No eez'n this cold

I've been home all day sick :( I have not even had the energy to get on the computer until now. Sam said when he came home for lunch he didn't see me in the living room so he looked in the computer room. When he didn't see me in there he knew there was smoething wrong!!! Ok so I've been sucking on Cold-Eeze nonstop. I'm a big fan. It is clinically proven to reduce the duration and severity of a cold. In the past I've seen this to be the case, however this time Cold-Eeze is not living up to it's claims. Who knows, maybe I would have been worse without it.

In more happy news, Sam and I spent the weekend in Orange County (I called it LA and offended people, so now I know better). We saw some frineds new condo they bought, saw Sam's little sister's new job site (a group home for non-fosterable girls), and I met up from some friends from college. Allison took us to Corona del Mar on Sunday for a nice stroll on by the ocean and then to Laguna Beach for lunch.

Back from Europe

We're Back!....and as of now, I have no pictures to show for it. We really did go, I swear. We had a bit of a mishap while rushing to change trains in Milan and forgot our camera on the train. The good news is that we were only 4 days into our trip and later that day we met up with some friends who hsd a camera and took pictures for us. When I get our DVD with pics on it, I will post some. I've been working like crazy ever since we got back (57 hours in 6 straight days, starting the morning after we flew in at 10pm). Needless to say that my day off today was well needed and utilized.

Going to Europe

We leave on Friday!!! I can't wait. All I've been doing and thinking about lately revolves around this trip. Our firt destination is Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. Check out our cute hotel next to a waterfall!

From there we head to Italy (Cinque Terre, then Siena, Florence, Venice).
Then we fly to Romania for Josh and Edena's wedding. Then back to Italy to fly home. In all we will be gone for 17 days.
Some things (and people) we can't wait to see:

shower curtain is complete

My project for the last month or two is finally complete. It is hung in our guest bathroom. Here are some pictures:

Are you smarter than an 8th grader?

Better than I thought I'd do...but I was a science major in college

Free Online Dating

Not just your ordinary OxyContin robbery

These guys came down through the roof!!! Bye the way, this place is only a couple of miles from where I work (by Balboa Park).

Taking the monotony out of work

Had a guy threaten to pee all over my waiting area at work yesterday...AGAIN! You would think this type of action would be a once in a career opportunity....I guess not. Oh, the joys of downtown.

Olympic Training Center...in Chula Vista?

While driving out east in Chula Vista yesterday in search of a new and chic outdoor mall, Heidi and I got lost and ended up at the Olympic Training Center. Bizarre. Since it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and had no clue why mapqest led us astray, we decided to enter and check it out. We didn't even know this facility existed, and we soon found out that there are only 2 others like it in the rest of the United States. They had a large lake for rowing, some tennis courts (but I guarantee Venus would NEVER step foot on the sub par courts), soccer fields, a field hockey field, softball field and practice area, dorms/village area, track, and archery range. The highlight was that there were people practicing archery and we were able to walk up very close to them. Not a bad excursion for an accident. Oh, and since I'm sure you were wondering...we later found the shopping mall and it met all expectations.

Like I need a guide

Here's a preview of what is in the article from Good Housekeeping (May 1955):
1. Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready, on time for his return.
2. Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you'll be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He had just been with a lot of work-weary people.
3. Listen to him. You may have a dozen important things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first- remember, his topics of conversation are more important than yours.
4. Make the evening his. Never complain if he comes home late of goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
5. Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day.
6. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or have him lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him.
7. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice.



Ok, so no wonder women wanted to enter the work force...maybe they wanted to get all of these things when they returned home from a long day at work. Actually, after reading this list, I'm surprised that the women's movement didn't happen sooner.

