Our Newest Woo

Meet MacGyver (named by Bryan).

He is a sharpei-mix; we are not sure what he is mixed with. Maybe some Ridgeback? He has this awesome stripe going down his head, back and tail. We adpopted him from the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego. He is very smart and has only had a couple accidents in the house, which is probably more of Bryan and I not knowing what his behaviors mean. He's a pretty good walker and lots of fun. We love him a lot.

Jamaica Photos

We are back from Jamaica!
Here are some photos of our adventure. Enjoy!

October is not blogless

I haven't done a post in a while, but I have an excuse. I just got married!
Today is October 31st, Halloween. We had quite a few costumes at work today:




I was "White Trash." The shirt is a white trash bag with trash, and yes that is a mullet wig (compliments to Evan Saikin for forgetting his in San Diego after Bad Medicine's last debut), not my own hair. I'm wearing jean on jean and have my coffee appropriately placed in a beer cozy. Someone said I look like Karen Black, but I'm not so sure. Maybe a little bit, with the exception of the trashbag of course.


Bryan wore a mullet to work as well and wasn't too fond of me copying him by wearing the other mullet wig, but he let me since we are a quarter mile away at our separate jobs.

I'll be sure to post pics of Bryan later.

Happy Halloween!

Domesticated

Yesterday we did more yard work to trim back the jasmine bushes for "winter" so we will have nice blooms in the spring and Bryan rebuilt the shed on a new foundation so that the doors close more snugly. Then today, I made curtains for the storage area under our kitchen sink and stove.
Check out more pictures of our home here!

Delicious Food in Carmel

We had a ton of fun up at Monterey's Jazz Festival. Maceo Parker was his usual funky self and of course all the other musicians were excellent too. Maceo played a couple different stages at the festival, but the first one he played with the Next Generation Orchestra, which is a group of 15, 16 and 17 year old musicians. A couple of the saxophone players even got to jam with Maceo one on one and I couldn't believe how awesome they were. It was very cool to see such young musicians playing with a legend like Maceo Parker in front of thousands of people.

After the festival we hung out in Carmel and ate some sushi for dinner and learned valuable sushi etiquette, of which I will only apply some rules. For example:

1. When you offer sushi to someone else, extend your plate. Don't pick off a piece with your own chopsticks.
2. If you take some sushi off of someone else's plate (after being offered of course) use the opposite ends of your chopsticks.
3. When you set your chopsticks down, place them at the top of your plate and parallel to yourself. Don't set them directly on the table.
4. If you use soy sauce, always dip fish side down. Soy sauce is intended to flavor the fish, not the rice.
5. Don't make Wasabi soup with your soy sauce. Supposedly this takes away from the flavor of the roll which is rude to the chef. This is one that I am not going to follow. I love wasabi soup!
6. Once you pick something up with your chopsticks, don't set it back down on your plate. Take a bite and keep it on your chopsticks. I don't think I can do this either as my chopstick skills are not that good, but I can cram the whole piece in my mouth and therefore follow this rule.

After sushi we ate a giant sizzling cookie and then took a round about way back to Marissa's apartment so we could walk off a few calories. I'm not a big fan of warm cookie and ice cream, but I ate it anyway. It's hard to resist even if it's not my favorite dessert.

In the morning we went to breakfast at this Mediterranean cafe and I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich which wasn't actually a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich because it was either made with your choice of tri-tip or chicken and came on a cibatta roll. I ordered tri-tip and it was very tasty anyway...it just wasn't Philly, but then again, you can really only have a Philly Cheesesteak in Philly.

All of this good eating inspired me to plan a US tour eating at various states. I really want go to Philadelphia so I can order a cheesesteak and say, "Provolone with," like I'm a local. We could go to Maine or Boston for lobster, New York for whatever, and the south for BBQ. Yum!

You know you're California when...

...you go to a barbeque and someone asks if you eat meat. That and it's 75 in December.

This weekend Bryan and I are going up to the 51st Anniversary Jazz Festival in Monterey, California with our friend Marissa. This is the longest running Jazz festival in the world. I'm really looking forward to it, especially Maceo Parker-- Pass the peas! Pass the peas!

