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.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, USA! It also happens to be the hubs' birthday today. Since we had a lovely weekend in San Diego with way too much good food to celebrate all weekend, we're taking it easy and lounging out at home with the cats. A nap might also be in order for me... I'm beat.

I left for San Diego after a couple of hours at work, and it was 105 degrees outside in the IE. Nasty. Drove to the hubs' place of employment in SD and left my car there, so we could at least drive together to where we were staying for the weekend. Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and Suites is right on the marina at Shelter Island, and it was a lovely resort. We got a ground floor room that led right out to the swimming pool area and a little walking path that overlooked the marina, and I was immediately regretting not bringing along a bathing suit. Then we waited for my in laws to arrive, and left for dinner at Top of the Market restaurant by the USS Hornet for dinner.

After a lovely dinner, we decided to walk around Seaport Village since we were right there. I tried to locate a store which sold some bathing suits, but sadly, the pool and I were not destined to meet this trip. We headed back to the hotel after walking around for a little bit, and decided to check out the Backstage Lounge at Humphrey's for a nightcap. There was a cover charge for the Dennis Jones, the blues guitarist from LA that was playing that evening, so we were thinking it was going to be good. The lounge wasn't very crowded at all, but service was terrible! We would have stayed much longer and had a few more drinks and even some appetizers had the waitress been a little bit more attentive. We left less than an hour after we got there, only because of the subpar service. We all decided to meet at 8.30 the next morning to start our day.

Saturday dawns, and it looks to be a cloudless, sunshiny day. It was a lot more humid than us inland folk were used to, being right on the water, but the weather was still so much cooler than what was predicted for our area. Since it was the hubs' birthday weekend, and he wanted to go to the zoo, we headed on over. I was prepared with our caps and sunscreen, and boy did we need it! We took the bus tour around the zoo (I always love the bus tour), and sat on the open air top deck, so it was a good thing we did it early before it got much warmer. We got to see the polar bears while they were awake this time around, and that was a treat.

We huffed and puffed our way around the zoo, and saw most of what all of us wanted to see. I think the hubs' and I were spoiled since our last trip to the zoo was on a weekday, with a lot less people. We didn't stick around some of the exhibits for very long because it was crowded with nowhere to sit. We were all exhausted after being at the zoo for 6 hours, compared to our 12 hour trip last August. I even managed to hunt down a souvenir travel mug I wanted that I could not find at the gift store. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up and figure out dinner plans.

I immediately jumped into bed to grab some shuteye, even though I was feeling rather icky from being out in the sun, pespiring, and all that sunscreen I had slathered on in an effort to keep from burning. Hubs wanted to eat at Bali Hai, but after calling them off and on and trying to make reservations, he was feeling pretty frustrated that he couldn't get through. We all decided to head over anyway, just in the off chance that they had an open table, and Downtown San Diego was plan B for dinner.

Lo and behold, we heard that there was a power outage that downed all their systems (hence not being able to get through on the phones or online), and that their kitchen was 30 minutes behind. They said we'd have a 30 minute wait if we wanted a table still, so we hung out in their bar/lounge area while we waited. Service was definitely a lot more prompt than at the lounge the previous night, so we all decided we could wait for a good hour if they kept our glasses filled.

Dinner was a fantastic experience. We sat outdoors and got to enjoy the beautiful evening, the food was fantastic, and dessert was divine. We wanted to go to the Backstage Lounge again for a nightcap, but it was standing room only, and no one bothered to come up to us when we were waiting at the bar, so we ended up just leaving.

The hubs' parents made reservations at Humphrey's restaurant for their Sunday Brunch, something that both his folks remembered from way back when. The dining room was beautiful, and overlooked the marina. Champagne or mimosas were offered when we first sat down, and then we proceeded to check out the buffet. There was a really large selection of breakfast and lunch foods, and manned omelette, carving, sushi, and dessert stations. There were a lot of seafood offerings, but breakfast foods and dessert were my favorites. They had fresh-made waffle cones! Yum. I had to waddle back to the room.

