My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

Back from a very short trip to Vegas for T’s race, the Baker to Vegas Relay.  It’s a 120-mile relay race for law enforcement personnel.  There were hundreds of teams (each with 20 runners) representing all aspects of law enforcement – police officers, sheriffs, FBI agents, correctional officers, district attorneys, etc.  Most of them were from California, but we saw some teams from Canada and one from Hamburg, Germany.

The race began at 9am on Saturday morning for the slowest team (the teams started based on their projected finish time) and ended at 9am for everyone on Sunday.  T’s team started at 5pm on Saturday evening but T’s portion of the race (5.3 miles with a 2% incline) didn’t start until 10pm Saturday night, so we headed out at 7:30 for a small town 60 miles west of Las Vegas, where T’s leg started.

It was  unlike any race I’d ever participated in or seen, not only because it was extremely long, and a relay, but because the roads weren’t closed for the race.  Instead, runners run along the shoulder of the road with “follow vehicles” behind them to protect them from traffic and to provide light (as parts of the race take place in desolate areas in the middle of the night).  It was really neat to see runners and their follow vehicles along the road as we drove past.  The logistics of getting that many people out there and coordinating that many vehicles for that long a race is mind-boggling.  It was amazing how well they pulled it off.

We, on the other hand, did not do such a great job pulling off our trip.  We made the trip too short (given the timing of T’s leg of the race, we weren’t able to do much in Vegas), spent too much on airfare (we both should have taken a day off and driven) and then waited too long to rent a car (they are so expensive to rent in Vegas!).  Plus, T was sick leading up to the race.  All in all, we weren’t particularly looking forward to the trip or the race, but we had a great time when we got there!

Speaking of things I covet, I love this t-shirt design and totally want one.  So cute!

How pretty are these pendants?  I spotted them on the NY Times website.  They’re sold through the NY Times store.

The first pendant contains a quote from a letter the Marquis de Lafayette wrote to his wife (“O! if you knew how much I sigh to see you”) and the second contains a quote from a letter Alexander Hamilton wrote to his wife (“I meet you in every dream”).

Not that I’m making any frivolous purchases anytime soon. (Although I so want a Kindle.)  All this dire economic news has me hoarding my cash and preparing for the worse, which apparently only adds to the problem.

Back from Mammoth!  We had a great time, despite getting caught in a huge storms both there and back.  T was super excited to go skiing.  Unfortunately for T, his ski trips are hampered by the fact that I hate the cold and am way too uncoordinated to master and/or enjoy skiing.  This time however, T’s brother and his friend were able to join us so T had some companions on the slopes.  We also brought along Alfie so I’d have a companion off the slopes.  =)

This was Alfie’s first time in the snow, so I went a little picture crazy.  Below are two of the many pictures I took of him.  I tried to talk T into tossing him into a snow bank so I could take a picture of it, but T refused.  Something about being humane, blah, blah, blah.

Alfie is generally really well behaved. He doesn’t jump on people, won’t be in your face unless you want him to be, and will gladly take any affection that’s doled out. He’s a dream with people. He’s not so great with other dogs, although he’s not horrible either. Generally, he’ll greet them a bit and then leave them alone. If they’re persistant, he’ll play with them. If they’re aggressive, he runs.

However, this Saturday, we took him to our friend’s house for a group brunch/doggy play date and he was a terror. He got along fine with the two corgis there, but turned into a snarling beast around the two chows. We suspect it was because they weren’t neutered. It so so bad we had to keep the dogs in separate rooms, thereby entirely defeating the purpose of the doggy play date. I guess this is a reminder that animals are unpredicable.

Luckily, he was much better at the second dinner/doggy play date we had set up that day. He pretty much ignored the puppy, Sophie, and semi-played with his dog buddy, Baxter. We took all the dogs on an hour long hike in the Valley, which was the first time I’d been hiking in years. I forgot how much I enjoyed it! In fact, T and I are making plans to go on another hike soon!

Oops. Long story short, I (very uncharacteristically!) got extremely upset and vocal with my cable provider today for something. I (very surprisingly) got them to rectify the problem …only to realize afterwards that it was mostly our fault.

Now I feel guilty. T doesn’t seem as concerned.

I love Facebook. I love letting my friends and family, whom I don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like, know what’s going on in my daily life and finding out what’s going on in theirs. It’s those daily details that keep people close. It’s the reason I started this blog in the first place.

I also love getting a voyeuristic peek at what’s going on in the lives of people I’ve lost touch with in the past 10 years. However, I’m starting to feel that my friends and I live in a bubble. No one in my social circle has kids, yet it seems that everyone I’ve reconnected with, mostly old high school friends, has a baby. Which makes sense since we’re entering our 30’s, but still feels weird. Sigh. I guess our 30’s are really our adult years, whereas our 20’s were clearly just a practice run.

