It's Number 6!

Ben and I made it to the 6th anniversary of when we became a couple. He is in Oklahoma and I am overloaded with work right now, but it was fun to look up this old picture of our first date (taken at the SigEp house on the night of the Big Wednesday Party - May 20, 2000) and be shocked at how young we both look. Happy Anniversary Sweetie and here's to number 7!

I'm Melting!

I am up in Paso Robles and it reached 115 degrees yesterday and today. 115 means its too hot to do anything but lay around. Even my cat looks completely miserable and sad all stretched out in the hallway! Luckily there is air conditioning and a pool or I wouldn't have made it. I am so glad that the heat wave is almost over and it is going to start cooling down on Tuesday because I can't handle more then a few days of triple digit heat.

ADSA - Minneapolis, MN

What a trip! I was completely exhausted when I returned. There was so much to do it was hard to explore both the city of Minneapolis and go to the conference. Here's a quick list of what we did:

Sunday - My experience in Minnesota started out a little ironic. S, R and I traveled 2100 miles and show up at our hotel and the officers of the College club are hanging out in front, so we are greeted with some familiar faces. We got a quick bite to eat at The Local. The places was exactly what we needed to relax after our flights. Also, S and I did manage to go see Pirates of the Caribbean 2 at the last showing on Sunday night and I really enjoyed it, definitely looking forward to the next one.

Monday - The Work group saw R's oral presentation in the afternoon (she did an excellent job!) and then went out for drinks and dinner (opps forgot the name of where it was) with our advisors and their friends to celebrate her birthday.

Tuesday - S and I had to wake up REALLY early to put up the posters by 7:30am and then answer questions for two hours. I was not awake enough to be making much sense, but I did manage to not confuse anyone with my answers. The three of us then took the train (which is really cheap and easy to use) over to the Mall of America. I was able to have my damaged pedicure fixed (stupid pointy shoes) and do a little shopping. I honestly wasn't that impressed with the mall. It had duplicates of the same stores and not much variety. We had an amazing dinner at the Bombay Bistro, but unfortunately the service was so slow that it made us late to the awards ceremony where Dr. T was being honored. Fortunately we were able to meet up at the Brit's Pub for celebration drinks and to watch some lawn bowling. I do think this is my favorite bar!

Wednesday - Had a typical afternoon of lunch (McCormick & Schmick's - good food but very poor service) and shopping, so nothing too exciting. We did make our 30 minute connection in Phoenix to bring us home to SLO at the reasonable hour of 8:45pm!

Overall the city was very nice, but I thought it really didn't have much for people to do or see. The weather wasn't bad, a little warm and humid and we did experience some random afternoon rain, but it wasn't as bad as what I was expecting. I did learn that my hair can not handle even the smallest amount of humidity and I am not comfortable in a suit!

A Midsummer Night's Sunset

[I am still trying to be artsy and capture dramatic sunset pictures. I'll figure it out one of these evenings.]
Ben and I were at Edna Valley Vineyard this evening to attend Scott and Mary's wedding. The ceremony and reception were beautiful and we had a lot of fun catching up with old friends. Congrats to the happy couple!

Happy 4th of July

My friends and I had a traditional 4th of July, basically a BBQ and fireworks! I was excited, not for the BBQ as I have had that in the past, but for fireworks (only sparklers, but those still count)! I actually had never experienced playing with fireworks as I am from suburbia where they are illegal (it is ironic that they are ok in the country, where there are many acres of dead grass and crops that can burn very easily, but whatever). So Ben and I purchased many boxes of sparklers from the stand in Templeton and brought them (illegally) to SLO for us to all enjoy.
[On a side note - firework names are very confusing: Boston Tea Party, War Birds, etc. so we had a hard time just figuring out what were sparklers. Then on top of that I was informed by K and E to get the ones with paper and ribbons, not those just dipped in explosive material. Luckily they only sold one type of sparkler and it had a paper and ribbon starter so I was safe.]
I do think my friends got some of their amusement at watching a 25-year old who had never held a sparkler before, and I got to experience a true 4th of July.
Happy Independence Day!

Morro Bay

I was trying to be artsy and take a picture of the ocean at sunset but it didn't quite work out how I wanted it to, oh well. I did have a good day visiting with Ben's parents and grandmother who came down for the day. We all went over to Morro Bay to look at the shops and have dinner. Walking around I realized I hadn't been to Morro Bay since the Cal Poly Ewe Enterprise Project's farewell dinner at Windows on the Water in 2003! I also realized how much I LOVE Morro Bay and have no excuse for not going more often as I only live a short drive away. I'm thinking my first Saturday bike ride needs to be here!

Happy Birthday Bort

To start I don't know anyone named Bort, but it was someone's birthday - S's! The party would not have been complete without our June Simpsons' reference (hence the title, which was put on the cake) and an easy one to figure out (think Bird Sanctuary....Itchy and Scratchy Land...). So, Happy Birthday S!!!