A weekend on the job

Here are some highlights (and lowlights) of work this weekend:
1. I was greeted on both Saturday and Sunday by a regular waiting for his Ativan. I was told that on Sunday he had been waiting since 7:30 (we open the pharmacy at 10:00)
2. A girl wanted to by the morning after pill until she found out it cost $40, then decided it was "too expensive."
3. I was asked the best thing to take for a headache if you have high blood pressure (I mention this because it is VERY close to, but a much better question than my all time least favorite/stupidest question of "what should I take for a headache")
4. I had to inform yet another person that they were getting bit by bed bugs.
5. A schizophrenic regular customer showed me how to fight off a male attacker. She told me she was able to use these moves on men before.
6. I had my longest line all weekend at 2:55 on Sunday (we close at 3:00)....needless to say, I left late :(

shower curtain

I'm creating a shower curtain for our guest bathroom. The picture shows the bottom section of it, however the main part will be all the blue color. We have shower doors already, so this is a pure decorative piece. I still have to decide how to hang it. Here are my two options right now:
1. Punce large grommets (about 2") in the top of the curtain and weave a shower pole through the grommet holes.
2. Hang a thin wire using eye hooks anchored into the wall. Then I could punch small grommet holes into the top of the curtain and weave the wire through the small grommet holes.

R.I.P. Xanadu

So I just came across some sad, sad news.....Xanadu, the house of the future has been demolished(back in October 2005...boy am I up on my current events). It was located in Kissimmee Florida and I remember going to it multiple times as a child. Though I remember it more as being rundown than a true house of the future, we always seemed to go back on each trip to Florida.

Stomp!

I saw Stomp for the first time on Sunday night. It was amazing. I appreciate it for the same reason I love the TV show "so you think you can dance." These people have a God given ability that is so different from the talents and abilities that I have. I could never have rhythm like those performers on stage. (In a similar way there is NO WAY my body could ever move like the dancers on "so you think you can dance). We also made a good discovery that night. If you go to the theater a few hours before the show begins, you can get half off tickets. So basically, we sat in the orchestra section (row R and close to the middle) for the same price at the balcony folks. I love good deals! Avenue Q comes to SD soon...I really want to see it....and with this half off discovery, I probably will.

babysitting

We babysat our niece yesterday as Sam's sister and brother in law celebrated their wedding anniversary. This was a test to see if we could handle the whole baby thing. It was pretty fun and not as crazy as I had feared. There was some crying involved (she was supposed to "love bath time" however we found the opposite to be true!) I did realize that the whole messiness that comes with letting your child eat for themselves would be something that I would have to adjust to. Here's a pic that Sam came up with from our babysitting adventure....

growing weeds....on purpose.

Sam has finished designing and building our planter box for our balcony. After going to Home Depot today to by a weed (aka horse tail- a type of bamboo) here's what we've got so far (It's supposed to spread out to fill the entire box with a little time since it is a rhizome).:

Frustrated

I tried to put a youtube video in this blog...and I can't get it to work. Ahhhhhh. I wish I had better computer skills. I've mastered the picture, but I guess a video is just too advanced for me. I really don't want to be one of those old people or parents who have no clue about technology/computers/etc...well I guess I don't have to worry about that quite yet.

In Christ

I am the salt of the earth, the light of the world
I am a child of God
I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life
I am Christ's friend
I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit
I am a son of God; God is spiritually my Father
I am a joint-heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him
I am a temple--a dwelling place--of God. His spirit and His life dwells in me
I am united to the Lord and am one spirit with Him
I am a member of Christ's Body
I am a new creation
I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation
I am a son of God and one in Christ
I am a saint
I am God's workmanship--His handiwork--born anew in Christ to do His work
I am a fellow-citizen with the rest of God's family
I am righteous and holy
I am an expression of the life of Christ because He is my life
I am chosen of God, holy and dearly loved
I am a son of light and not of darkness
I am a holy partaker of a heavenly calling
I am one of God's living stones, being built up in Christ as a spiritual house
I am a member of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession
I am an alien and stranger to this world in which I temporarily live
I am an enemy of the devil
I am a child of God and I will resemble Christ when He returns
I am born of God, and the evil one--the devil--cannot touch me
I am justified--completely forgiven and made righteous
I died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule overmy life
I am free forever from condemnation
I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God
I have been given the mind of Christ
I have been bought with a price; I am not my own; I belong to God
Since I have died, I no longer live for myself, but for Christ
I hve been made righteous
I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I am now living is Christ's life
I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing
I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and am without blame before Him
I was predestined--determined by God-to be adopted as God's child
I have been made alive together with Christ
I have direct access to God throught the Spirit
I may approach God with boldness, freedom and confidence
I have been rescued from the domain of Satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ
I have been redeemed and forgiven of all my sins. The debt against me has been cancelled
I have been made complete in Christ
I have been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline
I have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need
I have been given great and precious promises by God throught which I am a partaker of God's divine nature.

