig into the process yet.

He did finally get a login and password yesterday so was able to at least get limited access to websites and stuff. Discovered their security restrictions were so tight he couldn't even access gmail. Since Don lost his company paid cell phone with Revchem, we've been putting off the purchase of a new plan and phone until finances were more settled. Had been planning to wait awhile since starting this new job has been quite expensive already. It's cost us about $500 so far in new wardrobe and special licensing requirements ouch. Well, not being able to instant message my husband during the day was the last straw. We are going ahead with the cell phone purchase although Don has done his research and figured out how to get what he needs for virtually the same amount as we are paying for a landline now. He found a great phone that is Skype compatible. He'll buy a data plan only for about $37 a month and skip the phone service. Then he'll use Skype as his phone service which is only about $3 a month plus $60 annual fee for the phone number. We're cancelling the landline and I got a new battery and wall charger for my prepaid phone. So, to all of my friends who have complained for so long, I will finally be carrying my cell phone on a regular basis, although to keep my minutes down I'll also try to rely on instant messenger and skype to keep in touch with family and friends for longer conversations. Anybody who needs my cell phone number, shoot me an email.

Day 1

It is Day 1 of Don's new job at Volkswagon which means lots of changes. It will be an adjustment from working from home, to being unemployed, to working long hours with a long commute; an adjustment for him and for me. I have complete faith in him to take this job by storm and get everything he possibly can from it. And I'm happy for the people who will get to have him guide them through the car buying process. I'm also a little afraid of the unknown not knowing what kind of changes we'll have to make adjusting to our new lifestyles. I asked a friend how she copes with her partner working long hours, and she said they make it work by making the most of the time they do have together. In some ways she said it's kind of like being newlyweds and rediscovering each other all over again. I'm looking forward to that part. I hope Don is having fun test driving everything that VW has to offer.

Nutter Butter

This is my new nickname for Cordy who apparently got into our pantry and ate an entire ziploc bag full of macademia nuts. She paid for it dearly and has been looking green and miserable for the last 24 hours. Finally ate her breakfast last night around dinner time. Picking up the yard has been interesting. Any squirrel traveling through our back yard at the moment will think they have hit the jackpot.

31 Years of Don

Don said himself that he was completely unimpressed by the idea of turning 31. It seems like the most insignificant birthday he's had to date. Your twenties are pretty exciting, all of the momentum gaining up toward the big 30. Then it finally culminates, and guess what you just keep ticking away and continue to get older. Birthdays after you turn 30 I think just don't have the same significance anymore.
Additionally, I had also made a big blunder and mixed up my instant messaging conversations earlier in the week so I accidentally disclosed to Don all of the birthday presents he was getting thinking I was chatting with Jeremy, so I ruined the one surprise/excitement factor that there was to look forward to. So needless today, Don didn't have any specific feelings/excitement/inclinations toward how he wanted to spend his 31st Birthday.
His priorities were pretty much what they are every other day which may be a reflection of aging. He just wanted to spend time with friends, enjoy some good food, and appreciate being thought of. So two days before the party I came up with the brilliant idea of having an appetizer party and put out a quick evite. We knew it was last minute so weren't expecting a big crowd, but just about everyone from the main crew made it and we had a really nice time. It was a very busy morning for me as I recently undertook the task of training for a half marathon with my sister in law so in addition to grocery shopping, food prep, and cleaning, I also had to squeeze in a 6 mile run. But it all worked out and we got to enjoy a really lovely evening with some great friends and phenomenal food. Appetizer party, by the way... Huge hit! We all ate too much to be sure, but it won't stop us from doing it again.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our lovely spread.

Top: Mango Salsa, Guacamole, Traditional Salsa

Bottom: Pizza Bites, Grapes, Cracked Black Pepper Crackers, Prosciutto

Salsa Sampler

Triple Cream Baked Brie & Cranberries in a sourdough Bread Bowl

Sliders with Shallot Dijon Relish and Smoked Grilled Jalapeno Poppers wrapped in Turkey Bacon

I don't think Don and I will every make a regular burger again. The sliders were just too delicious and great for a party atmosphere!

