The Love of Sleep

I think I'm going to have to borrow my sister's February issue of Real Simple and read Julie Rottenburg's personal essay on sleeping in (unfortunately it's not online). As a fellow lover of sleep (and definitely looking forward to tons of it this weekend), I was glad to read on the blogosphere that I am not alone with my obsession of catching zzzz's!

via isuwannee and Long Story Short

Arnoldbucks

Come on Sacramento. Get it together. Don’t let this happen!
via Courage Campaign

Xin Nian Yu Kuai!

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

Photo taken at the Summer Palace, October 2006.

And the Nominees Are...

With the Oscar announcements last week, I realized the only movies I have seen are Wall-E and The Dark Knight. This is a shock to me since back in the day I would have seen close to all. I think the reason is a mix of being much busier now and newly frugal. I guess I need to figure out if I want to see any before the awards at the end of February...

And Mall Cop is the #1 movie two weekends in a row!? Wow, I guess I'm totally out-of-touch.

What the Doctor Ordered

Between the rainy weather and the bad cold Ben picked up coming back from Minneapolis (which I think I'm starting to get), we definitely needed some good warm soup. So Ben made a few modifications to a vegetable beef soup recipe (addition of potatoes and mushrooms) and now we have a great winter dinner for a couple of days. I'm sure we'll be 100% healthy in no time!An added bonus, we got to try out the new dutch oven given to us by my parents for Christmas!

A Little Excitement

While waiting for our flight to Minneapolis, Terminal 2 security at LAX was breached. So the terminal was in lock down mode, no one enters and no one leaves. We successfully boarded our plane and then learned that the whole terminal was evacuated. That leaves us currently stuck in the plane at the gate per TSA regulations. Luckily the weather is great, we have snacks, and the computer has a full battery for entertainment!

Dreaming

Renting the cabin in Tahoe for skiing and the house in Scotland for the wedding last year was a lot of fun. The experiences were both so comfortable and cozy, a much different feel than hotel rooms and I highly recommend it.
With work currently so crazy, I started day dreaming about renting villas in Tuscany and castles in France today. A simple search later, and here is one I definitely can picture enjoying for a week during summer.

Ski Weekend I

Happy New Year (a little late)!

Ours started quiet. Saw Jesse and Meghan’s cute new place on New Year's Eve, but were back home and asleep before the ball dropped (we have become old and tired!).

On New Year's Day, we were up and on the road to Tahoe!

Enjoyed some skiing at Northstar in horrible conditions on Friday, but definitely shook the dust off our skis.

Here is where the quiet trip took a turn…

Driving back to the lodge, Ben’s truck was spewing horrible white smoke. Uh, oh. After some searching on the internet, Ben confirmed it was very, very bad. So we begin to make frantic phone calls to see if it could be fixed on Saturday over a holiday weekend.

I’m sure you are guessing we weren’t successful, and you’re right!Since Truckee turns out to be the world’s smallest town with absolutely no services, we made plans to tow it to the dealership in Reno and pick up a rental car to get home. Since we live in the world’s other smallest town, we couldn’t do a one-way rental all the way home. So, we did a one-way to Oakland and picked up my old sweet ride (Tessa) from my parents to take us the rest of the way home.

The truck has been fixed, and luckily fully covered under warranty. We will make the trek back to get Ben’s beloved vehicle next weekend (with what vehicle, that is yet to be determined) and enjoy Ski Weekend II!

Crash the Inauguration

Part of me is disappointed that Ben and I aren't going to DC for the Presidential Inauguration. But the other part of me is glad we are staying home and just watching all on our big TV since it is being called the "Woodstock of Washington".

Here is the link for anyone interested in being part of the madness.

via SwissMiss

Free Suze

For those that are interested...

Until January 15th, Suze Orman's new book is available for free download here.

I promise Twitter is coming soon for stuff like this!

Modern Renovation

I stumbled upon Erwin House today and am definitely interested since we have thought about doing something to our little mid-century abode.

A Good Job

In some ways, I think my job has had a positive affect on my personality. Today I was responsible for tours and presentations to a large visiting group. I have spent these past few days creating an agenda, organizing various tours, and preparing presenters. The group showed up this morning, and due to a misunderstanding, the original plan was scratched and I was left to make it all up as I went along. The old me would have freaked out at the sudden change, but I am sitting here realizing that I just naturally went with it and everything turned out fine. Not as smooth as I would have liked, but it went well and my boss will be happy.