Heidi's 24

Happy Birthday Heidi!

I've been on vacation...

from this blog, but I'm back now. Check out our pics from Minnesota. We visited with Jon and Kate for a long weekend. It felt like we did tons of driving around since everything is so spread out compared to what we are used to. We went to the Mall of America, visited one of 10,000 lakes, and roasted marshmellows on their back porch (smores=yummy).

Paris at church?

I'm not sure how I'd concentrate if I were at church to worship and in walked none other than Paris Hilton herself. Appearently that is what happened the other day...



From TMZ.com

"Paris and a pal attended an evening church service at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, which offers several classes on Tuesday evenings, including an Adult Discipleship class -- the perfect course for a future convict! TMZ spoke to one of the church's Bible Study leaders, who explained, "The bible is the key thing. Without the bible you don't have anything. You get to know who your God is." This might come in handy in jail!
The other Tuesday church group is "The Foundry," for ages 22-35, which according to their site, helps to "Grow them up in the likeness of Christ through small groups, and go out to serve with their gifts and passions." Retail therapy to save the world! Hoorah! Shop for Jesus!"

Going Green

No, we did not put a biodiesel engine in our car (although we are passively trying to sell one and just rely on one car). We did not sign on to help Al Gore in his mission. We are not swearing to use only 1 sheet of TP each time we go to the bathroom (sheryl crow). We actually put a 1st coat of paint up in our bathroom. The toilet area is already painted with a slightly darker color. It looks really bright...almost too bright, so hopefully a 2nd coat and some dark brown towels/decor will help tone things down.

burnt chicken.....

....made me get out of bed for 45 long minutes last night. I'll explain. I awoke in the middle of the night to the awful sound of the fire alarm. It's 4:15 a.m. and my initial intuition was to put the pillow over my ears and wait it out. I can't even explain in words how loud and obnoxious that thing is, so when the pillow idea didn't work, we had to go into the bathroom for an excape for our ears. We finally left the building to greet our equally amused neighbors outside for an early morning social event. I actually smelt smoke outside the building which was surprising since past fire alarms have been caused by excitiing things such as a fog machine at a party or just dust. This time it turned out that "unattended chicken" set the alarm off. I kinda hope their whole condo smells like the inside of a microwave after you burn something in it. Ah the joys of condo living.

President's Suite was sweet

Heidi invited me to sit with her in the President's Suite at the Padres game. What a treat! The box is DIRECTLY behind home plate and at a lower level that the other luxury boxes. We had all the food and drinks we wanted. They even had the best chocolate cake ever. To top it all off, and much to our surprise, Ozzie Smith deceided to sit next to us. A great night.
Notice the gold emblem in the corner: This is for the special seats only.

Friends

We had a full house (well...condo) last weekend. We had some good friends from out of town come and visit us. Six people in our little condo....and it was actually relaxing. We went to the beach, took a tour of UCSD from our personal tour guide Katie, and hit up a Padres game. Here are some pics of our time:
Obviously I didn't have a chance at 3 files up with these guys.





Hmmm, small photo....7th inning stretch "1, 2 ,3 strikes you're out"




Now here's an unrelated pic I just found from Sam's 26th bday party. Can anyone say "Samtini." ....And Steve, why are you so serious?