Food brings people together. Here is a symbol of friendship if I've ever seen one. All of our rings hang out together while we get into the food prep.

The Almost Really Expensive Vet Bill

Last night Don & Jeremy had a production meeting in Glendale. They have been collaborating with friends from Gadzook Films on various short film projects to keep active and further hone their flim making skills. So after a quick and refreshing Salmon dinner, they were off to their meeting and Katy and I got to spend the whole evening together. We had a nice time chatting over a glass of wine while I finished up the dishes and then mingled on over to the living room to relax.

As we were deep in conversation, I looked over and noticed that Cordy was playing with and trying to eat something small on the rug. Oh, great, she's gone after a bug again. I ordered her to stop and she backed away from the now mangled bug and left it alone. So the conversation went on until about 15 or 20 minutes later when we noticed Cordy standing in the middle of the room shaking with her tail between her legs, eyes glazed over, and not looking well at all. Hmmm, that's not normal. So I called to her and she didn't respond. Not normal either. I asked her if she wanted to go outside. No response. Not normal again. I asked her if she was hungry and pulled out the treat bag. No response. DEFINITELY not normal!

Now Cordy has a sensitive stomach to begin with, but concerned that she may have just tried to eat some kind of poisonous bug, we determined that this situation warranted a trip to the animal hospital. Just great. First we find out we owe $5600 on our taxes. Then today my car starts making noises so am going to have to fork over some dough for car repairs. Now an emergency animal vet bill on top of it. I don't know about you, but I've never gotten out of one of those ER pet visits for less than $700.

So, we pick up the little girl's trembling body and head out to the car with poor Seumas beside himself that we are leaving him behind all by his lonesome. Cordy is in Katy's lap on the passenger seat, tail still between her legs and head burried. There we are, driving along Ventura Blvd and headed to Studio City when, I kid you not, *buuuurrrrrrpppp*. Cordy lets out the raunchiest, stinkiest, and most audible burp I've ever heard come from a four legged animal. Did I mention raunchy? It stunk to high heaven!

A few minutes later, she sits up a little and starts taking an interest in the traffic, lights and pedestrians on the busy streets of the boulevard. That's a good sign. So we get to the animal hospital, starting to feel a little better that maybe she isn't on her deathbed. We park and get out of the car, and immediately, she perks right up, head high and tail wagging and is sniffing around really excited and ready to go for a night stroll and explore these unfamiliar surroundings. Really good sign!

So instead of taking her into the hospital we walked right past it and went a couple of blocks up and down the Boulevard where she seem to be enjoying herself just fine and no signs of discomfort. That's right, the girl had gas, and it almost cost me hundreds of dollars. I tried to tell her that this is what happens when you eat poop, but I don't think it got through.

Choco-job

My husband is interviewing with a chocolate company tomorrow. How cool is that? If he accepts the position, guess what everyone is getting for Christmas...

Dog Day Afternoon

California is a beautiful place to be in March. Warm but not too hot. Well, maybe a little too hot. Did it really get up into the eighties this weekend? Don and I laid out for a bit in the backyard with the dogs, but I quickly got too warm and went in the house.

The Lingerie Olympian

I found this fun Quiz through a fellow bloggers' website I was introduced to by a friend called Eve's Apples Lingerie Blog. The quiz measures your lingerie personality type and they got me dead on with the Lingerie Olympian:

"The Olympian is always on the go and doesn’t have time for frilly designs or needless lingerie - she wants something that looks good, practical, and that can work indoors or out on a run. She loves simplicity, with styles that flatter the body she’s been working so hard for."

New Blog

I started a new blog called LA Cheapskate and am hoping the whole world will sign in and "follow me" so that I can feel more popular.

http://lacheapskate.blogspot.com/

Credit Crisis

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The best educational video I have seen in a long time. This is so good I stole it from Katy. It walks you through the steps with excellent visual aids that really boils down how the credit crisis came to be. Take ten minutes. It's worth it!

