What's New with Schacalieu?

This blog is moving!!

2009-10-20T19:29:00.001-04:00

I am moving this blog to wordpress. I really like the way the set everything up better. So come to http://schacalieu.wordpress.com/ to read more adventures with us!

Beertastic!

2009-10-20T12:21:00.003-04:00

What goes best with the onset of Fall (Winter?)…beer! Saturday we geared up for an IPA tasting. Jeremy and his fellow lab-mate, Jeff, organized a night of tasting and rating IPA’s.

The great thing about doing a blind tasting is that it leaves all your preconceived notions at the door. You can’t judge the beer by the label or what you normally think you like. For example, Jeremy loves Sierra Nevada, but when he blindly tasted it he commented that “it smells better than it tastes, and it tastes like poo.”

Some other great comments were "Ugh, and I thought number 6 was bad!" and "The budweiser of IPA's".

There was a good group of us there, about 14 people and it was fun hearing what everyone thought. Everyone’s results were tabulated at the end and then the beers were ranked from lowest to highest score.

Here is a picture of the lineup and what we thought was the best and worst. They are lined up from worst to best (left to right)

The winner was...Great Divide's Titan IPA
The loser was...Berkshire IPA
After tasting we headed to Mezcal. After our dinner there on Saturday night I have changed my opinion of Mezcal and it’s not because I had been drinking. I have been there after St. Patrick’s Day a couple years ago when I was way more inebriated. Mezcal is actually pretty decent Mexican food…dare I say it is even good! I had the biggest quesadilla I had ever seen. It was ridiculous and I might add—very tasty.

After dining we made the drive back to Fairfield and fell asleep listening to the Angels/Yankees game. I was very upset when I was awoken by the announcer screaming that the Yankees won. Damn Yankees!! At least it took them 13 innings.

New Blog is Up

2009-10-20T10:04:00.002-04:00

Ok, it's up...

My new blog venture...http://2bahealthyfit.com/ ( I got my own domain name!)

It's going to be about health & fitness, something you all know I am nutty about. Hope you enjoy!

Holy Winter Batman!

2009-10-16T16:41:00.004-04:00

What the heck is going on around here? The last couple of days have been freezing cold. Literally.

Last night, October 15th, what started out as rain, turned into sleet and then...snow!!! It is way too early for snow! The snow didn't really stick, it was pretty wet, but still...It has been so cold that last night Jeremy aka The Scrooge of Heaters agreed that we should probably turn on the heater. That means it is cold. Like I've told you, last year I wasn't allowed to turn on the heater until my mom visited for Christmas.

What happened to Fall? Why did I feel the need to buy a new puffy coat today that goes down to my ankles??? Blame it on the weather...

Leaf Peeping

2009-10-15T14:54:00.007-04:00

The Schacalieu's finally got the heck out of dodge and had a mini vacay! This was our third attempt to do so; so I guess the third time is a charm!

We took a 2 hour drive last Friday to the Berkshires where we stayed at the glorious Yankee Inn. I was excited because our room had a fireplace! It was really like a HoJo or Motel 6 type place, but the name sounded better. Those B & B's are so expensive! When we checked in they had hot cider and granola bars, so the Schacalieu's were definitely stoked! Free food and beverages...who could complain?

After nabbing some cider we headed out to explore the town of Lenox and Stockbridge. We explored multiple little shops in Stockbridge. My favorite was a chocolate shop (surprise) and this old time corner store. We bought some maple syrup and corn on the cob that you put into a pan and pop into popcorn. Very cool! After shopping a bit, we went to the historical Red Lion Inn. It is a very old and very cool hotel. Jeremy was excited to sit in a rocking chair and now wants one for our house. (Mom- hope you still have the one you said you would give me)

We grabbed dinner at a place called Firefly. It was just ok. I had thought I read it was a tapas place, but it wasn't. Jeremy wasn't impressed with the food, but he recently ate at a Michelin rated restaurant so now he is pretty much destroyed when it comes to eating out.

As soon as we got back from exploring our surroundings a bit and eating dinner we turned on the fireplace. It was kind of romantic, but it heated up the room very quickly. Shortly after turning it on our room was sweltering and then the air conditioner was on all night. The air conditioner not only brought the room down to a normal temperature, but came in to handy around 2am. In the wee hours of the morn I heard some moaning from the next room, so I just turned that bad boy back on to drown out the noise and went back to sleep like nothing was happening.

