Santa in Torrance!

We must have been really good in our neighborhood because Santa came early! I was watching TV with the kitties when I heard Christmas music blasting over a PA outside. Then a voice said, "Come on outside! Santa will be here in a few minutes!" So of course I threw on some flip flops and ran outside... in my PJs! After a few minutes of standing on the corner with the neighbors, a squad car came around the block followed by a truck pulling a float with Santa!! Check out a few more pictures here.

Our Hannukuh Bush

Instead of braving the crazy Black Friday crowds we decided to limit our early morning shopping to the search of an artificial tree. Yeah... I'm allergic to real ones. Lucky for us Dave found a pre-lit LED tree for $50 at Home Depot. So we got ourselves up at 5am and got to Home Depot by 5:30 for the 6am opening... but it was already open! The one by our house opened at 5am! They had trees, but they only had the one with multi-colored lights. We bought one anyway and decided to try the Home Depot in Carson. We had to wait a few minutes in line outside since this one actually opened at 6am but when they did, we went straight to the trees and found one in the white lights. Yay! Dave also got a multi-position Gorilla ladder. Woohoo! So after 45 min, two Home Depots, and one return trip, we ended up with the awesome 7.5 foot tree you see here. We're looking forward to collecting more ornaments through the years and since it's LED, it's energy efficient!

All Done!

So it finally happened. Noooo... not me finally updating my blog. Well... okay... that, too. But the real news is that Dave and I had our wedding and honeymoon and we are loving life together. We recently bought a house in Torrance so that's keeping us pretty busy. It's definitely a fixer-upper, but we sooo excited to have it! Pictures from the wedding ceremony are here. The reception will be following soon. I just have to pick from about 300 other photos! I think there were 980+ overall. I will have honeymoon pictures up soon, too. We had a wonderful time on our cruise from Rome to Athens. We were on Oceania Cruiselines on the Nautica.

Hannibal rabbit face

I got something in my contact lens today so I had to ask Ana for some contact lens solution. I laughed because I remembered how on other occasions she used to toss me the solution, knowing (maybe not remembering) that I only had one lens in. The she brought up the time I tossed it back to her... and hit her in the mouth. The above picture is the result with an ice pack on Ana's mouth... yes... taped with gaffer's tape. Note the kitty face that turned into a rabbit face.

hehe... can I actually catch up all in one post?

I think this post is mostly for documentation purposes since I've been such a lagger in posting. Here's what's been going on:

1. Dave and I are engaged! The wedding is next month in August and we're working our butts off to get ready.
2. Andy and Belinda had their baby boy Logan on July 3rd. He was 8 lbs 2oz and everybody is happy and healthy.
3. Dave and I bought a house in Torrance. Woohoo! It's a bit of a fixer-upper but I'm so lucky that Dave has been around construction his whole life. We'll be able to make it what we want!

I think that's all the big stuff. I'll leave it at that for now. Details to follow on all the wedding planning and house renovations.

4th of July

We went the Annual 4th of July Block Party at my Aunt Sheila's house and this year I invited Ana to come. She brought Marco, Rose and some yummy pies. It was really great to hang out with the family doing our favorite thing: EATING!! Annie and Sir brought creme brulee and a heavenly Dulce de Leche Angel Food Cake roll. It totally melted in your mouth. Dave and I made a light lemony-lime cucumber honey mint water in the hopes it would be refreshing on the hot day. I think other people liked it as much as I did... but maybe it needed more honey. Ana was gracious enough to take pictures and share... as if she would do anything else! Check out the pics here.

heh

So I finally got a new computer. What happened to the old one? Well... I sent it back to HP... twice. By the time it came back the second time, they had replaced the wifi, the harddrive, the motherboard... you name it, they replaced it. So basically I had a refurbished computer... and I am sooo not into refurb junk... especially if I paid for a brand new machine. Thank goodness for Costco's 90 day return policy. When I returned it on day 88 of 90, they kind of looked at me a little funny until I told them that I had sent it back twice, blah, blah, blah. So they gave me my money back. Unfortunately they don't put it back onto your credit card and I didn't want an $1100 gift card. Soooo... I walked out with the cash. Tee hee... Anyway, here's my new puter.
Actually, the image for the Product (Red) version, which I didn't get. It's the XPS M1330 and mine is red, but it's not the Product (Red) that gives money to AIDs research in Africa, although it still looks pretty much the same. They weren't offering the Product (Red) when I bought mine, but I got a pretty nice deal on it. Stay tuned to catch up with everything that's going on!!