Picture Extraveganza

This just makes me laugh...and it might be a teensy-bit of payback for a certain pic from Disneyland that Nikki posted.
We went for a hike a couple of weeks ago. I let them off-leash. They had tons of fun. I spent the afternoon picking ticks off of Nugget. Fun stuff!




This is funny because I practically had to put them in chokeholds to get them to stay with me long enough to take a picture. They both look ready to bolt.




Last weekend the Cuesta College bio faculty had their holiday party at a professor's house in Cambria. Her husband manages UCSB property up there and this is what they see every day! They live in this adorable adobe house. It was a great place to have a party! We went for a hike (and for once, I wasn't the only one with binoculars!) and then ate a large lunch afterwards.







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Book Club Read

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I've been wanting to join a book club but haven't gotten around to it. If I were in a book club though, I would suggest this book as a must-read. I just finished listening to it on CD and found myself sitting in my car at work for 30 minutes just to finish it (one of the perks of a construction site, you can do that from time to time. Hell, if the guys can pass out in their cars and snore loudly, I can listen to the end of a great book!)

This book has all the elements of a great novel: grit, suspense, love, hope, history, fantasy, reality, and humor. The premise - an ex-porn star is severly burned and finds love and the will to live through meeting a crazy woman (who claims they were lovers in Medieval Germany) - is certainly original, and well done. It is very well researched and put together. I have to put a disclaimer, though - the book can be a tad graphic, especially the first chapter, which is down-right nauseating. There is also a rather fantastical scene that seems a little weird, but makes sense in context.

The book has also inspired me to name my next pet Bougatsa, the dog's name in the book (it's a Greek pastry filling). Mike doesn't know it yet, I wonder if he'll go for it?

Oh, a side-note, totally unrelated: on December 30th, I will have four large retrievers over-night (three of the fours are about 90 lbs). Pray for me and my furniture, please.

I'm feeling a little gender-equality pride today

I just had a little exchange with two of my neighbors.

Some background: Two of my neighbors like to rag on Mike. They like to play it off as "good old boys" humor but it really bothers me, because it's just plain rude. To tell you the truth, I find it totally offensive to me, too.

Example: Everytime I do yard work, they make comments about why isn't Mike helping me.

Example: I was rolling the trash and recycling bins to the curb a few weeks ago when Number One (I will from here on refer to them as Number One and Number Two, because I think the euphamisms are quite fitting) said to me "Jeez, do you have to do all the heavy lifting?" I just looked at him and said "yes and Mike is inside vacuuming right now (because he was)."

Today, Mike is working without pay for 8 hours to help a friend teach a field course. On top of his 50 hour work weeks, he almost always spends part of Saturday and/or Sunday preparing lesson plans and grading papers/exams. It's the way to work your way up the community college ladder. I decided it would be nice to mow the lawns for him. It would be nice for him not to have to do it tomorrow, and we can just have fun putting the Christmas tree and decorations up together. When I got to the front yard, of course Number One and Number Two are outside (they basically spend all weekend milling around the neighborhood). When I finish up the job, Number One calls over: "Hey, how much is Mike paying you to do that!" (as if I have an allowance!). In an attempt to get him to elaborate, I asked "what are you trying to say?" and then Number Two calls over: "Yeah, can you teach my wife to do that?" This is when I turned to Number Two and said "you know, as someone who has two daughters, I wouldn't expect you to subscribe to gender rules." At which point they both rolled their eyes and went inside.

Fuck 'em

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this." - Anonymous

I know I constantly write about my dogs, and you may not know that we also have two cats. We adopted both cats while we were living in Oregon and they're definite members of the family. When the weather gets colder, they're around the house a lot more, and they have some quirks that have been making me laugh lately:

Merlin, our gray tabby, is obsessed with me. OBSESSED. About six months ago, I changed from being the person that feeds him to being someone he worships. We call him "enamored." When I get in bed, he gets this hypnotized look in his eyes (think eyes swirling in circles like the Cheshire Cat) and marches towards me until he's laying on my head. Whenever I walk down our hallway, he breaks out into a sprint to follow me. For some reason, he thinks that when I sit down at the desk to work on the computer, I really mean to sit down and pet him. He also will hear my voice and start crying from whatever room I'm in. And forget taking a shower without him sitting on the sink. On a good note, the hair on hair on his butt finally grew back, thank goodness (I guess he's cured from his Psychological Allopecia. I did not make this up, the vet called it that!)