The next day we got breakfast at a yummy bakery & cafe (I had the yummiest oatmeal with grilled pear) and then went for a hike on some trails that were near our hotel. It was quite brisk outside and it was nice to get some fresh air. The leaves were pretty. More color than you would ever see in California, but there wasn't a lot of reds and oranges.

After hiking we set out to explore the town of Lee and to try and find a fabulous restaurant for dinner. Lee was another cute little town and we found a french place that looked promising for dinner. After Lee, we went to explore Lenox a bit more in depth and then hit up Chocolate Springs (yep..another chocolate shop). It was amazing!! We split two truffles and bought some chocolate for later. I would go back to the Berkshires just for that shop!!

We tried to get dinner reservations at the french place, but they were all booked up. Actually, almost everywhere was booked. Everyplace I called either was totally book or only had 5pm or 9pm open. 5pm is just too early for dinner unless you are a senior citizen or close to death and if I had to eat at 9pm I would probably eat my left arm off. I finally found a restaurant, Bistro Zinc that had open reservations at 5, 6, or 9pm, so we took the 6pm reservation and then headed off to a wine bar before dinner. Dinner ended up being one of the most fabulous meals I have ever eaten! Basically, this entire trip was wining and dining with a splash of hiking thrown in. Perfect!

Sunday we slept in and watched tv in bed. We explored the town of Great Barrington and then headed home. It was a nice, relaxing get-away. I'm glad we got to explore some new East Coast areas.

View from our room

The hike

The Gym Rat Shuffle

2009-09-24T11:40:00.000-04:00

If you know me, then you know that I get up and work out at the butt crack of dawn every morning to work out. Recently, the gym I currently go to (Fitness Edge) is really ticking me off. I use to get up at 5:15 - 5:30 am and would call in to the gym to reserve a bike for the next morning’s spin class. After making the call, I get ready and go to the gym. Actually, when I first started going there I would wake up at 5:15am drive down there and sign up in person, but after not getting in a couple of times I started calling once I woke up.

Fitness Edge has now switched to an online registration system. Apparently their front desk people are over worked…must be all the smoothies they are making. (Special Note: I have never once seen anyone waiting for a smoothie.) I don’t mind the system going online, what I do mind is that I now must wake up before 5am so that I can get to their website and press “reserve” on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings so that I can get a bike for the next day’s class. On Wednesday morning the Thursday class was totally reserved (27 bikes) in two minutes. This is crazy!!! I sat in bed with my laptop and just laughed at the absurdity of how fast the class filled up.

I have belonged to many a gym before and have never encountered spin classes being totally packed at all hours. This is becoming so insane! It’s almost like Russian Roulette or something. The other crazy thing to me is that everyone at the spin class the next day is talking about how fast the class fills up. It is gymsanity.

I really think the solution is to move the class from 5:45am to 5:30am so that they could have a 6:30am class afterwards or build a bigger bike studio. The bike studio is pretty small and the bikes are very worn down. Maybe they need to start charging more that $19.99 a month and stop having so many promo’s for people to join the gym. I should write them a letter…

I know-- a good solution to my problem would be to actually ride my road bike outside. Brilliant! Right?...Wrong. I am so scared to ride out here. The road’s are poor there is little to no bike lane, drivers are crazy, and I have no one to ride with. I have looked into tri-clubs, but the one closest to be is uber competitive and the other one is a bit far away to make it for rides by 6am on a Sunday. For these reasons, I will remain a slave to my computer at 4:55 in the morning. It’s actually not that bad, it’s just that I cannot believe how many people are vying for spots for a 5:45am spin class. I guess they are all just as crazy as me about getting a good workout in before starting the day.

Here’s to working out and waking up before the sun comes up!

It may be Fall

2009-09-11T12:52:00.004-04:00

As quickly as the summer heat and humidity came...it seems as though they may have to bid farewell in a hasty manner as well. It seems as though overnight the summer has turned to fall and I couldn't be happier! I really love the Fall weather. Sunny, blue skies, sometimes a small breeze---oooh it makes me giddy.

