"Ummm...Do you have something you need to tell me?"

Checking the mail is a pretty boring affair normally nowadays.  It seems like we only get bills, advertisements, and coupons that only appear to save you money, but are actually just advertisements cleverly disguised as coupons to play on our need to save 50 cents if I just buy 25 of those boxes of mac & cheese.  A few days ago, I found a box in the mail...it was shocking enough that I felt I needed to snap a photo of it and post it online.  Funny at first, but then...as I couldn't get a hold of Rachel...I started to get nervous.  Was she trying to tell me something? Was somebody playing a cruel joke by sending this to us? Maybe someone was trying to send a happy sentiment, someone that already knew about it, but Rachel just hadn't told me yet! AHH!

Much ado about nothing.  No one fessed up to sending it, and Rachel has sworn on my life that there's no bun...although I'm still skeptical because there's still an oven!

So it started funny...got a little edgy...and now is funny again. 

Finally - why is it that good habits are hard to develop, while bad ones are easy? The answer is laziness, but the point is I posted something this week.  Field of Dreams style now...

Ah...Summer

Now that school is out -- Finally! -- I figure I have fewer excuses than before to not be the one writing the blogs.  Rachel is now officially busier than I am, and the delta keeps getting larger.  She's getting busier at work because they love her so much (and because she loves them so much).  I'm running out of things to do since I've been unemployed for a week (you can only clean for so many days, I've been going to the fruit stand and market to stock up the house, and I did a few informational interviews).  So far though, I'm not complaining - having a little bit of time off after the hurricane that was 1L is a good feeling.  I'm actually sleeping, and even if it's not for 8 hours it's much more effective.  I've even started to catch up on our TiVo que!  Needless to say, I'm happy for the break.  All things considered though, I'd rather be working.  This is the first summer I'll have had substantial time off in years (I think pre-Texas, though I don't know that delivering plumbing supplies for a summer counts, so I'll go with 2005).

So, here's how I spent last week...at least  until about 11AM (I drop Rachel off at 9AM first).

Don't worry...I've re-banned Elvis from the couch so that I don't get sucked in to snuggling comas anymore.  Plus, it's been about 90 degrees and we don't have A/C...he's worse than a heated blanket on those days anyway.

We've had a lot that's happened since the tick post...shudder...so hopefully I can get this thing moving again.  I really don't have many excuses left not to at this point.

Also, I will hopefully get to the point where they aren't just stream-of-consciousness posts - then you may actually enjoy what you read...assuming we have anybody still checking our blog (Thanks Jim for having us on your reader... :) somebody will at least see this!).

A New Number One

So I have a new number one un-favorite thing. In fact, this is sooo un-favorite that it may be reason enough to leave the entire state of California. The new number one is...

Rob and I thought it would be nice to go on a hike today with some new friends. It's always great to take our dogs hiking because it wears them out! As we were going home, I noticed a really small bug crawling around on Hanna... and it was a tick! When we got home, we searched our dogs... 5 more on Hanna, 2 on Elvis. We then bathed our dogs... 5 more on Hanna, 2 more on Elvis. Most of them were just crawling around, but two were embedded in Hanna and one in Elvis. I helped Rob take out the one in Elvis (on his eyelid) and it was the absolute most disgusting thing I have ever seen. It took almost 10 minutes to pull out and it's little legs were moving all over the place... I'm sure we've missed some. Oh and to add to the gross-ness of ticks, if you pull them out and they leave their head in you, they can grow a new body. Ew!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Rob finished winter quarter finals last week and as a double celebration of his finals being done and my birthday last week, we decided to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's about an hour and a half away, and about 3 days pay to park, but it was totally worth it! Rob liked the sharks, but wished there was a great white we could look at. I really enjoyed the otters, and the sea rays. They had a pool of sea rays in which they removed their stingers so you could reach in an touch them. They felt like velvet :-)

The jelly fish and sea horse were so intriguing. I could have looked at them for hours. I've lost my camera cable to upload pics, but I was able to find some online of our favorite parts.

The Leafy Sea Dragon:





Rob and I both almost missed this one. The sea horse section was amazing. Did you know the males give birth? ... They had almost every type of sea horse there. The leafy sea dragon was our favorite because it looked like a plant.



I still don't understand how the jelly fish breathe... guess they don't have to?