Accidental Fung Shui

Let me tell you how much I love my husband. He said something to me today that every wife longs to hear. As Sunday afternoon rolled around and I posed the question, what would you like to do with the remaining hours of our weekend? He actually came back with, "I think I'd like to continue with the cleaning." Yep, ladies. Sorry to say but the ring on his finger proves this one is taken and he is all mine! We'd already had a fairly productive weekend. Went hiking with friends, got in a good Saturday afternoon nap, did some grocery shopping, meal planning, laundry and light chores. As I headed out for my second walk with the dogs of the weekend, I even hinted lightly (in other words spelled out to him in plain English) how happy it would make me if he vacuumed the living room while I was gone which he obliged as well. So when he mentioned that he wanted to spend the rest of our Sunday afternoon cleaning the house it wasn't the first thing on my mind but I was quick to get behind him on the effort. He even went so far as to say that he would like to make an effort to be more organized and proactive about chores such as making sure we put our dirty clothes in the hamper and finding a place to put our shoes when we take them off. Actually it's nice, the cleaning part I love of course, but in general, since being laid off, you know we go through stages. And Don seems to be moving into productive stage. He's starting to have ideas brewing, creative juices flowing, and their finally starting to give birth to execution. It's exciting to be around.

So one of the major things on our to do list for creating a more clean and organized home life, was to get the office in shape. It continues to be our "dump" room. There is too much clutter in there to begin with and whenever we don't have a place for something we just throw it into the pile. We really need to go through everything in there, organize the space, store, shred, and donate items, and consolidate the necessities to eliminate the clutter. Recently I blogged about our trip to Matt and Camille's new place and how much we loved their office. We loved the fact that they had included a couch in their office. It gave it so much more of a comfortable, soft, relaxing, livable space, rather than a sterile cold cluttered office environment. Don and I have been thinking about that ever since and decided to jump on Craigslist this afternoon to see what we could find. We liked the idea of getting a sleeper sofa like Matt and Camille so that we would not only be able to relax on the couch in the office and watch Hulu on the Mac but we could also use it as a place for guests to sleep when we have family and friends in town. It was our lucky day as a nice couple had a listing just one block down from where we live now. We headed over and picked it up right away. Perfect! It was in good shape, clean, sturdy, just what the doctor ordered. We payed the bargain used price of $125, loaded it up in the truck, and headed the quarter mile trek back to our place.

Did I say perfect? More like too good to be true. Of course we had taken measurements of the office space to make sure the couch would fit in the office. But we hadn't measured the door frames. The doors in our hallway leading to the office, not to mention the tiny hallway itself, are (to borrow a phrase from my sister) something like straight out of the pages of Alice and Wonderland. Too dang small. No manner of tilting, angling, pushing, or prodding would make the couch fit through the hall into the office. It was mathematically impossible. Darn! So we just dropped some cash on a new couch, which would have been perfect for the setup we were trying to create, but no possible way to get it into the office. Our gears started turning, maybe our friends would want to trade our new larger couch for one of their smaller ones? We called Matt and Camille and made a proposal to them for a trade which they were willing to consider but like they mentioned, their couch had been a gift from family and was all torn up by the cats anyway, so initial thoughts were that it might not really be the best idea. So we pretty much gave up on that and decided to put the couch back up on Craigslist ourselves and hopefully we could at least make our money back. So we made some dinner and went about our evening. Nathan and Paige came over and we played a little game of Vegas Showdown which I won but man was it a close game. We all ended within two points of each other.

After the game, we were sitting around conversing, and about to call it an evening when we got back on the subject of the couch again. It occurred to me, that we do have a large enough living room to accommodate two couches. What if we were to move the chairs into the office and bring the new couch into the living room? It's not exactly how we had pictured it but it just might work. Don mentioned he would miss his recliner, but we would be watching more TV on the computer in the office now than we would in the living room anyway so he might actually prefer it in there. You know this just might work! So we finagled Nathan into helping us bring in the sofa and rearrange the furniture and actually ended up with a really nice living arrangement that actually accommodates more seating now for entertaining and accomplishes what we wanted in the office. There is still a lot of the "cleaning" part now to be done in the office, but now that we have a vision for how things are going to end up it's kind of exciting! I snapped a few photos but I think I'll wait until we have completed the whole project so that you can see the end result all clean and sparkly.

By the way, now that we have more overnight accommodations, anyone want to come for a visit?!