If you're really into it, you can even get copy of "The Art of Jazz: Monterey Jazz Festival" autographed by MJF board member and mayor of Carmel, Clint Eastwood.

That's another way you know you're in California...when mayors are major celebrities and you have a "governator" instead of a governor.

Of course we're not the only ones. Minnesota had Jesse "The Body" Ventura and another one is currently running for President of the United States, but that's another topic.

Tomorrow we're driving up North to Monterey-- the first weekend since getting married that we're not at home raking, unpacking, cleaning, organizing...

"Woo"-hoo!

Professional Wedding Pictures Are Up!

Not that we don't love all our candids from friends and family, but the professional photos are now up on BellaPictures.com.

http://bellapictures.com/weddinglookup/search.php

Type in our last names and choose August 2008 to view our pics!

More About our House

We really haven't been doing too much since moving in except unpacking, cleaning, organizing, spending money and of course doing endless dumpster runs. For those of you who don't know, a dumpster run is where you wait until nightfall and then sneak over the the nearest apartment complex to get rid of large boxes or other trash that doesn't fit in your city issued garbage cans. We thought we were done with dumpster runs after this weekend, but after missing the recycling collection we had to make another dumpster run at 9 PM last night to throw our recycling in the large bin across the street at the apartment complex. Hopefully that is the last run for a while.

Our yard is coming along nicely. We raked 9 bags plus 1 green recycling bin full of leaves this weekend. Actually I raked and Bryan put together a shed and I have a blister to prove it. For me yard work is fun because I never did it before. I always lived someplace where there were gardeners to take care of it all. We'll see how long my yard work high lasts. The next step is to trim the jasmine bushes and fix the lawn. Hopefully by spring, we'll be able to enjoy a nice green lawn to set our hammock and play some bocce ball on.

Settling In

Well, it's nearly two weeks past the wedding and things are coming together. We've had to get rid of a good amount of stuff. Such is the case when you marry at 27 after having lived alone for the past several years. We both came with our sets of dishes, utensils, towels, sheets, furniture and realized it's not all going to fit and we don't need it all to fit. It feels good to slim down our belongings, plus we had to make room for all the *new* shiny stuff we received from our registry. Bryan especially likes his nice, new, big Weber gas grill with rotissiere, which is chained down to the front deck. We are looking forward to having our TV mounted tomorrow morning, which will free up and clean up the look of our living room. If we have time we may even go to the Home Depot or Bed, Bath and Beyond. It's a busy Saturday we have planned. (Anyone see Old School? It's so true...you get married and suddenly are planning Saturday trips to BBB, Costco, and Home Depot). At least at Costco you get a $1.50 Hebrew National hot dog out of it.

So that's all for now. We love being married.

The Wedding is Over

We had a wonderful time in San Diego seeing many of our family, friends and of course getting married! We are now back in San Luis Obispo trying to get a few things in order today before going back to work on Thursday. We are blown away by everyone's genorosity this past week and are so grateful to have family and friends that love us. Thank for helping us as we start our new life together.

Click on the photo below to see an album comprised from pictures that Gioia took.

Photo Archives

Here are some fun photos of Bryan and I when we first started dating in 2005. Click the photo below to see the entire album.

The Dumpster Strikes Again

Bryan has found another treasure by the dumpster. At the time we're supposed to be packing up and slimming down our belongings to merge into one house, he picked up a 4 channel PA system next to the dumpster in his apartment parking lot.

This is the story I heard from him [paraphrased]:

"I was getting my mail when I spotted this PA just sitting
next to the dumpster. I thought to myself, 'this could be a piece of crap, or
maybe, just maybe the person throwing it out got a *new* PA and didn't want this
one anymore.' So, I grabbed it and immediately called my brother to find out how
to test it out. I didn't have any speakers, so I plugged a converter in and a
pair of headphones and tested out each channel with my microphone. Jay was more
and more excited as each channel worked successfully. He mentioned that all I
needed now was a pair of speakers [pause, waiting for Annie's reaction]
and that if you were upset I could just give it to him and Gioia would
understand."

Normally, I would be a little upset at such dumpster collecting activities, but we do need one for the wedding, so it worked out pretty well this time. I had to put my foot down tonight though when Bryan mentioned that maybe we should go take a walk past the dumpster. That seems to be one step to close to diving.