With the birth of Fall it means that I don't have to sweat for no reason! That is good news since I started using natural deodorant (I know earth mother here I come). Jeremy always gives me crap about using antiperspirant and how the chemicals are horrible for you, it may lead to Alzheimer's, blah, blah, blah. Well, this summer I decided I would try out being a true hippie and just use all natural deodorant. We were at Whole (Paycheck) Foods and we went by the natural cosmetics isle. I decided to stop and peruse the deodorant section. Sure enough, some smelled pretty granola--I'm talking patchouli oil scents here people! I couldn't hang with that and went for some kind of lavender smell. Of course, two days after I purchased my way to hippiedom, the humidity spiked up and I was really rethinking my choices.

I do not like to sweat unless I am running/spinning/hiking/shopping. I'm talking real sweat starting activities. Seriously though, if I'm a sweaty mess and haven't just come back from a 4mile run, I am not a happy camper. Just ask Jeremy. I proceed to have serious are-you-kidding-me meltdowns. You really don't want to get to know that side of me. It's not pretty.

I have to say this summer only produced about 2 weeks of unbearable sweating as far as I'm concerned. I cursed Jeremy's name more than once since he is against us getting a air conditioning unit. His motto is basically no air in the summer, no heat in the winter. Last winter I wasn't allowed to put the heater on until my mom came for Christmas. He would just tell me to put another sweater and a beanie on. Hello--pipes can freeze out here Scrooge! Don't get me started on the no cable rule. Anyhoo, the compromise to the no air conditioner fight was getting an input/output fan that you put in your window. I swear it made our room at least 10 degrees cooler.

It was a good summer. I will miss laying out on the beach and listening to the high schoolers talk about boys and the college kids talk about being a drunken mess the night before and who's sleeping with who. I will miss the long hours in the day and riding our bikes in the evening. We also saw a few good shows this summer in New York--Pete Seger's outdoor festival & Old Crow Medicine Show. I saw Britney (for free), but that doesn't really count as a "good show".

I will miss summer, but I am more excited for Fall. I love sweaters and boots. Yes, pretty much everything that is important to me is wrapped in my love for commercialism. I love being able to run outside and not have the humidity stifle my breathing. I'm looking forward to our 2 night trip to Lenox, Mass to be "leaf peepers". I also see some apple picking in the future and pumpkin muffins!

I really hope that the weather gods are not tricking me. They better not be luring me into Fall and then plan on bitch-slapping me with an Indian Summer. Not cool weather gods, not cool. I guess time will tell.

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu)

2009-08-03T17:04:00.004-04:00

Chapter 3: Are you ready for some compost?

One of the things Jeremy misses most about Morro Bay would have to be his compost pile. Yes, if you didn’t know it already Jeremy is a hippie disguised as a distinguished Yale student. Well, a couple weekends ago Jeremy put his brain power and old man strength together to build The Schacalieu’s a compost bin. Yes, Jeremy has the strength of an old man, which means you don’t expect him to be that strong (by the looks of his lanky body) and are surprised at the jar caps he can twist open or the fact that he can pick you up.

Old Man Jeremy borrowed a table saw from a Yalie friend. He was going totally ‘green’ in his building plans (code for he is cheap and didn’t want to buy wood at Home Depot) and found an old wood palate down in our basement. The palate had some holes in it from where spiders used it as a home to birth their babies, so it was definitely perfect for our compost bin. Actually, it did turn out to be perfect and Jeremy was able to use all of the wood from it, transform the palate into a compost bin, and only throw away two wood scraps.

Jeremy was not injured in the building of the compost bin, no animals were harmed either. My finger got jabbed with a screwdriver, but that was the only casualty. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon. Jeremy was so proud of himself he kept checking on the bin and asking me if it looked good. We commented on the rustic look of the bin and he said that ‘rustic’ was the exact look he was going for.

The following day we drove all the way to New Haven to go to Ikea for a glass container. I assured Jeremy that this type of container could be bought somewhere else, but his Yalie friend said they got their’s from Ikea…so we were off. Jeremy had ants in his pants and we arrived to Ikea before it was officially open. Have you ever been to Ikea before it is open? It’s hilarious. I would say about 75 people were there eating breakfast and then lining up. It was like the start of a 5K race. They have all the entrances roped off. To be funny, Jeremy started stretching. If I wrote for a sit-com I would do an Ikea episode where they get to Ikea early and the people just start charging the entrance.