Of all the interesting things I learned about sea horses, jelly fish, kelp, sea rays, otters, octupus', sharks, etc. The most useful thing I learned at the aquarium was to stay far away from a penguin a few hours after eating... (this video was taken at the aquarium)



I'll upload our pictures when I find our camera cable.

Un-Favorite Things

I guess the title says it all... here they are

10. No Cafe Rio, Noodles and Company, or Mizumis
9. Palo Alto Safeway. The whole thing is refrigerated and they won't do plastic (which I need for trash bags and picking up poop-- not because I don't care about the environment)
8. $10 sandwiches are a good deal
7. Fleas
6. One way streets... and people going the wrong way on one-way streets
5. The DMV (pretty much an un-favorite thing anywhere, but it's especially un-favorite here)
4. No automatic car washes at the gas station
3. Mold
2. Traffic

And the number one un-favorite thing about Palo Alto is...

1. The squirrels. Really though, I was at first fooled by their cute little faces, but they are everywhere and they bury their nuts in all my plants and make these loud obnoxious chirping noises at 7 in the morning...

Favorite Things

Hi. I guess I need to start off with a phrase you are all familiar with but REALLY I'm going to try and post more often... even if it means no pictures. Things have been crazy lately and in the midst of all the craziness I thought it would be a good idea to take a minute and think of my favorite things about the bay area. And maybe it'll entice some of you to come and visit! :)

10. Recycling. It is so easy to recycle out here. You can recycle almost anything. The teenie trash-cans for regular trash were kind of different at first, but now I think they're kind of cute.

9. Trees trees trees. There are so many trees everywhere. It's great too because your neighbor can be all of 10 feet away from your backyard and you'd never know... giving you a false sense of privacy, but a feeling of privacy nonetheless

8. Caltrain. Except for when it's late, the caltrain is amazing. It takes me 6 minutes to get somewhere on the train that would usually take 30 minutes in a car. Seriously, that's the way public transportation should be.

7. Bike lanes. These are everywhere! They even have a street called "biker's lane" where you can roll your bike onto a small square in front of the traffic lights and it will detect that you are there and turn green. There are also a bunch of intersections which cars can't go through on "biker's lane" encouraging cars to use a different street. It's great.

6. The beach. What else can I say?

5. The diversity. There are so many different things to do. It seems like it could take a lifetime to visit all the various places. I also love the diversity of people. Every new person I meet has such a different life experience.

4. Running anytime. I love that I can run at any given time, morning or night, and it's not soooo hot or cold.

3. Humidity. I like being able to take my first breath when I walk outside without choking.

2. Ramen. And not like the ramen noodles you get at the grocery store. There are a lot of real ramen places out here where you can get a large bowl of noodle soup and meat and veggies in a yummy broth. It's the perfect dinner after a long day when you don't have time to make dinner and you don't want greasy fast food.

And my number one most favorite thing about Palo Alto is...

1. The smell! Seriously, I love going for a walk or a run and smelling the fresh air. The trees aren't even blooming and it almost smells sweet outside.

Selective Circumstancial Fresh Starts

Sorry, I needed a good excuse to post up some pictures that we had taken with the Jolley's over Christmas break.  Though we should have some posts coming soon, I'll keep this one short. 

Rachel and I did some future planning (which I actually think is one of our few strengths) and decided that after 3.5 years of marriage we could effectively chalk some decisions up as good, others bad.  This is nothing to do with our relationship in case you were wondering, rather, these are the normal life decisions either anticipated or happened upon which occur during this marital/life time period.  And we've set a goal to use this hindsight to right the ship in a few places if it is still A) not already sunken and B) right-able and C) worth righting.  Once completed, mathematically speaking we'll be back at zero (if only life was a simple number line fixed around zero and spanning pos/neg in either direction).

Just food for thought in case you wanted to know what our conversations of late have seemed to center upon...well, that...and the aficionados in growing penicillin on our walls with all this moisture we've become. 

 Maybe I'll divulge some of these thoughts later on.  Probably not.

Notice how when you get older that B/W photos seem to make you look less aged? Some irony there almost...

 

Only thing to notice here is that we don't tan even though it's warmer here, and that my left hand apparently was swapped out with Frankenstein's.

This seemed like a good, typical family photo to me at first.  Then I realized something makes it unique and somehow "cool-er" than normal.  Grandpa's red tie seems almost drawn on CGI-esque.  I like it.