Jasper, our black and white skunk, is your typical fair-weathered cat. He's very affectionate when he's hungry, indifferent when he's not. We joke that he's only nice when he's sick or dying. This came about when we adopted him. He started showing up to our apartment in Coos Bay and he was an absolute sweetie. Missing Jackson, my old cat, I talked Mike into adopting him and we took him to the vet. He had tons wrong with him, so we spent the money and got him fixed up. Poor cat, he was so doped up, he was literally walking into walls. It made me want to cry but Mike just laughed his butt off. When he was healthy, he became way less affectionate. Then, about six months later, he was super affectionate again and we soon discovered he had a sick tummy. We finally found out he had Giardia (you'd think he was a backpacker or something, sheesh!). But, I digress... Lately though, he's coming around a lot more, specifically to beg for food. Crazy begging. It started out with just meat. I'd be cutting up the chicken for dinner and I'd look over and Jasper would be seated between Puck and Nugget, looking up at me with big, hungry green eyes. He then progressed to begging for meat during dinner, and he has now fully graduated to begging for any food. The other night, I was eating a spinach salad (with just veggies) and he sat next to me and just yowled. I got up to get more water and when I turned around, he was licking my plate. Tell me, what cat do you know that likes Cranberry Gorgonzola dressing? (Sidebar: I asked Mike this and his response was: "What human do you know that likes Cranberry Gorgonzola dressing?! That sounds awful!" He's a ranch guy. But I must put a plug out: the Cranberry Gorgonzola dressing at Trader Joe's is really good!)

As I'm typing this, I find it highly ironic that my neighbor, who all day Sat and Sun blasts music from his garage, is playing "Cat Scratch Fever" I shit you not!

Confession Friday

At work yesteday, I got to talking to one of the construction workers, whom I consider a friend at work. He's this big, burly guy, 52 years old and we're talking about television shows. He then admits to me that he really misses watching The Young and the Restless. He was 100% serious, too. I love it! This job sure keeps me on my toes.

The Smokiest Place on Earth

Mike and I and some friend went to Disneyland this weekend. A quick recap:

• For those of you who love Disneyland, you will love it ten times more if you go in November, between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Almost zero waiting in lines and already partially decorated for Christmas...excellent!
• We decided to go galvant around the Happiest Place on Earth while thousands of people in California were evacuating their homes due to wildfires (we had the trip planned for months in advance). The closest fires were about 10 miles away from Anaheim so we had a nice layer of smoke and lots of falling ash in the sky. It was so thick, it made the temperature 10 degrees cooler (by blocking the sun) and my hair and clothes smelled like bonfire at the end of the evening!
• The Blue Bayou Restaurant inside the Pirates of the Carribean ride is definitely worth making the reservations two months in advance and waiting thirty minutes for a water-side table. Good food, even better service, and great ambiance!
• I went with the following five people (I couldn't find a better group to have fun with Disneyland with): 1) an adult who is a Disneyland expert, who knows all the secrets and quick-tips and isn't afraid to ask the self-proclaimed "crew members" what time the 9:25 parade starts at just to demostrate how they have to be nice to you (we got a good laugh out of that one) 2) an adult who loses his voice from screaming and laughing so hard on rides, it's infections (and part of the reason why I married him...) 3) an adult who breaks out into a full-on sprint when the above-mentioned 9:25 parade starts so she can see the show, and whose eyes light up and twinkle when taking in all the Christmas decorations 4) an adult who keeps you laughing on all the rides and makes jokes all day, even while sitting inside an over-sized tea cup and 5) a new husband who's such a good sport, he starts putting on his "Just Married" Mickey and Minnie pin without his new wife asking him to (by the way, she told him that was sweet, but she in no way expected him to wear it, he was pretty relieved). I can only hope I was as much fun for them as they were for me, though I think the only time I was entertaining was when I started getting claustraphobic on the Finding Nemo ride...
• Nikki took all the pictures, so there aren't any posted below. I'll try and edit the post with some pics when she emails them.