We got two containers, one for us and one for our neighbor. We plan on hippie-fying Connecticut one neighbor at a time!

The compost bin in all of it's glory, complete with hinging door

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu

2009-07-27T20:52:00.001-04:00

Chapter 2: Cruisin' on a Sunday Afternoon

As many of you know from previous posts, Jeremy and I got ourselves some pretty sweet cruisers. The weather has finally warmed up (now too much) and we’ve been crusin’ all over the fine town of Fairfield.

It took a while for summer to actually warm up, but once it did we had a few weekends of pure beauty. Sunshine, no humidity-- it was loveliness! Those days are now gone and we are forced to endure sticky, warm, disgusting days. UGH, I’d rather it be snowing!! Seriously, I would rather be wrapped up in a sleeping bag jacket in our house because Jeremy won’t let us turn the heat on instead of sweating my ass off when trying to sleep, waking up because I’m so thirsty, oh and did I mention sweating my ass off because the love of my life won’t let us put a window air-conditioning unit in our room. I did force him to let me by another fan, so at least I got that!

Back to the few lovely weekends we had before they were interrupted by agony in the form of humidity. Yes, we have been cruising all over Fairfield and Jeremy has finally admitted to loving where we live. We’ve been going on bike rides every weekend and during the week after dinner on nights that it is nice out. Fairfield has free concerts on the green on Wednesday’s and Sunday’s so we’ve been checking those out as well. The last one we went to was an Irish band…it was hilarious…they were straight out of the movie, ‘A Mighty Wind.’ Needless to say we ate our dinner and then made a run (or should I say ride) for it.

We started a garden on the side of our apartment building with our neighbor, her veggies are soaring while ours are looking a little sad. We started from seeds and she started with starters…next year we’ll have a better plan. We planted lettuce, tomatoes, beans, basil, so far we’ve only been able to use the basil.

We’ve also been hanging out on the beach on the weekends. I say beach, but it is still like a really big lake to me. We ventured down there with some friends to play bocce ball and there were all kinds of horseshoe crabs. They are crazy looking and I think they were mating. Fun times!

In other summery news, we bought a little mini bbq at Target for $14 (hey big spenders!) and that thing is getting more action than Tom Cruise when he was in ‘Top Gun’. Jeremy is becoming a grilling pro and it’s nice to be eating outside on our little deck. Jeremy gets excited when he gets to marinade and then everytime tells me the secret is to keep brushing it on. Thanks for the news flash Jer, yeah…I know this trick already. Since I decided to stop being vegan, it’s more fun for Jeremy since he gets to cook chicken instead of tofu…he feels more manly and isn’t hungry all the time. We are now only buying organic meats that have no chemicals pumped into them. I may be crazy, but I think you can really see and taste a difference.

Ian, Alisha and the kids made an east-coast trip and stayed with us for a few days. It was great having them around. Bella and Peyton are growing up so fast. The really are good kids and fun to be around. We hung out in Fairfield with them, took them to the beach to hunt for sea shells and see some sand sculptures that were being built. Jeremy took them out for pizza multiple times and also to the Yale Museum. The only “bad” event was seeing Transformers 2. The kids were so excited to see the movie and it had just come out, so we all went. Let me just say, from the first 5 minutes, I knew it was going to be the longest 2.5 hours of my life. I will never get that time back. Yeah, it was horrible. Other than that, we had a great time and it was awesome to catch up with Ian and Alisha. We were suppose to meet them in NYC for 4th of July for fun and fireworks, but I had to ruin that weekend and get sick. It was a big bummer! What are you going to do? It was better I get sick then since I had a huge program coming up for work. Jeremy did force me to ride bikes down to the beach for fireworks and I’m glad he did. I love fireworks!!

S.O.S (Summer of Schacalieu)

2009-07-27T16:08:00.009-04:00

So, July is almost over and I really haven’t posted much about our summer. So here’s the update…in Chapter's (beacuse our life is like a storybook story).

