San Francisco plans!
Josh and I are planning a short trip to San Francisco for Memorial Day weekend. We were gonna go Spy Hunter style and take the toy hauler with my Mini Cooper in the back but my Mini was 3 inches too long!! We’re still taking the toy hauler and the dogs and we booked reservations at the San Francisco RV Resort. It looks pretty cool for an RV resort for 3 main reasons… they allow dogs, have free wifi and a store with RV parts… which could come in handy since we tend to always have something go wrong with the trailer 
Oh and it’s right on the ocean which could be nice or could be miserable because ocean usually = fog, clouds, wind & cold! when it’s on the West coast anyway… I like the Great Lakes sort of “ocean” I always thought the ocean would be just like Lake Erie or Lake Ontario…
We don’t have much planned yet.. want to see the Golden Gate Bridge and definitely stopping in Cupertino on the way up to see Apple Campus and the Campus store. It’d be fun to ride a cable car too. I hope Mandy and Damien will be up for the trip… Damien still hasn’t been walking well and has a compromised immune system (ear infection eye infection, you name it!). He has more tests later this week and next week for his intestines… his liver tested fine last week… after that is kidneys. His protein, glucose and cholesterol levels are low which is contributing to a weak immune system. We just want them with us in the trailer for the most part, we’re not planning on dragging them all over and they love the camper and are used to it… so we figure we’ll keep them comfortable for the trip 
Christmas!
We had an uneventful Christmas this year. But it didn’t make it any less special Josh was sick.. he’s been sick since the weekend and he had Christmas eve off from work so it gave him some time to rest
All our Christmas cookies from the beginning of the month have diminished to almost none, so on Christmas eve we baked “melt in your mouth butter cookies”, which were excellent! (if you like butter cookies.. and i don’t). On Christmas I made my challenging Chocolate Ganache Tart.. it took 4 hours but turned out delicious!
We opened up gifts Christmas morning after church…
I gave Josh a new Fox Riding Co. hooded zip up sweatshirt (his old one is beat!):
Dupe helped open gifts:
I gave Josh a Fox Riding Co. long sleeve shirt:
Josh gave me an ipod car charging kit (battery only dies when it’s in the car):
Josh gave me a jewerly box organizer that fits in the drawer of our dresser upstairs.. oh was it a disaster area, until this came along!… Although I look disgusted (I was midsentence), I love it
I gave Josh a Japanese luxury air freshner (Air Spencer), the only thing that will fight dog smell in a car/truck
As a sort of silly gift, I bought Josh an at home cholesterol test. He won’t go to the doctor, so I’ve brought the doctor to him!
Josh got me equally silly gift, a foot warmer! Because I always complain my feet are cold!!
One more doctor gift… a little theme.. blood pressure checker… to prove stress increases blood pressure!
Josh is the bestest boyfriend ever, he hid stuff in my stocking! A super duper sweet homemade Christmas card and a $100 Visa gift card.. which is a bit of an inside joke..
Who wraps a gift card? Josh does
I gave Josh a creeper for under the car/mechanical work and it transforms into a stool on wheels
Lori Beth sent treats for the doggies! Mandy was very interested…
Josh’s sister gave us ornaments, Peanuts for me:
and A Christmas Story for Josh:
I’ll put all these photos and more in the Photo Gallery later…
Holiday glum
Thanksgiving is here! Holidays are kinda sad for Josh and I because we miss family and it’s rather lonely having dinner for 2 on these big holidays. I try to do some kinda dinner thing but it never works out and it’s just not the same (I’d rather work on these holidays to keep my mind off them!).. then I get homesick and Josh and I plan on moving back East. Each year we get more and more itchy about moving. This year is no exception. If only we could decide on a city/state! Any suggestions?
I’m very opposed to the Carolinas and a lot of the South… because of what little I’ve seen/heard in these places.. but still open to convincing… maybe?
In May we’re taking a train back to Buffalo and may look into places to move to. I’d like to live outside of NYC.. but Josh wants to live someplace warm and sunny.
What we love to do in SoCal - and hope to find where we move to…
- Wakeboard/Jetski (basically we need a lake nearby)
- Josh likes his sand/dirty toys - atv, dunebuggy, etc.
- I love a big city nearby for the artsy community, music, etc.
- Liberal cities are a plus because of their open-mindedness
now playing: TV On The Radio - Staring at the Sun
happy easter!
i’ve been really busy baking all these breads for tomorrow. for some reason since i’ve lived in this house, i haven’t been able to bake a decent bread. always too little flour, doesn’t rise, etc. 
i never had trouble baking breads before. josh noticed it too. he said i’m slippin.
it’s beautiful outside today. i hope it’s the same tomorrow. though i heard it’s raining and crappy in other parts of LA. josh was kind enough to wash my filthy mini. i haven’t washed it in 2 months or so hah. but i think it looks well used if it’s dirty
josh and i are thinking of going on a cruise together in the end of september/early october down to mexico. the biggest hiccup is a dog sitter. we’d be gone 6 days so that eliminates most of our friends that work in south LA. we’re gonna try to offer plane tickets to friends and family and see if that entices anyone
now playing: Of Montreal - Suffer for Fashion
new years!
we spent new years at the universal city walk where there was supposed to be snow.. though we only saw the confetti when it reached midnight. met amritz and sarah down there for dinner and then hung out to watch the ball drop in the huge crowd. it was freezing cold but when we were all crammed in the crowd it wasn’t so cold at all, a bit warm in fact.
here’s a shot of the festivities:
2006 Xmas Gift Report
Christmas is about the birth of Jesus for us Christians and about gift giving and selflessness for the rest celebrating the American holiday. But still after Christmas everyone asks what’d you get for Christmas!?
