Finally moved in!

Well, as you may have read in an earlier post, Scott and I finally found a great apartment and have moved in together. We found a place in between SJ and SF in San Mateo...not really sure how we keep ending up in cities that begin with San. Anyway, our place is a perfect location for us: 5 minute bike ride for Scott to the Caltrain - which takes 20-25 minutes to the city and then another 10 minute bike ride from the Caltrain to his school and work; average 40 minute car ride for me to work (25 minutes if no traffic, but 50 minutes if traffic sucks); close to a huge, nice mall - Hillsdale; close to the grocery stores, Blockbuster, gas station, etc; they take pets - yeah for Kozmo (Scott's adorable cat); and, we have a walk-in closet (yay me!) and washer and dryer in the apt, which is VERY rare we found out. So we are closer to SF than SJ, but it's nice to live outside of the city as Scott had plenty enough of the city noise (he lived right next door to a hospital) and all the unclean/sketchy neighborhoods that always seemed to be a few blocks from wherever you were. It was a perfect amount of time for him to experience city life and we had fun with him living in such a convenient location to all the hot spots. But it was time for us to consolidate our bills to save for the wedding and time for him to have some peace, quiet and space to work on his thesis project for the next year. He's on track to graduate this time next year! I can't believe 2 and 1/2 years of school had gone by so quickly. Next Christmas he'll be done with his portfolio and looking for a job. Then we'll have time to focus on wedding planning for our August 2008 wedding in MT. :)

Here are the after pictures of our place - no thanks to me as I didn't have time to help much with unpacking and decorating. But Scott did a great job and our place looks great! We can't wait to have visitors this summer.
Master Bedroom and hallway from the bedroom:










Kitchen:













Second bedroom/office:










Living room (with Kozmo sitting by the couches):










Bathroom:













Deck off the living room:

PwC Holiday Party - Dec 8

I don't have many pictures for this one, just one of Scott and I all dressed up for my company's holiday party. It was a nice place and there were probably close to 800 people there. As we have an office with 1200 people and significant others were invited, that made for a very large amount of people. We didn't stay out too late, although they had plenty of drinks and a great band (complete with back-up dancers - it was hilarious). We knew we had to wake up very early on the 9th to move my whole apartment into our new place in San Mateo. We had moved Scott's apartment the weekend before and it was now my turn. We had a fun time and were back in bed by a little after midnight. Cheers to another holiday season gone by at PwC!

Thanksgiving 2006

Well, another Thanksgiving come and gone in San Jose. The last weekend in my old apartment here in SJ as Scott and I found a great place together in San Mateo. More on that move later on...

This year, our friends Sara and Dave came to my place and we cooked up another mean meal. It was the best turkey I think I've ever had!! And it was the easiest turkey I've ever seen made or have made myself. Last year we spent so much time thawing, prepping, seasoning, stuffing...but this year our procrastination finally paid off. I'd been working mad hours at PwC (I am fortunate enough - haha - to get 2 busy seasons at work this year...One from Halloween to Christmas and another from mid-Jan to mid-March.) and didn't have any time to prepare or go to the grocery store during the week. Therefore, when Sara, Dave and Scott arrived at my place on Wed night before Thanksgiving, we went straight to Albertson's to get groceries. Most everything was easy to find and there weren't many people in the store at 11pm, but the turkey was harder to find. There was only 1 turkey left in the whole place and it was a Jenny-O Bag-to-oven turkey. I'd seen it on TV advertised a couple of times and wanted to try it out. It was basically already prepared, washed and seasoned - all we had to do on Thanksgiving was take it out of the freezer (that's right, no thawing necessary), cut slits in the bag it cooked in and stick it in the oven. Three and a half hours later it was done! And it smelled good, tasted even better and made awesome gravy! It was the juiciest meat I've ever had, and I'm a white meat girl. Needless to say, I vow never to spend all that time thawing and preparing again. It's Jenny-O from now on!















After we fattened ourselves up, we spent the rest of the weekend playing games, watching movies and wandering around a bit at Christmas in the Park in San Jose and shopping a little at Santana Row. I enjoyed the 4 days off as I knew it would be busy busy busy until Dec 22nd when I flew home for Christmas holiday.

SF Auto Show

The week of Nov 18-19, Scott and I spent part of the weekend checking out all the cars at the SF annual Auto Show. This is the time when all the auto makers, from domestic to exotic, showcase their new 2007 models. It was really cool to see all the new stuff...but we mostly went for the "green" cars (hybrids, etc) and the exotics. Scott is doing his thesis project on sustainability, specifically with hydrogen fueled cars. It was good research to see what auto manufacturers have on the horizon for cars that run on alternative fuels. Plus as a bonus we got to see all the cool cars like Lamborghini's, Bentley's, Aston Martin's and Ferrari's. Scott found the Lamborghini that he's going to own someday. :)














Another cool thing about the car show was that Mario Andretti was there signing autographs. Mario is one of my dad's all time heroes, as far as sports goes. We stood in line and got autographs for our dads. He was a really nice guy and took pictures with anyone who asked. And my dad loved the framed autograph that he got for Christmas. :)

Happy Halloween! ~8>D

Slim Jim jerky stick ~ Can-can dancer girl ~ Rainbow Brite ~ Dark angel









Another year in the Bay area...it's been over 2 years since I moved down here. Wow, time flies. Another Halloween gone by and we had lots of fun. Since Halloween was on a Tuesday this year, we celebrated, along with many others, the weekend before. Scott, Robert, Liza and I got our costumes ready and headed out on the town. There weren't as many people out in San Fran as in previous years because the famed block party in the Castro district was not held on the weekend. It was moved to Tuesday (real Halloween) this year due to the fact that the city was trying to cut down on the number of people that flock there. The other reason for the slightly smaller city crowd was the fact that many attended the annual Exotic Erotic Ball which is held in a huge venue in the southern part of the city. Tickets to that usually run $200 just to get in! Crazy people with money. Well, it was actually pretty nice not running into soooo many people this year and the bars were much more manageable. We could actually find seats and hear each other talk. :) We had a great time and we rocked our costumes! And yes...I put eyeliner on Scott...and we "painted" his fingernails with a black Sharpie (it was better than my sparkly blue).

Bye, bye wisdom - teeth that is...

I finally got a much needed dental treatment for my mouth...getting my 4 wisdom teeth out. I've needed to do this for some time and I'm glad it's over. It wasn't fun, but I recovered quickly thanks to my wonderful man. Scott took such good care of me and knew just what to do and not do, as he had a not-so-great experience when his were pulled. He stocked my fridge full of jello, pudding, ice cream, soups and made me mashed potatoes and gravy! He waited on my hand and foot and made sure I was always comfortable and that I took my medicine. He even ate all the stuff I did so I wouldn't get jealous if he ate pizza or something. What a guy! I think his favorite part was the fact that I was silly from the medication and took great care in cuddling and naming the stuffed toys he bought me. They were so cute and they didn't mind my bad breath from my mouth holes! :)

These are the beautiful flowers and my three "kids" that I cuddled while recovering - Spike (I guess cuz of its fangs), Googley (I suppose cuz of its weird eyes) and Winky (probably cuz of its one eye with big eyelashes) - don't laugh...I'm sure you are a little silly on meds too!