The Beautiful, Wonderful, So Good, Very Happy Day

Yesterday was just a good day. After a couple of not so good days this week, my awesome friend Camille was the first to jump on the cheer-a-friend-up wagon and offered her fabulous company with the potential for lots of fun distracting activities. Exactly what I needed and can't think of a better person to do it with.

So Camille headed over Sunday morning and we decided to start the day with a walk to Starbucks with the dogs. It was so nice to be out and about just the two of us. I think with everything going on, I've definitely been honing in on more of my introverted side lately. We do so many activities in big groups with guys and girls that it was a rare treat to have Camille all to myself. Camille is always fun but she's really special and really shines in quiet conversation. She's such a good friend, a good listener, full of wisdom of the heart and a comforting presence. While we certainly have our own lives and things that make us different, I do feel like our paths connect in a lot of ways too so it's nice to talk to somebody who understands what you are going through and can identify with your feelings. Camille is just what the doctor ordered!

Anyway, back to our walk, it turned out to be a gorgeous day! So gorgeous in fact, that by the time we neared Bucks, we were too hot and thirsty to even think about drinking coffee so we headed across the street to Ralph's for some bottled water instead. We had a nice little break in the shade with the dogs where Cordy scored with a random french fry on the ground before I could stop her, and both dogs sniffed the same rock and cigarette butt about a hundred times expecting it to turn into food scraps. After we had quenched our thirst, we headed back to the house where the dogs passed out into happy panting zombie wieners and Camille and I quickly refreshed and changed for the second event of the day -- a trip to the Mall!

No girls' day would be complete without a little bit of shopping, and though we are on a tight budget right now, I still had a Macy's gift card from Christmas burning a whole in my pocket. So we went right to the heart of retail therapy and shopped for shoes. Now Camille is a master at finding sales and she headed straight to the clearance rack. After digging through insanity for twenty minutes, she managed to find an adorable pair of red leather ballet style flats with cute little bow accessories. But the most amazing part is that they had originally been priced at $200, marked down to $100, 40% off of that at $60 and then she had a $40 gift card so ended up getting a $200 pair of shoes for $20! 90% off, not bad at all!

I parroused the sale racks too but didn't find anything that spoke to me. Besides I was on a mission for a specific wardrobe item - work shoes. My criteria - basic pump, 2 inch heal or less, doesn't slip off the heal when you are wearing nylons, and some level of comfort. So after searching the store, I narrowed my selection down to three options. 1. A basic black pointy toe pump, nothing two exciting but versatile and comfortable. 2. An adorable black peek toe pump with patterned detail by the toe. The cutest and sexiest of the three but unfortunately could not be worn with nylons. 3. A super fun and classy metallicky shiny pump, with black heal from Calvin Klein. Well, it was an interesting moment, being surrounded by three pairs of cute shoes all which would have added an interesting and unique function to my wardrobe. I told Camille that I missed being made of money because before I would have just bought all three pairs right then and be done with shoe shopping for a year or two. But here I was having to choose and would I make the right choice? After careful thought and consideration, I was forced to eliminate my favorite pair, the patterned peak toe, since they didn't fit the purpose they were supposed to serve. In the end I chose the metallic Calvin Kleins. The black pumps just weren't exciting enough and it's hard to describe the color of my CK's but their kind of a silvery taupe that changes colors depending on what you wear so I can wear them with just about anything. If I wear them with black they pop a silver reflection, but if I wear them with brown they sheen kind of a copper gold. Total purchase rang in at just about $97.50 leaving me $2.50 to spare on my gift card. I have to say I feel rather successful and proud of my purchase. I definitely think I made the right decision and will get the most use and enjoyment out of my new shoes.

We dined in style at the food court. I had my favorite Crepe from Crepe Express - The Bon Appetite. It has shredded chicken, potatoes, mushrooms, swish cheese, and the best part, this amazing dijon creme sauce with some greens on the side. Yummmmmm. Camille snagged herself an amazing plate of fresh soft tacos from La Salsa. After we had finished our shopping then we headed back to our first attempted destination, from the safety and airconditioning of our car - Starbucks. Camille treated us to a couple of iced lattes with her gift card (apologizing to me in advance for subjecting me to Camille on Caffiene). It was the perfect culmination of our girls' outing.

