An Afternoon at the Park
I had a very productive weekend. I got 2 quotes on the bathroom remodel. I think we’re gonna try to re-stain the cabinets upstairs ourselves… or myself. Lauren said it’s easier than I think and she’ll help me. It looks like they won’t be able to do an undermount tub with our current tub. So we’ll need to just overmount it… which makes me less willing to buy an entire slab or marble or granite when so much is going to be cut out of it.
I helped Josh get the sandrail to the house and we did spring cleaning in the garage. We got rid of a big box of stuff. There’s still more I want to sell and get rid of. We’re going to sell our lawn mower that we used maybe 4 times since we had it. Keith and Lauren are getting a new place at the end of April and need a lawn mower so we’re gonna sell it to them.
Both Saturday and Sunday I took Meeka for a 3 mile walk. She was so tired on Sunday at about 2.5 miles she just laid in the grass for about 5 minutes then we continued on our way. We took Damien to the park with Cassie, Lauren, Keith and Charlie on Sunday too. Charlie flew his helicopter. He’s got some skills! I can’t imagine how long it takes to learn all that. Cassie loved the helicopter and wanted to chase it. It was cute. I posted pics in Picasa album… see right sidebar.
Christmas!
Christmas was fun. I had friends over for dinner on the 21st and then on Christmas it was just me and Josh and then a web conference with the family in Buffalo 
From Josh, I got an iPhone and a MacBook Pro!! Wow! The iPhone is very impressive. I had an iPod Touch, but the iPhone is that much better with constant internet access and an easy to use phone. Josh got an iPhone himself as well and loves it. We got the family plan to save some money. The new MacBook Pro has all the gestures for the touchpad which is really fun. It also has a much larger hard drive, so that’s very convenient.
Not sure if anyone has ever heard of or has the Flip Video Camcorder? It was one of the top selling items on Amazon the past few weeks. My friend at work has it and it looks really cool! It’s HD and stores up to 60 minutes of video. Built into the side is a USB port, so you can plug it directly into your computer. The software it uses is very easy to use as well. Here’s what it looks like:
Neglect…
I know I’ve been neglecting this site… a lot has been going on and a lot less computer time at home. We have a new family member… Meeka:
Ojai
On Sunday Josh and I went for a drive up to Ojai with Keith and Lauren. Keith bought a new Harley Davidson motorcycle and rode that up there on that with Lauren on the back. We had a nice lunch up there and then headed back home… only about 45 minutes away from us. It’s a cute little area.
Photos added… of the recent weddings
I added pics of Chrissy’s wedding in Buffalo and Paul’s wedding on Saturday.
Paul’s wedding was really fun. Kim’s dress was awesome, she looked beautiful. The food was sooo good. I had Chilean Sea bass. Cake was delicious too. West Lake Village Inn was a perfect setting. The wedding was outdoors. It’s set on a golf course and the gardens are really nice. Here are the pics:
Chrissys wedding was fuN
A capital N is appropriate! Had a lot of fun at Chrissy’s wedding and my visit to Buffalo in general as always. It rained just about everyday and was overcast when it wasn’t raining. Thursday was the only exception when it was partly cloudy. It didn’t matter though! I was only visiting for a few days and there were lots of friends in town that I haven’t seen since 2003!! (Chrissy, Joe, Brandon, Lesia, Nick) It was so good to see them all. We’ve kept in touch relatively well to know what’s up in a general sense, but it never compares to chatting and interacting in person. I love my friends from Buffalo, I wish I got to see them more. It’ll be good to visit Philly in November where I can see Tracey, Adam, Maggie, Christine and Jay in one shot. That’s a 5x dose of Buffalo outside of Buffalo
Here are some wedding photos and then a pic from Pasquale’s (for Buffalo style pizza!) for dinner our last night in town.
Death cab… er mini for Hillary
On Sunday, Josh decided to take me on a scenic ride. We started on Sand Canyon road, it connects Santa Clarita to Angeles National Forest. Well Josh found this road on google maps satellite view that is a “shortcut” to the Angeles Highway. He’s been looking for it everytime he drives Sand Canyon. Well he found it when we went with me and started up the road.