So here’s my 2006 gift report:
From Josh:
iHome! to wake me up gradually to the soothing sounds of my ipod music
Lawn Buddy, I’m probably one of the few people in California that does my own gardening. I get a huge sense of pride when my plants actually grow and my garden fills up This thing will save my back when I’m weeding and planting.
Ridata 8GB Pro High speed Compact Flash card which will allow me to take many more RAW photos per card
Motorolla KRZR K1m… a super tiny awesome phone from verizon, since my phone is tweaked out with some kind of voodoo where the battery sometimes works and when i need it, it dies with 4 bars of charge.
And a Victoria Secret gift card
From Mom & Dad:
2 cute shirts from Charlotte Russe…
3 great books:
a cute travel jewelery box so i don’t break anymore jewlery while traveling
a cute black necklace
a cute bracelet
From Tracey:
a forever 21 geometric patterned ruffle sleeve blouse
as well as the audio cd version for listening to
From LB:
3 pairs of hoop earrings
Forever 21 gift card
Chocolate Band-aids! for life’s boo-boo’s
From Josh’s sister & boyfriend:
A cute Hallmark ornament that talks! The two characters say the cutest tech talk things haha…
ugh
i saw josh gag for the first time ever yesterday. but of course my gag reflex is more sensitive than his, so shortly after i was gagging. but we learned mashed potatoes have milk in them and milk spoils after 2 weeks of being at room temperature in a closed environment. and boy does spoiled milk stink!
on another note, i receieved a beautiful elephant wind chime in the mail and don’t know who it’s from. is it a christmas gift from someone out there? thank you! im sure the neighbors will love it come the santa ana winds
so much to say
so my mini is back and in good shape. they fixed him and i picked him up next day. it was the throttle body.. defective.. and that 9mph was “fail safe mode”… a bit dangerous if you ask me (especially if i were on the freeway!). as soon as i picked up the mini i went to burbank airport to pick up lori beth and then van nuys flyaway to pick up tracey.
we had a lot of fun. we all got our haircut friday and did some shopping, baked cookies, made pierogis and had our polish christmas dinner saturday night with real fresh kielbasa from mom! and some alligator rolls too! tracey dyed lori beth’s hair slightly darker brown and she’s parting her hair on the side now, she looks really great! it was nice all being together again, though i’m sure josh was a bit overwhelmed
i posted pics in the photo gallery.
total of 3 christmas parties hosted at work! one for our IT dept: breakfast in a conference room, one on the ships in long beach with a 5 course dinner and a live show for employees +1 guest, and another today outside in the cauldesac a huge tent set up with breakfast and raffles and a small gift for us it’s super nice that they appreciate their employees so much and do all this for us.
now playing: bright eyes - method acting
2 more days!
On Wednesday night, Tracey and Lori Beth will be here! I can’t wait to see them both. Then on Saturday evening we’re celebrating Christmas and I’m having as many dinner guests as I can fit at our dinner table for a yummy Polish dinner and of course hundreds of homemade desserts!
On another note, Damien has been living crate-less now for almost 2 weeks and he’s been doing really well. He only tore stuffing out of Mandy’s pillow one day while she was at the vet. Nice, huh? She comes home to her pillow stuffing tore out. She’s doing amazing since her surgery. She puts more weight on her back right leg again but she still has a lot of muscle to build up in it and it may never be the same as it used to be. We just have to keep moderately walking her.
Lots to catch up on…
Went to Philly to visit Tracey for our birthday. I hope to have photos posted by end of day today in the photo gallery link on the right side there… it was really fun even though it was FREEZING! 36 degrees at night!! so i was all bundled up in sweaters, hoodies, scarfs, pea coat all on top of each other Her kitten, Voltaire is super cute and wild. Next time i visit i’m going to try to make it in a warmer time of year. We went to 2 H&M stores there within a block of each other and there was no 2 hour line to get in, like the Pasadena and LA stores!
Thanksgiving was yummy. Charlie came by and we made just enough food. It seems a 14 lb turkey takes longer than 3 hours like all the recipes say, but we only ended up eating the breasts which reached 165 degrees. The cooking at start of day didn’t go so well with burnt cranberry sauce (forgot about it on the stove) and failed pie crusts. So after frequent trips to Albertson’s (I was on a first name basis with the cashiers by this point) for crisco, then more cranberries, then potatoes, we were all good. I’ll post pics later tonight as well.
Damien developed some sort of cough last night. Sounds like a heavy wheezing choke but he makes no progress.. it comes and goes as coughing fits. He did it again this morning and woke me up scared that he was choking to death. I’m gonna try to take him to the vet tomorrow when maybe Josh can help me. That’s another thing, when he gets excited it sets him off into a coughing fit.. or when he tries to bark which is often.
now playing: Say Anything - Chia-Like, I Shall Grow