I know most of my readers (Hello??? Anyone out there?) probably don’t celebrate the lunar new year, but I figure everyone appreciates a do-over, so for those of you who have already failed to meet your new year’s resolutions (like me), consider today a do-over. =)

To celebrate the lunar new year and usher in the Year of the Ox, T and I spent the weekend in San Jose with my family. T may be the best husband ever. He was very good natured about the fact that my parents keep the house at artic temperatures (it’s often much colder in the house than outside). He stoically dealt with my little sister’s cat, to which he is severly allergic. He was great at engaging my parents in conversation, despite only understanding 1/2 of what my dad says, and very sweet with my grandmother, who doesn’t understand anything he says.

Despite the bone chilling cold, we had a nice visit. My parents love to feed us and we love to eat, so during the day and a half we were home, we had dim sum, crab, fried shrimp, filet mignon, and a traditional Vietnamese beef dish. For dessert we had friend bananas and cream puffs. We were definitely waddling onto the plane.

Unfortunately both of my sisters had to work over the weekend, so we didn’t get to see much of them. They’re also in the process of moving out of the house. Little Sis B is finalizing the paperwork on her first townhome and is waiting for construction to finish. Littlest Sis L is moving in with her, as are both of the boyfriends. In the interim, they’re all moving into an apartment (for complicated reasons having to do with the boyfriends’ leases expiring). I feel a little sad that we’re the only ones not part of this little clan, but T doesn’t seem to mind.

I had a lovely long weekend in San Diego with a couple of my Quad friends and their significant others this past weekend. T and I headed down Saturday morning, stopping off in San Clemente to drop Alfie off at T’s aunt and uncle’s house. Despite the nice backyard and houseful of new people to enjoy, we’re afraid poor Alfie was not particularly happy about the weekend visit. T’s aunt and uncle have a super friendly, entirely too curious, and remarkably persistent lab, Beans, who followed Alfie around very closely for the entire hour we were there. We joked that Alfie would probably have a Beans-sized wart on his butt the entire weekend. =) (Although we’re told the wart only last for about 5 hours.)

After reassuring ourselves that Alfie would survive the weekend, despite being pestered by Beans, we headed to the Wild Animal Park. It was the perfect day to spend outdoors, sunny and clear with a mild breeze. I’d never been to the Wild Animal Park before, and zoos kind of make me sad, but the Park was spacious and we had a great time.

After a full day at the Park, we headed to downtown San Diego to meet up with our friends for a delicious dinner at Croce’s, where we ate out on the patio, listened to live jazz, got caught up, and people watched. It was the perfect night with friends.

The next morning, we all met up for brunch on Coronado, and exchanged belated Christmas gifts. Afterwards, T and I heading to Balboa Park, where we enjoyed some more live music and visited the National History Museum (which was disappointingly small). We met up again for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack and then tried to find the exciting night life in San Diego. Apparently there is very little of it on a Sunday night. Or at least none that we could find. We did get a fun night tour of the city though!

I may have gained 5 pounds on this trip alone. I fear not fitting into any of my pants after my trip home next weekend, where I’m sure my parents will be preparing delicious meals and stuffing T and I with all of our favorite foods! The last time we were home, the electricity went out for hours just around dinner time. Undeterred, my parents cooked an amazing crab-centric meal on the outdoor grill using the propane tank and some ingenuity!

Not much to report. I’ve been trying to ramp up my exercise (only marginally succesful in that endeavor) and to cook more often (again, marginal success). Went on a 9 mile run this weekend which involved a few hills. When I’m in decent shape, I can tackle the run and do a couple of extra miles easily. This weekend, it was a bit of a struggle to just finish the 9 miles. At least it’s a step in the rest direction!

As for the cooking, I’ve tried a couple of different dishes recently. I made a chicken marsala dish that was unspectacular to say the least, probably due to my failing to find marsala and having to settle for beaujolais. I also made braised beef and mushrooms last night that, according to T anyways, was good. I thought it was too beefy. T points out that I have a habit of making dishes or ordering meals featuring items I know I don’t like – like beef – which just happen to sound good at the time. Unfortunately, the dish serves 12 so T’s going to be eating a lot of braised beef this next week!

This last year has been incredible. There was our wedding, of course, but also so many little moments filled with joy, like getting our dog, swimming with turtles in Hawaii, evening walks together, going sledding on a snow covered hill in Tahoe, visiting Yosemite, treking across LA to take engagement pictures, lugging a posterboard everywhere for our table signs, celebrating our friends’ engagements, having both of our families together for Thanksgiving, Saturdays spent reading on the couch or biking along the ocean, decorating our condo, homemade dinners, dancing around our living room, and opening gifts for Christmas.

I hope your year has brought you just as much love and laughter and that you have a happy, and safe, new year!

The holidays are just flying by! Here’s a quick catch-up post:

On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we drove up to my parent’s house in San Jose. T’s mom and brother joined us for a fun, family-filled, and dog filled (in addition to Alfie, whom we brought with us, my parents have 2 pomeranians and T’s mom brought Buddy Lee), dinner. My mom, sister, and her boyfriend (a professional chef) went all out with the food. We had two turkeys for the 11 of us, as well as a pork dish, two types of shrimp dishes, broccoli casserole, pasta salad, cranberries, and mashed potatoes and gravy. For dessert we had pumpkin pie, cookies, and a jello cream cheese layered dish I love. Afterwards, T and I joined my friend C and her boyfriend and family for more dessert!