But the day was not yet finished. When we got back to my house Camille checked in with Matt who had the car and learned that he had just spent an hour sitting in traffic. So we determined that since she needed a ride anyway, this would be the perfect opportunity to see their brand new appartment. All I can say is cute! They have a sweet old style kitchen with antique oven. Fun open floor plan betwen the dining room and kitchen and closets and storage I could only wish for. Their home office is just starting to come together and I'm so jealous! They have found a place for their nice plush sleeper sofa in the office which just looks so inviting and relaxing and now I wish more than anything that we could fit a sofa in our office! I can only imagine the quiet creativity that could take place there, spending hours reading books, sipping coffee, snipping recipes out of magazines. I'm totally digging the space! But the best part of their new place isn't even the appartment, it's the neighborhood itself. As much as we love our friends, and we love the dearly, we used to dread going to visit because they lived in a huge multi story multi unit complex with no parking in a neighborhood that never felt very safe. Now they are in an adorable quiet residential neighborhood in a small complex with 6 or 7 units and tons of street parking. It's so peaceful and relaxing!

When we got there after we had taken the tour, Camille and I decided to go explore a bit of the neighborhood while Matt and Don played some video games. So we went for a short drive and checked out the local library, a park and some historic sites, and tons and tons of huge expensive million dollar homes up in the hills. It's such a neat area to explore. We decided I would just have to bring the dogs over sometime so we can walk the neighborhood together. After our drive we went back and touched base with our friends Ben and Corrie who are in town for a seminar. They were going to head over and meat us for dinner so we decided to pop in the pilot episode of Big Love which they had just received on Netflix to kill some time. We didn't make it the whole way through episode before our friends arrived but enough to get me hooked already. You can bet we'll be queueing that series up here shortly!

We finished the evening with a walk to Zankou Chicken for dinner which is kind of a high quality Armenian Fast Food joint but it's also combined at this location with a coffee shop and has a really nice and comfortable layout. So we had a fun cheap meal, catching up with friends. It ended up being a pretty long day for Don who is still getting over the plague so we headed home pretty quickly after dinner and went straight to bed and caught up on a couple of episodes of Battlestar and Dollhouse. Still not sure what to make of the new show Dollhouse, but we'll keep watching and see how it goes.

A good day.

Feeling a little blue today. I think it's a combination of lack of sleep (Don has a cold and was coughing all night), a slow build up of low grade stress, and a big pile of work to get through. I don't think I'm getting adequate enough nutrition either and I'm worried about catching Don's cold. Our health insurance goes away in two days which is another big stresser. I know I don't have much room to complain, there are bigger things to worry about. Unemployment is hard on spouses too. Even though we are taken care of, I've never liked being in the position of being the main breadwinner. So much responsibility. I don't feel like being responsible today.

Dogs

Cordy and the coveted Ball. Possession is 9/10 of the law.

Provocative Cordy

Are you gonna throw that? Are you? Are you?!

The camera adds 10 pouds. No, really...

Little Bunny Fu Fu

A wiener burrito on a cold February day.

Don't forget to wash behind the ear.

I think Cordy has snuck in some acting lessons since we moved to LA. Here she is working the camera in a desperate attempt to get some food. She's our little starving actress.

Potatoes of Evil

Don found these in our cupboard. It wasn't until he fondly nicknamed them "Potatoes of Evil" that I grabbed the camera and determined that these were going up on my blog.

Grandma and Grandpa

I finally updloaded the camera pics so here's a sampling of some of our recent pictureworthy events.

Lots of people asked how our visit was when Don's grandparents came down a couple of weekends ago. It was wonderful and a nice dosage of some much needed family time. So how did we spend our time? Drinking beer, eating pizza, and playing poker of course. Yep, Don's grandparents still got it! Grandma cleaned us out, Twice!







What a better way to follow up a night of poker playing than with a fresh batch of abelskivers. Grandma and Grandpa had never had them before so was fun to introduce them to a new treat. Unfortunately the camera ran out of battery before I could capture the finished product, but here Don is whipping up the batter.