We went over to the Museum of Natural History next, and walked around for a few hours, before deciding to head home. Our last stop was at a local 99 Ranch asian market, where I stocked up on things near and dear to my stomach that I have a difficult time finding closer to home. I was a happy girl :)

All in all, a very fun weekend with lots of walking and sightseeing, good food and company.

So long, and thanks for all the fish...

It's the hubby's and my 9th wedding anniversary... 9 years. Wow. I hope we'll at least get to go out for dinner tonight. It was a bittersweet morning. Our very first car was picked up for donation to the Woody James Warren Foundation, via Cars4Causes. I feel sad and good at the same time. I still remember sitting with the hubs at a Jack-in-a-Box in Goleta after we got our tax refund in 2003 trying to figure out if we could afford a down payment and a monthly car payment, then taking the bus down to the dealership to look at cars. We've come a long way since the start of our marriage, and we'll continue trucking along the road of life.

Packing is considered excersise, no?

Wednesday and Thursday were a wash for attempting any sort of physical activity, with the exception of a short walk ion Thursday to grab some lunch with a coworker.

Today, however, I have been climbing up and down step ladders, bending over, lifting things... I suppose that counts for some excersise. What am i doing, you ask? I'm helping my sister pack up her apartment in preparation for her move to her new home tomorrow :)

On another note, the weather here in Mountain View is fantastic!

Treadmills

Since I didn't get any exercise yesterday, other than scrubbing a portion of my home floors, I decided to take advantage of the hotel's gym today while on travel for the day. After jabbing some buttons for a few minutes, I finally figured out how to get the treadmill started... the darn thing had more buttons than my iPod!

Once I got going, I turned on my kindle and started reading while I walked. I upped the intensity every once in a while and increased the incline level too. I was surprised at how quickly 30 minutes went by! I felt really good after my brisk walk, and decided to reward myself with a nice long soak in the super deep tub the hotel afforded. Did I mention the rainfall shower too? :)

I'm sure my legs will feel sore tomorrow (my bum is already starting to feel it a bit), but it felt oh so rewarding too. I seriousy need to think about getting one for the house.

Ouch...

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since I've posted in my blog... 1.5 years? Wow. Hi. Hope you're doing well :)

Nothing much has happened except I've gotten a lot more sedentary, my eating habits have gotten worse, and I think I'm at my heaviest weight yet. I've decided to revive my blog in an attempt to motivate myself to get some sort of something going. I'm also inspired by my friend FM's memoirs about her own journey down to a size 2/4.

Ironically, I'm typing this as I'm eating palmfuls of dry roasted peanuts in an attempt to drive away the light headed feeling from attempting the insanity workout's fit test. Yes, that's right, Mr. V and I, two completely unfit people, attempting insanity. We both thought we'd give it a shot after seeing a late night infomercial.

The package arrived sometime during the week. Mr. V decided we should give it a try today. We opened up the package, and immediately felt daunted by the figures in the fit test score card. We put in the fit test DVD, and halfway through, I was completely breathless and had to sit down. Mr. V and I dcided that we might need to get fit before we even try the whole shebang. This is what I get for believing in infomercials :) Maybe the wii fit stuff will be much more to our pace.

I suck, goodbye 2009, hello 2010!

I majorly suck for not updating my blog in over a year *hides face in shame* Maybe that will be my resolution for 2010... blog more? I really do need to start writing more... and be a little bit more creative.

2009 has been a good year, with plenty of ups, and some downs, but without the bad, I don't think you can ever savor the good. Plenty of new friends were made, and kept up with old. I got to experience the madness that was ComicCon for a full 4 days, went for a work trip to DC which included boating on the Potomac, camped out like a bum on the streets of LA to be a crazy screaming fan, and rang in my big 3-0 with tears. And all that happened in the second half of '09!

I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people I have met this year and done all the things I've got to do. Cheers to all of you... may 2010 be even bigger and better!