10 years and many more to come :)

We celebrated our 10th anniversary yesterday with a trip to one of our favorite places, the San Diego Zoo... we didn't feel a need for a fancy romantic dinner or anything like that, we were happiest walking around the zoo. It's been such an integral part of our lives together, and it's one of the few places we visit frequently over the years. We both agreed that it was a perfect place to celebrate our decade of marriage.

We even got to see things that we never saw before, in all of our trips... active big cats, up and about, the elusive fishing cat, and the new baby jaguars, who were acting like little kittens! We felt like the animals were celebrating our special day with us too. I was like a kid in a candy store, and couldn't stop smiling!

The only times I frowned were when a foreign family cut in front of us while we were waiting for the skyfari tram (we ended up leaving the line to walk instead), and when I saw a hawk swoop down to steal a duckling from it's family at the flamingo pond... that made me really sad, but Anthony told me not to dwell on it since there's nothing we could have done, and that's nature.

We were exhausted, slightly tanned (it was a very sunny day, even with hats, sun screen and my Columbia Omni Shade shirt for sun protection), but blissfully happy by the end of the day, enjoying cheesy 80s music on our drive back from San Diego, and a humble dinner of Chipotle and the very trippy Erik the Viking movie on Netflix to cap off our special day.

... and why isn't blogger posting my returns??

ARGH! My previous two posts have had no paragraphs, even though I wrote them with. What am I missing? *sigh* Must brush up on html again...

Time flies...

I can't believe it's already almost the end of June... I've now spent almost 2 months being "semi-retired", and I'm finding myself filling up my days with things to do. How did I manage to do it all before? We had a wonderful weekend for Father's Day in San Diego. My dad arrived on Friday evening in LAX, and I had to battle rush hour traffic to get down to San Diego... a normally 2.5 hour drive took almost 4. We had a lovely dinner with my in-law's at Roy's, and I had to have a little cocktail to calm my nerves from the drive. Saturday started bright and early for the hubs, my dad and I... we had houses to look at! We're starting the process of looking at homes in San Diego... it's scary and exciting at the same time. We then headed to the Oyster Festival, held at the Embarcadero park area by Seaport Village. The early bird really does catch the worm... we're so glad we got there early, snagged a table, and got to taste pretty much all the oyster offerings there. It kept getting more and more crowded. We looked over the park area from our hotel room a couple of hours later, and the crowd was so thick it was standing room only! So glad we got there early. We also took a leisurely touristy ride on the Seal tour... I love being on the water! We had a fantabulous dinner in the downtown area at a restaurant called Salvatore's... wow. Just wow. The place looked like a museum, and they had a harpist playing throughout dinner. The pastas are all hand made, and were simply delicious. We sat for at least 2 hours enjoying our meal. I've never ordered so many desserts either, but they were all so delicious we couldn't pass them up. I need to post photos of them. We all had breakfast on Sunday and parted ways... my in-laws to get some food shopping done in Little Italy, and more house hunting for us. We looked at 11 homes over the weekend, but haven't found the perfect one yet. More to look at in the morning tomorrow!

Transitions

I seem to only add a post annually at this point in time, which I should definitely work on. So much has changed since I last posted on this blog. I've made 2 trips home, travelled to Melbourne, celebrated my dad's 60th, took a trip to Bali, and made some big decisions about my career. 11 weeks ago, I turned in my resignation from the company I've worked for for the last 10 years. 7 weeks ago, I accepted a transfer to part-time status, enabling me to work from home. 5 weeks ago, I started my new "job" from home. The transition was pretty tough. I think after being stressed out for so many years, I was continuing to find ways to stress myself out, until my friends told me to quit doing that, and to enjoy my newfound freedom. I'm taking a few months off before starting my other part time job, which is affording me some down time, and to also reclaim my home, which had been sorely neglected up till now. I found it interesting that I couldn't get myself motivated enough to get things done, even though I now had the time. Again, my friends stepped in and told me I needed to recover from all that stress. I am likening stress to an illness... recovery time is absolutely necessary, as you would with a cold. I thank the heavens and all my lucky stars that I can afford to make this change. I am finally feeling like my old self again, and have started the process of summer cleaning. Boy, does it feel good to start tossing out old things! I foresee our garbage cans being filled to capacity in the weeks to come. I feel good. I feel rejuvenated. I am ready for a new and improved me.