The road should seriously be closed. It was sooo old that you couldn’t even see the yellow lines on the road at all. It was a grey crumbly mess. Not to mention the road was just wide enough for my mini to fit on it. Any other vehicle would have been scratched by the overrun bushes on each side. There’s no way 2 vehicles could pass each other on most stretches of it. Then we started to see hillside coming down from the mountain side eroding… literally piles of rocks in the road we had to drive slowly over. Some banging the bottom of my car. Then the road just started falling apart.. pot holes first then just pavement gone and 4″ drops into dirt to get back to pavement. Not to mention this road kept going higher and higher with no guard rails and steep drop offs like mile high drop offs. Usually you can see the mountains in the distance.. yea we were in the mountains and there weren’t many mountains taller than the one we were on. We were above the smog and everything it was 20 degrees cooler! I was so terrified the entire time. It was like the going up the big first hill of a roller coaster but for like 12 miles straight. Plus there was no sign of human life. So I was sure the road was just going to give and mini + us would go tumbling down the side of the mountain stranded for days with no one finding us… nursing our wounds and surviving on wheat thins, cheddar bunnies and gatorade. Ugh… it flashed before me eyes!
Well we finally got to the top, a point where we could go no further because my mini couldn’t make it when the pavement stopped and we got out of the car. It seems to go to a cell tower or electricity tower or something… not sure what it was for because there weren’t homes or anything for miles. I’m sure if anyone has to work on it, they take a helicopter there. There were a ton of bullet casing and stuff at the top of the hill and the signs on the way up were all shot up with bullet holes. Obviously horror movie like activity goes on along that road!
Anyway we went back down for the 12 miles and miraculous I’m here to tell about it.
Photos here… though they don’t do it much justice
First time on the lake this summer!
We went to the lake Saturday and it was a lot of fun. Being the first time out, I was shocked the seado’s didn’t break nor did Steve’s boat. I was contemplating wakeboarding… but it was the first time out and I don’t think my body wasn’t yet used to that much intense activity. So I toned it down and just rode the tube for a bit and rode the seado and boat. Went with Josh, Lauren, Keith, Steve, Miggie and their kids. We had delicious lunch as always, Steve and Miggie brought a ton of good food like carne asada, tostadas, sandwiches, salsas, yum!
I posted some photos here
I can’t wait until next time!
Yoga Update!
I’m into my third month of yoga now. Going 1-2x a week… I take level 1 hatha yoga… nothing crazy. But, I notice I am getting more flexible, but most importantly I feel better. It relieves all the stress from work and makes me feel relaxed and stronger at the same time… I know that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s true!
Damien has been pushing me to walk him everyday now too since he’s been feeling better. We walk the entire neighborhood now and he just loves it. His back legs are starting to thicken back up with muscle. So both Damien and I are getting stronger! I wish I could say the same for Mandy, but she’s not doing too well… her tummy is getting bigger every week, so I know her time is limited. She has outlived the doctor’s life expectancy estimate with soft tissue sarcoma cancer though… so that makes me feel good. She’s a tough cookie! Plus she doesn’t act sick really. She’s full of energy and a really happy dog. Our goal is to keep her that way.
now playing: Yeasayer - 2080
We have an answer!
After 8 hours at the vet yesterday, we have an answer! Our regular vet referred us to see a specialist on Saturday and we were lucky enough to get an appointment the same day! The appointment was at 2pm and we started with a checkup for Damien and they found his heart beat was weak in his hind legs and wanted to do an EKG to check his heart. Since his blood tests were from a month ago they wanted to do more of those as well. They also wanted to do an ultrasound to check out his intestines, spleen, liver and other organs to make sure they look ok. 3 hours later they found that Damien’s adrenal glands were small and wimpy for his size and breed. They said that indicates he may have Addison’s disease but they need to look into it further and do a special blood test where they take blood, give him a steriod and take more blood samples to check his cortisol levels. The test would take 2 hours. So we hung out and waited another 2 hours while they did those tests. $1400 later we left the vet. Ugh… gotta use that Care Credit card again for these vet bills… Today we got a call from the vet that he tested positive for Addison’s disease! Good news that we finally found some sort of answers! They say it could still be more that that… they’re not sure yet… but he can be started on Prednisone right away and monitored. In a month he will have to go back for blood work. Hopefully he will get better soon on the Prednisone. He’s been even more lethargic than normal the past 2 days.