Sis got hitched!

This past Friday, November 7, 2008 my sister Nikki and her longtime love (10 years!) Ryan, tied the knot. They got married at Casa Real in Pleasanton, a Ruby Hill winery that was to die for. For all of you recently engaged folks, I highly recommend this wedding venue. Not only is it beautiful, but the event staff are extremely helpful and on top of things. I have never seen a wedding go off without anything going wrong! Now, I promised those of you who couldn't make it a detailed play-by-play, so here it goes:

• I took the bus up to San Jose on Wednesday. Mike couldn't come up until Thursday and it seemed so silly to drive two cars up when we'd both be coming back at the same time, so I went ahead and bought my bus ticket two weeks in advance. I received it in the mail about a week ahead of time and kept it all the way until Wednesday morning, when I could not find it (I'd last had it on Tuesday night). I frantically tore apart all my bags looking for it, causing us to be late to the train station (I was catching the bus at the Paso Robles train station). On the drive up there, I called Amtrak and they told me I would have to buy a new ticket, and if/when I found the old ticket, I could bring it in to a station and get refunded. When we arrived at the Paso Robles train station, she said that station was just a depot - they didn't sell tickets. I could get on the bus and would have to get off in Salinas and purchase a new ticket. That's okay, I thought. Then, while I was waiting for the bus, I decided to look in my toiletries bag, and low and behold, there was my ticket! I hate, hate that I constantly do shit like that. I can be really absent-minded. Just earlier in the week, Mike and I (we didn't know which one) had lost the only set of keys to our new truck. Mike had to go to the dealership and get a new key made, based off the truck's VIN.


• On Thursday, once Mike arrived, the whole family drove up to Pleasanton/Livermore and checked into our hotel (we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Livermore, good accomodations for a very reasonable price!). We headed over to Casa Real for our 4:00 pm rehearsal. Unfortunately, we started a little late because Amy and Erin (bridesmaids) got lost. Good thing they did, because I decided to putz around and take some pictures in the down time, and low and behold, what were in my camera case? The keys to our new truck. I have no idea what possessed me to throw them in there. So scatterbrained.


• The rehearsal was the most detailed and entertaining wedding rehearsal any of us had ever been too. Father Robert, the priest who married Nikki and Ryan, was a total character who had everyone laughing. He also had a very detailed ceremony, with us all having assigned parts. I literally felt like I was trying out for a play.


• The rehearsal dinner was held at Frankie, Johnnie, and Luigi, too. I had taken over preparations for the dinner from Nikki a few months ago and decided to suprise her by making three flower centerpieces and favors filled with Nikki and Ryan's favorite candy for everyone. I managed to keep it a secret from her until right before. I even saw her trying to open the trunk of our car. I rushed over and told her mom needed her so she walked over to mom and said, "What's up?" My mom just stared at her like she was crazy, LOL. While her back was turned, I had enough time to transfer the centerpieces from our trunk to the Menda's trunk. She came back, unloaded stuff form the car, and when her back was turned, I put them back in our trunk. Then, we stopped by the hotel on the way to the rehearsal dinner. I wanted to get to the restraunt first, so everything could be laid out before Nikki and Ryan got there. After ensuring they had a ride, I left my mom and my aunt up in their hotel rooms (without them knowing it) and jetted over to the restraunt. I was able to set everything up by the time Nik and Ry got there, but by that time they knew something was up. Oh well, at least they didn't know what exactly was up.


• After dinner, Mike went out with Ryan and some of his friends and stayed with Ryan in San Jose. Nikki and I returned to the hotel room and were asleep by 11 pm. A girl's got to get her beauty sleep!