Chapter 1: Vegas
Summer started off in celebration. We went to Vegas to celebrate my dad’s 60th birthday. We weren’t sure what to expect (you know how family trips can be), but it turned out to be a really awesome and fun trip! My Aunt Shonda and Uncle Phil made the trip out, as did my brother and his girl friend (just a girl that is a friend, not a girlfriend?) Caroline, and so did our friend’s Myles and Laurie. It was great to see everyone and hanging out with Myles and Laurie was like old times. Laurie actually almost killed herself at a lunch outing. Now, there was some drinking involved, but not enough for what happened.

We had been lounging by the pool, enjoying a few light adult beverages..when we discovered that it was 2pm and none of us had eaten lunch yet. We went in to The Luxor and ate at whatever Mexican restaurant was there…I forget the name. So we order margaritas and food, while we’re waiting Laurie scooches up in her chair (we were sitting on high barstools) and the chair shoots back like a rocket. Somehow Laurie manages to claw into Myles’ arm and escape splitting her head open on the table (Seriously-we had not drank enough for this to occur…well maybe Laurie did…I don’t know). The flying barstool almost hit the lady at the next table behind us. It was crazy and loud! The whole restaurant just stopped. It was hilarious!

Before the fall?

Jeremy and I aren’t big gamblers, so I was hoping for some warm weather so I could try and jumpstart my tan. This didn’t really pan out, although I tried my hardest, so we did what anyone does in Vegas…drink and gamble. The good news is that I won $200 on a Wheel of Fortune game! I was stoked, but this only fueled my gambling fire. I was having so much fun, I believe I gambled away almost all the money. Seriously, I sat down to play Monopoly and it was making all these noises, and the colored lights, and I kept winning more pennies…until…I stopped winning and kept losing and the damn Monopoly machine ate my $50. Ah, the allure of Vegas!
On Sunday, Jeremy, my dad, and I started gambling together. We would take turns pressing the button and we would give ourselves a limit…if we won so much we would stop and move to the next machine, if we lost so much we would stop and move to the next machine. We did this for most of Sunday until it was time to see Love. I also got my first “free” drink in all my Vegas visits. Whoo hoo! Now we were talking!

Winners!

If you haven’t seen Love, the Beatles show in Vegas, I highly recommend it. It was one of the most amazing shows I had ever seen. I had never seen any kind of Cirque show before and this one just blew my socks off.

Being silly walking to Love

Waiting in line for Love

Posing at Revolution Bar

We also went to dinner at The Palazzo to celebrate my dad’s bday on Saturday. The food in Vegas is wicked expensive and this was one place that looked nice and the prices weren’t astronomical. It was really hard to pick a place from online menu’s and pictures that would be good for a larger group. The food was good and I think my dad enjoyed himself. We got a good picture outside the restaurant of my dad on the silver bull that was outside the restaurant doors. After dinner we headed to New York, New York (the casino, not the state) for some piano bar action. This was definitely one of the most memorable times ever! Joseph and Caroline gave the piano guys some money to sing Happy Birthday to my dad and it worked (after a couple tries). They started playing Happy Birthday and called my dad up. Once my dad was up there they started playing, “Right Said Fred- I’m Too Sexy”. This was hilarious!! My dad was dancing around and they had him take off his jacket and then ladies started putting money down his shirt. Joseph captured all of this on video, but he hasn’t sent it yet. Once he does, I will post it.

Bday Cake

Bull Riders

All in all, this was a great time and an awesome way to kick off the summer. Since it still wasn’t sunny or warm in CT, it was nice to see the sun when we emerged from the dark, air conditioned casino’s. It was in the high 70s when we were there…actually kinda cold for Vegas in June, but oh well…begger’s can’t be chooser’s right?

More of S.O.S to come in later posts!

If only Cheney knew how to deal with terrorists this way...

2009-05-22T22:18:00.002-04:00

If you've ever wondered what the Schacalieu's are up to on a Friday night...well guess no more! Enjoy the video! (make sure you have the sound turned up on your computer)

This video was made in response to Mr. Potato Head being kidnapped from our house during Pie Palooza. Check out our post from November titled "Pie Palooza" for more background info.

Make new friends? Definitely keep the old!

2009-05-19T19:57:00.004-04:00

This past weekend our friends Mark & Dina were in NYC for one day only. Jer and I drove up to JFK to pick them up and then we went over to Phin & Carla's for a day of jam-packed fun. They had a one day layover (more like 18 hours) from coming home from a trip to Italy.