On Friday, we went up to San Francisco for dinner with my Quad friends at a yummy Thai place, and then to a party afterwards to celebrate J turning 30. I had so much fun. Almost enough fun not to regretted it the next morning when I felt on the verge of death.

On Saturday, we saw Bolt. Super cute. And we ate lots and lots of crab. My mom makes the best crab.

On Sunday, we drove to Fresno to put up T’s mom’s Christmas lights and Christmas tree. After fighting traffic for five hours we made it back safe and sound to LA late Sunday night.

Last weekend we had guests over. While the boys watched football the girls scrapbooked (my newest hobby). I’m 2/3rds of the way done with my wedding scrapbook. We also bought some Christmas lights and decorated our place a bit. We decided to skip the tree since it was too much work and we won’t even be at our place to enjoy it on Christmas day, but maybe next year!

As for the next few weeks, we’ve got work and friends’ holiday parties and then are heading back to Fresno for Christmas. My parents and sisters have indicated they might come to T’s mom’s house to visit over the holidays. I hope they do as I’d love to have the entire family together again!

So there you have it. If you don’t hear from me for awhile – Happy Holidays!

After a several weeks of eating badly and not exercising, I finally worked up the courage to waddle up to the scale this morning. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I’d lost 0.5 lbs since the last time I’d stepped on the scale (shortly after getting back from our honeymoon).  I made the mistake of calling T (who was already at work).

Me: Hon, I didn’t gain as much weight as I had feared. In fact, it looks like I lost .5 lbs!

T: Oh, that’s probably because you’ve lost muscle.

Me: ——

Five Good Election Cries.

The second one made me teary.

So cute! Via this site.

This article is so spot on.

I try to be a good person. Really, I do. I try to keep in mind how lucky and privileged I am and empathize with those who aren’t. I try hard not to judge (too much). I try to remind myself that I could be one of those who’ll need help one day so I shouldn’t begrudge the help offered to others, even if its at my expense. I pay my taxes and don’t complain about them being too high because I reap a lot of benefits from the system. And really, I don’t want people to lose their homes and I see the need for this in the bigger picture. But yeah, a part of me can’t help but agree with this quote from a recent NYT article on the homeowners’ bailout plan: “If all of our neighbors are getting bailed out despite their own bad decisions, arrogance or ignorance, and we’re asked to keep playing by the rules for the sake of the greater good, I don’t want to participate.”

We finally bought a rug for our living room last week. It came rolled up in a long cardboard tube. The tube sat around our living room for a couple of days before I finally put it next to the doorway, where we generally store all the stuff that needs to be recycled but that won’t fit in our recycling can.

Yesterday, I noticed it was back in the living room so I asked T if he had moved it.

Me: Hey Hon, did you move this tube? I put it next to the door so we’d remember to take it down to the recycling bin.

T: (*looking very abashed*) Yeah.

Me: Why?

T: It makes an awesome sword.

We received so much wonderful cookware and so many great baking tools and accessories for our wedding that we’ve actually been inspired to cook. Plus, T and I are trying to save money and eat healthier by eating out less, so we renewed our vow to each make at least one home-cooked meal a week when we got back from our honeymoon. Our first few meals required buying a lot of stock ingredients, but now that we’ve made several different dishes, we’re starting to accumulate the basics. It’s refreshing to actually have things (like sugar and seasame oil!) on hand so we don’t have to buy everything and start from scratch for every dish. It’s even better to have all the pots, pans, utensils, mixers, etc. we’d need to cook.  We were making do with two dinged up pans and a beat up pot for a long time!  =)

T’s friend S got us this fantastic cookbook full of easy, simple dishes which we’ve been trying out. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve made spicy cashew chicken, salmon, and beef bulgogi. We’ve also tested out our ice cream maker and blender and made tin roof ice cream, crepes, and oreo cookie cake. I can’t wait to try some of the other ice cream recipes in this book and am hoping T will be up for some of the more exotic ice cream flavors!

Stay tuned: Next week, we’re planning on using our mixer to make bread!

Alfie was recently invited to a costume birthday party, so last night T and I were brainstorming costume ideas for him. It occurred to us that since he already looks somewhat like a bear, we could capitalize on that and dress him up as Winnie the Pooh. It would be simple, cute, and, most importantly, inexpensive since all it would entail was getting him a red shirt. We greatly underestimated how difficult this would turn out to be.

After failing to find any Winnie the Pooh pet costumes online, or appropriate red pet shirts, we decided to see if one of T’s old, red t-shirt would work. It didn’t.

Alfie was not a happy camper. He was unhappy about being forced into a shirt and extra unhappy about the fact that he kept tripping over the thing since it was too long and too big for him. In fact, although he had it on for less than 30 seconds and we immediately tried to get it off of him, he started panicking and making whimpering noises and generally acting as if we were viciously abusing him instead of putting a shirt on him for 30 seconds. So, yeah, it was a no go. Plus, honestly, Alfie didn’t look like Winnie the Pooh. He just looked like a poor miserable dog in an old t-shirt.