The Last Monday for the Next Two Weeks

Today is my last working Monday until August 18th and it was very much a Monday.

I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM in a panic becuase I had an appointment at 7:30 AM with a client in Australia. There was no time to shower, so I got dressed, brushed my teeth, grabbed my coffee, which fortunately was pre-programmed to brew for me, and rushed off to work for my appointment with Brisbane.

The first corner I drove around there was a huge construction truck and a lady holding a stop sign, so I detoured around the block and back onto my regular route past the construction.

I turned right and immediately braked for a dump truck with it's flashers on. Finally the dump truck turned left and I was on my way again, but not for long.

A biker zipped in front of me to turn left causing me to slam on my brakes and have a mini heart attack. I drove up a little more and suddenly a truck pulls out of a drive way in front of me (he must be friends with the biker) and precedes at 15 mph in a 35 mph zone. We finally get to a two lane road and a bunch of foggy mist hits my windshield so I turn on my wipers, but with all the recent fires my car is covered in ash and dirt so it just smears to the point that I can't see out except through a small 2 inch clear spot. My washers don't work anymore on my 94 Sentra, so I pull over, dump a bottle of water on my windshield and get back in.

I'm finally at work, set up my laptop, get my headset on, pull up my calendar and there's no 7:30 AM appointment. There never was.

Probably if I had stopped to be patient while the construction was going on in front of me I would have realized that I was making it all up in my head. I just sat at my desk, laughed and at least I got some work out of the way early this morning. Next time, I'll check my calendar before leaving in a panic. What a Monday.

Another Bridal Shower!

The girls at work were very sweet and threw me a fabulous bridal shower after work yesterday. I had such a fun time and was really touched that they wanted to do that for me.

We had a wonderful spread of food too! Cheesy potatoes, macaroni and cheese, cheese platters, mozzarella cheese sticks...

We also had some delicious brownie bites, cake, and I think there was a salad too. Good thing my dress has already been let out; hopefully it doesn't have to be let out again.

They also decorated wine bottles with little tuxedos and veils, which were perfectly sized for my ears. Maybe I'll start a new trend of ear veils. What do you think?

Near the end of it all, I got to open some presents and was very happy to receive more gifts from our registry. My favorite is the salad spinner and yellow "Livestrong" tea kettle. I had such a wonderful time and can't stop smiling. Thank you everyone!

Things are getting done...with only the occassional outburst

Wedding plans are coming along really well.
We knocked a lot off the list this weekend, including: ceremony music, house music, wedding day assignments and scheduling, and lots of other minute details not worth typing out.

We've been trying to have fun as well so as not to get totally wrapped up and stressed out with wedding planning. On Thursday night we went out for Thai with some friends and to say goodbye to our good friend, Julie, who is leaving for Boston this coming Friday. On Friday we ate BBQ at our friend Vicki's house and on Saturday ate BBQ at our friend Julie's house (another Julie). You can never have too much BBQ!

It was also on Saturday night at Julie's house that we saw our friends Steff and Nelson who just got married a few weeks ago. They looked so relieved and relaxed. I wish that was us, but they were just in our shoes 6 weeks ago, so I guess everyone who doesn't elope goes through it. To some extent, it is a gratifying experience because we're throwing a party on the biggest day of our lives.

Steff asked me how everything was going and I immediately burst into tears. I guess I've been storing up my stress as is my usual way of dealing an overwhelming amount of activity. I was quite embarassed, ran to the bathroom, while Bryan asked, "Steff, are you on that?" Apparently, I was not the most pleasant person that day. After a few moments of venting and eating, I was better. Planning a wedding is hard work and it's tough to just have fun. We are blessed to have lots of family and friends (like Steff and Nelson) that are willing to pitch in, help us move, help us plan, and make sure our upcoming wedding is lots of fun despite any little details we may forget to take care of. Afterall, I don't think anyone will care if we don't tie a bow on the party favors.

Packing and Parting

Only 3 weeks until the big day and only 2 weeks until we go down to San Diego to make the final preparations for the wedding.