When we picked them up, they had 4 HUGE suitcases. We were a bit worried about getting them into the car, but were able to wedge two in the trunk, two in the back, and our queen size blow-up mattress was on my lap. We had to bungee the trunk closed and hoped that no big potholes would send their luggage flying. The luggage also weighed quite a bit due to the huge wheels of asiago and other Italian cheeses they were bringing back. Mmmm, that cheese was yummy!

We haven't seen Mark & Dina in almost a year. The last time was at our wedding, so it was great to see them. Phin had a great day planned of showing them some of the bigger NYC sites, so we went to Grand Central, Central Park, and (our all-time fav) the beer garden.

The beer garden is this amazing bar that actually has a huge beer garden outside with picnic benches and a stage where bands play. All you can get to eat there is sausages and kraut. Luckily they also have veggie burgers there, so I was able to eat!

It's so great with friends that you don't see or talk to for a while and the minute you see each other again, it's like a day never passed. Those are the real deal! Those are the kind of friends we are really missing out here in CT. You don't really know what you have until it's gone.

Jeremy and I were talking on the way home and realized that we laughed more and harder then we have in a long time. Dina and I almost peed our pants when Jeremy screamed like a girl as a subway train passed loudly.

I just think of my college Broad Street house days when most of these friendships were made and really realize how great we had it. One...it's hard to make friends, two it's really hard to make good friends. I'm not trying to get all depressing...we've made friends, people we go out with and can have a good time with but only one or two may be around in the long run. It's kind of sad. We think we've made a friend and then something happens and true colors are shown.

It was hard to make friends in SD at first, but eventually it all started fitting together. Although, this was just about the time I had to move to CT. In the end...I would rather have 5-8 amazing friends then people who make me feel awkward or bad about myself.

This atmosphere is tough for both Jeremy and I because Yale is just a different place. We really feel like fish out of water with most of the people here. Boo hoo, we are such sad sacks.

Our next awesome friend reunion will be with Laurie and Myles in Vegas. We are going there for my dad's 60th and I'm sure it will be a good time. Viva las Vegas!!

The thing is...you never know who you will meet in your life...sometimes your life will be filled with great people, other times may be a bit lonelier. All Jeremy & I know is that we are glad to have each other right now and can't wait to get back to all of our family and friends on the West Coast.

Here are some pics from the weekend...

The Beer Garden

Strawberry Fields

Mark & Dina

The twins have arrived!

2009-05-13T16:09:00.004-04:00

Here are pictures of Rene's beautiful babies!!!

Say hello to Jackson

and Corinne!

Congratulations to Rene & Doug!! There hand are going to be quite full for quite a while!

Here are their stats from their birday, May 7th:

Jackson- 4lbs, 11oz & 18" long

Corinne- 5lbs, 0.5oz & 18.5" long

Circle of Life

2009-05-12T11:24:00.002-04:00

This past weekend Jeremy and I were in California. We got a call Wednesday night from his mom that his grandpa wasn’t doing good and that we needed to come home. His grandpa has been battling cancer and it seems like it is winning the battle over his body.

Jeremy’s brother and his brother’s wife (Corey & Caroline) made the trip out from Boston. When Jeremy’s sister picked us up from the airport it was nice to see each other, but of course we all wished it was under different circumstances.

I’ve never really had to say goodbye to someone I loved before. My grandma died of Alzheimer’s and my memory of her is filled with visits to the home and looking into her eyes which seemed to be begging for help, but her voice was unable to express any of her thoughts. I was close to my grandma as a child, but I was really young when she got sick so my memories of her are mostly of when she was sick.

Jeremy and everyone was holding up as well as possible. I think there is comfort in family and knowing that you are not alone with your feelings. I think that having all of us there perked up his grandfather at times. He made a few jokes and was pretty coherent. He was sleeping most of the time and not eating much. It was tough to see him laying on a bed in the living room, but he did seem as comfortable as possible.

As all of this was going on I was receiving updates on the birth of my best friend’s twin babies. Corrine and Jackson were born on May 7th at 1:42 and 1:43pm. The same night we got the call about Jeremy’s grandpa, I got a call from Rene saying that they were going to be born. It just goes to show you that life and death really is a circle. Mom and babies are happy and healthy, hoping to go home sometime this week.

