July 2009

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July 31, 2009

July 31, 2009 in family | 2 comments

Wow. I can’t believe it. It has been 5 years since our wedding day. Crazy. Here are some photos of us a week ago Monday enjoying a spontaneous beach lounging trip. Complete with wine and pop chips–yum!

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We’ve had some doozy years–like the year after your ankle healed from the break, then the tire shredded while I was following you and my mom in the moving truck because we were moving to a new state for grad school, and you got leukemia, and it took me 2 months to find a job, and our kitty died even though you were pumping her little chest, and a relative committed suicide, and your grandpa passed, and the nasty car wreck, and you were in the hospital for my birthday two years in a row. Yeah, that was fun, wasn’t it? Somehow we’ve managed to make it through and laugh about it–sometimes soon, and sometimes WAY after the fact.

So when I woke up and flossed my teeth this morning–like I only do the few weeks before a dentist appointment (everyone has a vice, no?), and I managed to pop the bridge out of my mouth, and then I talked with a bit of lisffff. And you made fun of some word I said silly like hafffff instead of half because I had a hole the size of California in my mouth–and we could laugh about it. That was fun, and something I could share with few other people in this world.

Happy anniversary babe, here’s to many more years to come!

Peace!

Kitty Loving

July 20, 2009 in cats | No comments

Well, we’ve got some new kitties to talk about. We’ve managed to trap 3 of the 4 kitties that were living in our backyard. Now we just have mama and her super-skittish kitten. They won’t go near our trap and the kitty runs away from everything. I feed them first thing in the morning and at dusk. They are getting more comfortable around us, so I hope that we’ll be able to catch them and work on getting them more socialized, fixed and hopefully adopted–preferably together as they are very close. Anyone in the Bay Area need a few super cool and cute kitties?

Here’s the typical interaction with the outside kitties (named “Mama” and “Baby Kitty”) and Sake and Scotch. Sorry the video is sideways most of the time :/ They like to sleep on our back door mat.

Peace,

Katy

Keeping Busy

July 20, 2009 in triathlon | No comments

So this is my first week off in a bit. I was supposed to work, but our enrollment was a bit lower last week and this week so the other teacher and I took some time off. She had last week and I got this week. It works out really, because I’ll be in Long Beach at the end of the week for the Quilt Show. I’m super-excited too! If you are going to be there too let me know and we can try to get together for a meal or coffee break at sometime.

After a bit of a overwhelmed-induced freak-out, I am well on my way with vests. I have made 12 out of 26. I intend to finish the smalls and larges today, that’ll put me at 18/26. Since they aren’t due until August 7, I think I’ll be great.

I had a fundraiser at a piano bar for Team in Training last weekend. If you haven’t been to a dueling piano bar, I highly recommend it. Most places don’t have a cover, so they aren’t expensive. Essentially there are two pianos/players and the first one starts a song either through a request (the highest tip goes first) or of his/her choosing if there are no requests. Then after the song, of if someone tips more than the original song the other player plays a song. Some of the songs are silly, some of the words are rearranged, but it is a ton of fun and usually results in a group sing-a-long. Lots of fun.

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Here’s player #1

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Player #2

Here’s a bit of a video of one of the songs. I’m not sure why I chose this one to video tape. The next photo may better explain the situation.

On to that next photo.

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Here am I and Tiffany, my fundraising partner in crime about to take a “chemo shot.” It was the shot de jour and we got a lot of the proceeds for this. It had some Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniels, and Jim Beam. It was nasty–hence the name, “chemo shot.”

I’m still down about $1300 from my fundraising goal. Fundraising has been tons trickier this year. If you donate at least $25 on my site here. I’ll make you one of these lovely photo charms and string it on a some sort of ribbon or leather necklace. You can e-mail me a photograph or I can also design one around your initials, an interest, etc. If you donate $50 I’ll make you two, $75 for three, etc. This is only good until midnight Wednesday (because I may have to get more supplies at the quilt show) so be sure to donate soon! Also, your donations are tax deductible!

Peace,

Katy

Whirlwind

July 5, 2009 in creating, food | No comments

I hate how quickly Sunday afternoon comes. Especially when I’ve had a fun week off! Though Art Camp isn’t exactly drudgery…

This week we were invited to tour some local wineries with some friends. My favorite winery was our first–I hate when that happens. I always hope to work up to the best, but alas Byington was very nice. They were super-close to our place–less than 45 minutes–and super friendly.

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The owner actual poured our tasting and he was very fun to talk with. Their Chardonnay was different than any I’ve had before. I think it was my favorite. It was sweeter than I’m used to. They also had a fabulous ‘04 Cabernet that were offering as an “economic stimulus package” that was excellent. The price was awesome too!

<brief rant>We waited 20-25 minutes at another winery we were hoping would be our first stop and then were rudely told they weren’t interested in having tastings because they were doing inventory and we ought to scram. Okay, maybe they weren’t that mean, but they weren’t exactly inviting either. Don’t bother calling–they don’t answer their phone.</brief rant>

We also visited a few other wineries and ended up at Picchetti winery which is super-close to where Eric did his practice triathlon before Wildflower. They were also a favorite. The tasting room guy was helpful and nice. We ended up sharing a Tempranillo with some yummy bread and cheese after tasting here.

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Testarossa winery. They were okay–I enjoyed the history of the winery, though.

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After tasting our friends took us to a new place to them and us for dinner. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the building by where we parked. Hee hee.

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The Spankme Building

Dinner was super swanky. It was really good. We didn’t finish until around 9 then headed home. It was a great, long day getting to know new friends. We all left sleepy and content.

My week also involved some working out–yay my ankle is starting to feel better! Eric and I walked The Dish. Next we’re going to try to run-walk and eventually run the entire thing. It is super-hilly. We went for a bike ride, too.

We enjoyed some 4th of July fireworks at some other friends’ house and got up on their roof to see the shows. We could see shows all down the peninsula and some across the bay. It was a beautiful night. We had a lot of fun.

Today, Eric chilled like I haven’t seen him chill in a long time. He read a bit, and fell asleep on the couch. He watched a movie, and fell asleep on the couch. He then read some more and played on his computer, and fell asleep on the couch some more.

I moved around some furniture. I love my new reading area! I usually read in bed and that means I read very little, get sleepy and nap. Hopefully this new set-up will be more conducive to actually reading!

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Now I’m trying to figure out how things might play out this next week. I’m feeling frustrated about some of my decisions–but not sure if my frustrations are “in my head” or valid. Seems like a continuing saga in my life. C’est la vie. It isn’t life or death or even all that serious.

Peace!

Kitty Loving

July 1, 2009 in cats | No comments

I guess my kitties knew I was posting about cats, and not them. I guess their behavior isn’t atypical, I just happened to have my camera nearby. Enjoy the obligatory gotta show cute photos of my own kitties to not show favoritism to the little kitties outside post.

Here’s Sake’s Sunlight Vignette.

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