• We had every intention of sleeping in a little bit on Friday, but my damn internal alarm clock woke us up at 6:15 am. Oh well, it just meant we had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast. Roxanne, the hair stylist, met us at our room at 8:45 am and got started on our hair. She did Nikki's hair in lose curls/waves that were very romantic and oh-so-Nikki. She did my hair in tighter curls and pinned one side back with flowers. She also did a rockin' job on my mom's hair, she was very pleased with the outcome.


• We arrived at Casa Real at 1:30 to take "getting ready" photos and prepare for the bridal party photos at 2:00. Casa Real has a really large, nice, bridal chamber, with a large vanity and private bathroom. Casa Real spoiled us with Champagne, Sparkling apple cider, and yummy hors d'oeuvres. We also got to finally see the wedding bouquets, which turned out gorgeous! The bridesmaid bouquets were constructed of blue orchids, blue hydrangeas, and blue hyacinths. The bridal bouquet had white orchids, white hydrangeas, white hyacinths, and white Stephanotis with blue jewels in the center. We took our pictures and then hurried back to the bridal chamber, so that we didn't run into the guys.


• The ceremony started a little after 3:30 pm. They couldn't have asked for better weather - it was about 70 degrees and sunny. Two family friends played classical guitar for the ceremony. The bridesmaids walked down the aisle (very very slowly, just for Father Robert) to "Calling You" by Blue October. I say walked but perhaps I should say "hobbled" because we were all in heels on cobblestones!. Nikki was escorted by my dad down the aisle to U2's "All I Want Is You." It sent shivers down my spine! The ceremony was very quick and funny, Nikki and Ryan even made a few jokes throughout it! It was great. After a long (6 second) kiss (as instructed by Father Robert), Nikki and Ryan walked down the aisle to Jack Johnson's "Constellations." I loved watching them walk down the aisle, with the sunset behind them, and the words "with the sunset and the moonrise not so far behind."
• Next, more pictures! The photographers were really good, taking some very unique poses. At one point, I turned to Nikki and said, "you know, these seem kinda silly now, but watch they'll end up being the best pictures."


• After a fabulous appetizer set-up, we were all seated for dinner. Nikki and Ryan sat at a sweetheart table and before long, were up mingling. According to Nikki, they got a little bored. Our meals were very tasty, though the butternut squash raviolis I had ended up not liking me (see Elephantitis post). Even the waitstaff were great, making jokes and being super friendly, very impressive!
• After dinner, Nikki and Ryan had their first dances. Nikki and Ryan danced to half of IZ's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (that song is over five minutes long!). Nikki and my dad danced to a Frank Sinatra song (the name escapes me now) and Ryan and his mom danced to a Boyz to Men song, which just cracks me up. It was really cute, Nikki says it's totally the Menda family.


• Bouquet toss - Nikki and I came up with the idea to tie four "mini-bouquets" together and when she tossed the bouquet, four people would catch it! Nikki threw the bouquet expertly (you'd think she'd been practicing ;) right at the girls, but all the roses buds fell off :( I'm not really sure who got the buds and who got the stems... The best part of the bouquet toss was my Nonni decided to get up there and compete with the best of them.


• Garter toss - When all the men lined up for the garter toss, my Nonni went up to the guys and assigned them designations ("too young," "too old," "too hot!"). When "too hot" caught the garter, she ran over to my grandma yelling, "oh my gosh, did you see who caught the garter? Too hot did!" She also lined up with the best of them in hopes of catching the garter. LOL.


• Generally LOADS of dancing ensued. Good music! My feet and my calves were so sore from the heels the next day! My two favorite music experiences was Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" which prompted an impromptu karaoke session by some of us girls and Van Halen's "Jump" which my mom dedicated to Ryan, since we found out from his cousins that he was obsessed with the song when he was little and could sing and dance the entire video.


• That's all I got for now (I know, you're thinking that's all?!) I'll write anyother things I can remember in a subsequent post. For now, here are some pics: