January 23

Another sick day spent watching tennis and football. I also got to enjoy this rip-roaring, crackling fire courtesy of Matt...and our Christmas tree.

January 22

Sick day + Australian Open =

Couch Potato

January 21

When most people first get a dog, they decide that the dog will not be allowed to sleep in the bed. They buy a little bed and place it next to their bed. They think they will be pack leader, the best owner ever. It's a common mistake by those of us who haven't had a dog since childhood and who think we are so on top of things. Ha ha.

Dogs know how to work the system. They'll look at you with pleading eyes and offer up a soft whimper. You can resist one or two nights but then you think, "just this once". At first, things seem great. They curl up into a little ball and you barely notice they're there. You let them up again. They slink under the covers and lie right in the little cove made by your body when you are sleeping on your side. They are warm and snuggly. You're hooked.

Then, things change. Before you know it, they are stretched out as far as their body will allow. Notice the front paw pictured is way out in front and the back paws angle straight back. To top it off, they have to lay sideways...so all you are left with is about 1 foot on either edge of the bed. The covers won't reach all the way over you, it's cold and the dog is a dead weight. It's like a bowling ball laying next to you. You have to stand up to move the thing. When you do, they just moan and look at you like you have committed the ultimate betrayal.

But, all pet owners have been there and we all put up with it...because it's worth it.

January 20

Fun with Photo Booth

January 19

I suppose if you want to order the tea steeper from yesterday, it's only fair to recommend a loose tea today. It comes from Harney & Sons, who have never disappointed me. They make such lovely, high quality teas.

Florence is my current passion. It's a beautifully rich, smooth tea with flavors of hazelnut and chocolate. Just smelling the tea, I can imagine myself sitting on the banks of the Arno River looking at the Ponte Vecchio. It so perfectly embodies Florence that I feel like I'm whisked away to Italy every time I take a sip.

January 18

This is the best tea accessory I've found in a long time. I discovered it about a year ago and have since seen similar contraptions from other brands but ingenuiTEA is the one that started it all.

I had always wanted to try loose tea and this product made it so easy that I couldn't justify using tea bags (except when my favorite flavor isn't offered as a loose tea). I really don't like the idea of over-packaging and tea bags are the ultimate example of over-packaging. Tea in a little, stapled bag which has a string and tag attached to it, which is then popped inside an individual pouch, which is stacked inside a box with a cellophane wrapper. Holy cow! The good news is that the tea bag itself can be tossed in the compost pile but I still feel bad using the bags. With loose tea, you do get a pouch or re-usable tin but that's it. I can live with that.

This little tea steeper is so easy to use, there is no excuse not to brew delicious, flavorful loose tea. I fill my mug with water so I'll know how much I need. Then I pour it in the tea kettle to heat up. Place 1 teaspoon of tea in the tea steeper. When my tea kettle just starts to chirp, I know the water is hot enough so I pour it into steeper. Stir it just to get the tea leaves moving around a bit and let it steep for 3-5 minutes (as shown). Then, my favorite part...just set the tea steeper on top of your mug. The tea will strain out through the bottom of the steeper into your mug. So easy!

I'll recommend some loose teas in future blogs but, for now, get one of these steepers. You won't be sorry.

January 17

Dignan's favorite pastime...chasing lizards. He also likes stealing carrots from the compost pile. I caught him pulling out a huge carrot the other day.

January 16

This was a daunting task. We have designated those shelves as "garage sale" but it's been 2 years since we have had one. All we do is pile stuff up over there so it was time to go through it.

Turns out, there were also unpacked boxes from my old apartment, filled with photos and old papers and even my burned high school annuals. My annuals used to be in my mom's storage locker and there was a fire. They were saved but they are charred and messy and some pages are stuck together from the water damage. I need to go through them and see what I can salvage.

A lot of stuff out there is like that. It needs something done with it. Either I think I'll sell it on eBay or in a garage sale or it is scraps and photos from past years that I want to use to make a scrapbook. Only, I don't ever do it. I'm such a procrastinator. Well, at least we got a lot done today. I went through almost all of the boxes and threw away an entire trash can of junk. I filled the recycling bin too.

Now we just need to have that garage sale...and eBay auctions....and make those scrapbooks. It's still a daunting task.

January 15

But it was sparkling clean 2 hours ago.

January 14

The morning walk.

January 13

Oh my god. *!&?% Kaiser. After they told Matt they would reinstate him and they charged him for the back months, they came back today and said that was an error and he was cancelled. And not only that, he can't sign up for Kaiser again for 6 months.

We also got this lovely hospital bill today. I swear we can't get a break. Hopefully, the hospital will work with us.

January 12

I'm a tree junkie. Some people like taking photos of flowers; I am drawn to trees. This one is super-cool. I think I want one.

January 11

Finished this book. I was really excited to read it. A lot of people told me they couldn't put it down. I could.

It was entertaining, though. I never got bored and was curious to find out what would happen next...so much so that I started the second book in the Millennium Trilogy. Hopefully, I'll like it better.

January 10

Matthew said he couldn't believe I was wearing these today. I said, "What's wrong with them?"

January 9

Today was the Grand Opening party for Sprinkles Cupcakes La Jolla. Finally! Here we are in front of the store with Candace Nelson, the pastry chef-owner of Sprinkles Cupcakes and a judge on Cupcake Wars. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it but we waited in line for an hour and a half to get 2 cupcakes each. It was really no different than waiting for a ride at Disneyland or waiting in line for concert tickets. It's just that it's been a while since I waited that long for something. To make it up to Matt, I took him to Miami Grille for dinner. It used to be located in Poway so we could go all the time but now it's in La Jolla so we rarely go. We each ordered our old standby favorites and it was yummy. We were excited to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow...until we got home and realized the "to go" containers were still sitting on the table in the restaurant. Bummer. Oh, well. At least we have delicious cupcakes for dessert!

January 8

Why does it take soooo long to de-Christmas? Every year, I think that I'll get all the decor organized and, every year, I get so tired of doing it that I end up just shoving stuff in boxes wherever and however it will fit.

I did organize my Rudolph village and stocking holders but it took me several hours to put them away. I'm too tired to do any more today. Hopefully, the Christmas decor will be put away by Easter.

January 7

I've been making this smoothie recipe, courtesy of Ellie Krieger, for about a year. I drink it almost every day for breakfast and I never tire of it. It's like having dessert for breakfast and I switch up the fruit so it doesn't get boring.

My favorite is cherry (pictured) but I also like blueberry, strawberry-banana and apricot.

The basic recipe is:

1 cup frozen fruit

1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt

1/2 cup skim milk

1 tsp honey (I substitute 1 scoop MRM Whey Protein in Rich Vanilla after my workouts but you could also use Instant Breakfast if you want the vanilla sweetness)

If you're going to do a dense fruit like mango, peach or strawberry, I'd recommend adding just a bit more milk. Oh, and BEWARE...raspberry, boysenberry or even mixed berry smoothies are super-tart. Don't use more than 1/2 cup of those fruits and use strawberry for the other half.

January 6

Hee hee. Our friends gave us a bottle of champagne for Christmas and it came in this AWESOME bottle cover.

January 5

This is an old picture actually. I was listening to iTunes today and an ABBA song came up which made me think of my ex-coworker, Mary Jo. She used to work with me at New Act Travel and I really liked her a lot. She had the perfect sense of humor.

I kept in touch with her after she left New Act but she died a few years later. It was unexpected. She had fainted at home and hit her head on her coffee table. She was in a coma for a few weeks before she died. It was very upsetting to me.

I remember her funeral. I had been able to refrain from crying for the entire service, which was difficult, especially when they brought the casket down the center aisle of the church. I made it through her family's tearful eulogies and then...as they carried the casket out of the church after the service, they started blaring "Dancing Queen". She used to love ABBA so that made me chuckle. And that little chuckle turned into tears. And then I became the only one still sobbing outside the church.

To this day, that song always transports me back to that moment. In fact, the last time I saw the play "Mamma Mia", I had to leave the auditorium at the end because the cast sings "Dancing Queen". Matt didn't know what was going on and why on earth I was crying. Now he knows. We won't be seeing that play again.

But I love that I always think of Mary Jo when I hear ABBA. It means I will never forget her.

Update (Jan 6): Today, I had iTunes create a Genius playlist for me from the song "Forever Young" by Alphaville. In the past, that song has always given me a playlist full of 80's songs only. Today, however, there are 8 ABBA songs on the list. Weird, huh? It's Mary Jo saying "Hi".

January 4

Walking Dignan is the first step of my morning workout. I call him my personal trainer because he'll get me out of bed even when I'm cozy under the covers and just want to sleep for 3 more hours.

I may start the walk as a zombie but I'm ready for the treadmill by the time I get home!

Plus, how cute is he? I can't resist that face. And, as my mom always says, he needs to go out to check his peemail.

January 3

My Rudolph Christmas Village. I wish I could live there sometimes. I like San Diego a lot but I don't know that this is where I belong. I feel like I need to try out other places, other types of places in fact. Maybe I'd like a smaller town. Maybe I'd like somewhere that has four seasons. Maybe I'd like a different coast. I don't know. I can visit places on vacation all I want but you never know if you fit in unless you try living there and that's just not feasible.

If I ever win the lottery, one thing I would do is live in a different city every year until I found the place that felt right. I'd have to start with fun cities like Sydney, Florence, Paris and London but then I'd come back to the USA and seriously start testing. Okay, New York and then I'd get realistic.

Until then, I'll just retreat into my snowy little village once a year and imagine how wonderful it would be.

January 2

Poor Matt. He suspected he had kidney stones after suffering some pain on the harbor cruise. Then the pain continued off and on all day yesterday. At 5:00am this morning, he shook me awake and said the pain had gotten substantially worse and he couldn't take it any longer.

They gave him some pain meds, verified he had an 8mm kidney stone after giving him a CAT scan and some x-rays...and then they almost gave him a heart attack.

The doctor sauntered in and informed us that Kaiser said Matt's coverage was terminated in JULY. We both stared at him in disbelief because Matt had set up automatic payments specifically so this situation would never happen. Turns out, there was a limit on the amount that could be taken from his bank account so, when his premium increased above that limit, they didn't process the automatic payment. He never noticed, didn't get a letter from them and, hence, no insurance. Thank heavens they let him back pay for 7 months of coverage so this emergency room visit should be covered. Fingers crossed!

As we were (FINALLY) leaving around 9:30am, Matt said he had to visit the restroom. They had given him this strainer that he has to use when urinating so he can collect the stone when it passes. Not sure why but they want to see it. Anyway, it took him a while so I was waiting down the hall and this man goes into the restroom next to Matt's. I have never heard someone vomiting so loudly. It was almost like he had a bullhorn. There was another man bent over in the hallway just groaning in pain. I have to say, I'm glad I don't have to spend much time at the emergency room. You should have seen the bathroom I thought about using. Ew.

Matt finally emerged from the restroom and said, "I think part of it passed because there was a little grain of sand in the strainer". He hasn't been in pain since. It's crazy that something so tiny could cause such massive pain.

January 1

I know this image is blurry but it was the one that most accurately conveyed our evening...Matt and I standing around like normal human beings with Scott going crazy in the background.

This is shortly after midnight on the New Year's Eve Yacht Party Cruise. There were 3 levels. The bottom had current music and dancing (blah). The middle had an 80's cover band with dancing and unexpected sing-a-longs (fun). The top had a clear tent for protection but the rest of the deck was open (freezing but where we spent about 10 minutes at midnight with beautiful views of downtown San Diego).

All in all a fun evening with friends...Scott and Cindy, Yuma and Felicia, Ti and Wendy. Happy New Year!

2011 Resolution

I'm trying something a bit different this year. I've been toying with the idea for several years but I know I'm pretty lazy so I just waived it off. However, I'm not getting any younger so this is the year.

At the risk of looking like a complete flake, my resolution is a new blog for 2011 that centers on photographs. My idea is to post one photo per day (I know!) that represents something that happened or affected me in some way that day. This can vary from the obvious, as the first post will show, to the obscure. My hope is that this will both stimulate my creativity and provide an interesting and introspective album of my year.

Wish me luck!