Bad Luck

I don't actually believe in luck. With that said....boy do we bring the Padres bad luck any time we step foot into Petco Park. We went to the game last night. It was a sell out croud. Great atmosphere. Great sounds. Great scoreboard entertainment. The only problem was the actual baseball preformance put on by the Padres. I think the Pads only got 4 hits all game long and didn't even score a run. They made errors in their fielding and the pitching was not crisp by any means. It was a blow out and not too exciting to watch. We actually left a little early and got dessert at Extraordinary Desserts.....which was truely extraordinary.

Sam the cooking guy

Sam and I watched an episode of Sam the cooking guy the other night. For those of you who don't live in San Diego, this is a cooking show where "Sam" cooks food in his own home. It's a great show....and everything is simple and practical. He made ceasar salad wraps. They looked so great, I gave them a try. Here's what it looked like:


MMMMMM tasty.

Recipe:
1 package of ceasar salad mix (with dressing and crutons, etc. included)
chicken- from a rotisserie chicken in the deli sections of the grocery store (I used frozen breasts I already had in the freezer)
roasted red peppers sliced (in a jar available at Trader Joe's)
crumbled feta cheese
celery sticks (for a nice crunch
wraps or large tortillas

Mix it all and wrap it up in a tortilla. It's that easy.

photo shoot

Heidi and I took a little bike ride yesterday to OB. The perfect setting: a cool and crisp evening, clear sky, and the sun was setting. While cruisin' down Pt.Loma Blvd we thankfully stopped at a red light for a breather (I have not ridden a bike since October!). As we caught our breath we hear a car's horn being honked. Instinctively we both turned our heads and suddenly saw none other than...

... a Japanese tourist hidden behind his camera in the passenger seat of a rental car. We started laughing....and so did they. Crazy that they must have thought that two girls on beach cruisers belonged in their photo album of their vacation to San Diego.

MInt Drumsticks.....

....acutally exist. And they were on sale at Albertson's so I bought a box. Let's put it this way....two days later Sam (who never goes grocery shopping) went back and bought, not one....but two more boxes. MMMMMMM, mint ice cream with a chocolate/cookie outter cover. Still looked forward to the chunk of chocolate on the bottom. Sorry Larissa...if you read this I hope I don't make you gag.

The streak is broken

Sam and I went to our 3rd Padres game this season last night (Sam's actually been to 4) and they had lost EVERY time....until last night. For a while we were thinking we were bringing bad luck, but that has been proven to be untrue as the Pads cruised to a 3-1 victory over our former home team the Washington Nationals. I will have to admit that I was a bit worried when the brought Hoffman in for the 9th inning save...he got roped as usual, but they all turned into outs and he got his job done. 2-1 burgers at happy hour, a M2I social function, then a Padres victory....not a bad Tuesday night.

Back home

Well I'm back from my lovely stent up to Walnut Creek for training. Here's a few observations:
1. Having your name on the screen at the rental car VIP area bypassing a line and going straight to your car is cool.
2. Though I was looking forward to having my own king size bed to sprawl across, getting 2 queens was not too shaby. One to lay on, and one to lay all of my junk on.
3. They gave us caffeine all day long (coffee/hot tea with breakfast, iced tea (with no option for water) for lunch, and bottled cokes all day long during meeting times). Do you think they were trying to tell us something about their program?
4. The high and mighty G.O. that had been glorified an my mind all these years was a simple building with worn down carpet and wood panneling everywhere. I still can't believe the high level execs making over 10 million a year walk on that same carpet that made me cringe.
5. I think I actually like meetings.

All in all, I had a good time and got to know some of the people I work with better.

Bussiness Trip

Going to Walnut Creek in a few hours with work. I will be attending a training for the "new" pharmacy managers...probably could have used this training 8 months ago! Anyway, I'm excited....my first ever bussiness trip. Hopefully I'll get to see Liz too since she happens to live in Walnut Creek.

Trying something new...

Here's to something new...why not? My brother does it, my sister in law does it, my friends do it.....why not jump on the bandwagon too?