We are really excited and I've never been so happy to pack boxes and move. Usually moving is such a chore, but when you're getting married and moving two apartments into one home to share with your new husband or wife, it's really fun!

I'm moving into the new place on the 31st and Bryan is going to move his stuff in over the weekend on August 1st and 2nd. Fortunately, my mom is coming up to help and our friend Vicki has volunteered as well, so we should get this move done in no time. Maybe we'll even have a couple hours to spare to organize a little bit before heading down to San Diego on Monday.
Of course one hard part about moving in together is deciding whose stuff to keep and whose to throw away. The majority of my furniture has been gifted or purchased new whereas Bryan has found several peices next to the dumpster at his apartment complex. I have a feeling they will return there just as one nightstand already has. Hopefully another young bachelor will spot it and make good use of it until his fiance makes him throw it away and so the cycle continues.

I'm just glad Bryan doesn't have a Lazy Boy. I've heard stories about wives trying to get rid of those.

Dreams are Weird...

I (Annie) had a dream last night that I was bathing a cat with bunny ears. It was some sort of new genetically engineered hybrid. The cat was also not very nice (probably because I was bathing it) and kept biting and clawing me. It grew larger and larger until it was the size of a great dane or so. I wasn't scared in my dream, I was very sympathetic toward the cat, feeling as though it spent its whole life rejected because it had bunny ears and no one wanted a cat with huge ears.

Who knows why we have such weird dreams, but it is fun to try and interpret them. For example, seeing cats in dreams (particularly agressive cats) supposedly suggests that you are having problems with the inner feminine part of yourself. To dream that a cat is biting you, symbolizes the devouring female- like you are taking and taking without giving. Or it may represent some sort of fear or frustration especially when something is not going as planned. (I read all of this on a dream website for the fun of it, I don't really take much of it to heart).

If you dream you are in a bathroom or are going to the bathroom, it supposedly relates to your instinctual urges, or some sort of emotional or physical burden you need to relieve yourself of.

So I guess since I was bathing a cat in the bathroom, I must be acting selfishly and need to relieve myself of stress before I turn into Bridezilla. Or maybe I just had to go to the bathroom and was really frustrated that I couldn't because I had to bath an ugly cat.

Beautiful Sunsets In SLO

Due to the recent fires, we've had some really amazing sunsets. It's a high price to pay, but you can't help but be in awe when you see these. It's hard to capture on my little digital camera, but last night's sunset was a beautiful red.

Kitty Cat or Pug?

I love cats, but I am also fond of dogs.
I suppose the draw to cats is that they are self cleaning, don't need to be let out to use the bathroom (some are even trained to do it on the toilet, but I wouldn't do that unless we had a special cat toilet...gross), and they curl up on your lap in a little warm ball. Cats are also quite fun, especially if you have two. They provide endless hours of fighting and playing for your viewing entertainment. If you have a mean streak you may even stick wax paper to the bottoms of their paws and watch them prance around trying to get it off. Unfortunately, Bryan hates cats! I don't know why there is such a strong hatred, but he has his mind set on getting a dog, but not just any dog. He wants a little pug to name Macgyver. Pugs however, need friends. They are very social dogs. Without a friend to play with they get very depressed, so instead of a second pug or dog, I suggested a kitty cat. We can raise them together so that they are friends, but Bryan does not think this is a good idea and that they will not like each other at all. Maybe he is right...

My Review of REPUBLICAN 'MAKE MY DAY 2008' MUG

This is a super funny coffee mug for the Republican in your life. I got one for my dad for Father's Day. Visit www.uncommongoods.com for more fun gift ideas.

Election year or not, Republicans can always root for their favorite political party with this humorous "Make My Day 2008" mug that turns all the states to red when filled with a hot beverage. Featuring stars, stripes, a Republican elephant and a dismayed Democrat donkey...

REPUBLICAN 'MAKE MY DAY 2008' MUG

Recent Adventures

The wedding is getting closer, but we still manage to steal away on weekends and enjoy the huge state of California.

A couple weeks ago we visited Yosemite and spent most of the first day hiking around various trails. The last trail we went to was on the way to the upper falls, but we only made it to the lower falls. After a day of hiking a couple miles was all we could muster for the end of day. After that we headed back to camp at Bass Lake, drove about 2 hours with the low gas warning on, and spent the night in our pop tents. Except for a few bears disguised as pine cones hitting the tent, it was a peaceful night of sleeping on the ground. In the morning Bryan and I got up and explored the grounds a bit. We found a river and snapped a few photos. I also found a cluster of mini trees and took a picture acting like Godzilla or some other monster, but it didn't really turn out.


It was only an overnight trip so after breakfast, we packed up camp, and drove to another part of the Sierras and hiked Fresno Dome. Finding the dome was a little interesting as the trail was snowed over, but it was quite refreshing. When it's 80 degrees out, snow on the ground is a wonderful thing. After an hour or so of wandering the forest, we stumbled upon Fresno Dome and hiked up to the top to enjoy the view, rest a bit and eat some snacks. It was absolutely beautiful and most of the land below still had a bit of green.


Since we had so much fun wandering the forest on the way to the dome, we decided to wander, or rather slide our way down on the way back to car. There were quite a few little slopes with snow, so we sat on our butts, lifted our legs in the air and zoomed down the side of the mountain in 20 foot bursts. It took about 1/4 less time to get back to car than to get up to the dome, which is always nice. If you're ever in California be sure to visit Yosemite or the other surrounding Sierra parks. Before Memorial Day in May is a great time to go. There is still snow and flowing rivers, but is hot during the day like summer. The waterfalls will be going strong and the crowds will be less.

86 Days to Get In Shape

The wedding is only 86 days away and we need to look awesome for our wedding day (after that who cares...just kidding) so Bryan and I both signed up at Athlon Elite here in warm 81 degree San Luis Obispo.

Athlon Elite designs daily butt kicking workouts for their members each day (kind of similar to the cross fit programs out there if anyone is familiar). To paint the picture one of their t-shirts proclaims a "daily festival of human suffering", although despite this, it's not the typical 80s "no pain no gain" mentality. They are quite focused on athletic improvement without injury. The program I'm doing is called, "The Burn" as in your muscles will be on fire and the program Bryan is doing is called, "The Edge" meaning they push you to the edge of your physical and mental abilities or until you puke. Last night for example, I had to do: 400 m run, 25 squats, 400 m run, 25 Bulgarian squats, 400 m run, 25 jumping squats, 400 m run, 25 split jumping squats (then repeat for 30 minutes). I only got 1.75 rounds and was wishing I hadn't rode my bike that day.

By the way, why is it that all the hardest exercises are always start with "Bulgarian," "Romanian," "Russian," or some other Eastern European country? I suppose "American Squat" is not as intimidating as an Eastern European Squat.

Anyway, it's about 6:00 and I'm signed up for a 6:30 session at Elite with Bryan, so I better get going. Hopefully I'll have more exciting stories after this weekend when we go camping in Yosemite, other than that it's bike to work, bike to the gym, workout, bike home, eat, crash, repeat.

Wedding Gift Registration

As you all know, our wedding is coming up in exactly 3 months. August 9th will be here before you know it, which means there's not much time to pick out a wedding gift!

People always say registering for presents is fun, but I think the ones that say that are the ones that have never done it. It was actually quite an exhausting experience.

We didn't make an appointment or anything, we simply wandered in to the neighborhood Bed, Bath and Beyond store and asked to register. I thought they would just hand us a scanner and we could take off, but as with most stores and vendors, they always have to try to up sell you on other services. The girl that was helping us was very friendly, but after making me stand on a fine china teacup to prove it's durability, we were getting a little annoyed with her exuberant personality. At first it was fun scanning items, but when after nearly 45 minutes of debating over which brand of cookware we liked best, we began to get a little weary and we hadn't even made it around the first corner of the store. By the end, we were so tired that we just scanned the first thing we liked, which is probably why have 1000 count bedsheets (which would actually would be awesome is someone is willing to spend $250) otherwise, we'll be happy with the Mrs. Fields cookies for $3.49 and oversized portable hammock for $99.99. We'll need to relax after this wedding is over.

If you haven't checked out our wedding website yet, please do! There are lots of fun details about the wedding and reception and of course "The Band."