Even though death is such a hard reality to face it makes you realize how precious life is and that you really have to make the most of your time. Life is too short to stress and worry about all the little things that go wrong or not the way you expect.

Leaving Sacramento and actually saying goodbye was extremely hard, knowing that it may be the last time we get to say goodbye. We are thankful for the time we got to spend with Norman (dubbed by Caroline as “Bullet”) this past weekend. Now, we will just wait for updates from his Mom and hope that he is comfortable.

Here are a couple of quotes that I thought really express my thoughts over the past weekend.

“It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding” -Elton John

“And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years”.—Abraham Lincoln

Hooray!

2009-05-01T14:59:00.002-04:00

My birthday bike is here!!! And Jeremy put it together last night!!! Now, I just need no rain so we can actually go for a ride.

All About Me: The Blog

2009-04-24T11:30:00.006-04:00

For those of you who know me (and if you’re reading this you must…I don’t think my blog has taken the world by storm yet), then you know that I like to work out. You probably think I’m a workoutaholic… which I don’t think I am…I think I am completely normal (if not a bit lazy at times).

I have started to shake up my routine and have bought Jillian Michaels Making the Cut. I have decided it is time for me to dust off the one-pack and try to make it a 6-pack…well, a nice 2-4 pack will suffice. Plus, who doesn’t want to lose 5 pounds or look in the tiniest bit like Jillian.

In addition to Jillian kicking my butt, I have signed up for a kettle bell class that lasts six weeks. Kettle bell is this new workout that consists of thrusting a heavy ball with a handle in every which direction. So far I am on day 5 of the 30 day Jillian (kick my ass) workout and have done two kettle bell classes. In addition to workouts a la Jillian, on this 30 day plan there is no drinking. Now, I am no alcoholic, but I do enjoy my vino…ok, maybe sometimes a wee bit too much. I’m not perfect! I know...your worlds have been crushed by this shocking statement.

So far my legs hate me!! Oh, I forgot to mention that I have a biathlon coming up on May 3rd, so I still need to run & bike for that too. It’s not a long race though, so I will be just fine. I could not train for it at all and be fine, but I am always competitive with myself, so I want to do good. Back to my legs…I have never done so many squats and lunges in my life. I’m only on day 5, so by day 30 I expect to be able to bounce a quarter off my ass…literally!

I am also really watching my nutrition. I have been tracking everything on sparkpeople.com and when I first started I realized that with my moderately vegan diet I was eating like 80% carbs!!! No wonder I had been feeling a bit fluffy. After reading countless nutrition books in the last 5 years, I decided that I am back on the sauce! The meat sauce that is. I just think that fat and protein are important nutrients and if I wasn’t including them in my diet, then something is wrong. There are still days when I am eating vegan, but for the most part dairy is back in and fish and chicken are making their debuts into my tummy again. I really missed fish when I was doing the moderate vegan thing, so I’m glad that I am allowing myself to have it more than once a month again.

Another thing sparkpeople showed me is how out of control my sodium intake was. Jillian only wants you eating 1000mg of the salty stuff a day. Even now that I’m watching it, 1000mg adds up SUPER quickly…and I LOVE salt. I usually oversalt everything. Yes, I admit…I was a saltaholic. The first step is admittance. That was another part of the problem with the vegan thing..all the fake meats and tofu and soy products have a ton of sodium.

Hopefully, I will have my 6-pack in 25 days…not sure about that, but hopefully I will be a leaner. I bought a scale that measures body fat % and water %...now I just need to step on it before my legs collapse on me!

So there you have it...I'm back on the carnage, off the sauce, and walking like an old lady. Happy weekend!

Wonderful Weekend

2009-04-20T10:42:00.003-04:00

Oh my, this past weekend was just gorgeous!!! Saturday the temps were in the mid-70s and it was sunny and glorious. We definitely took advantage of the weather...hanging outside with my work peeps for a bit and then I got a ride in on my road bike.

It has been so long since I have been on my road bike. First off, the drivers are crazy here and there aren't any lovely paths like in San Diego. Secondly, the weather has been uber poopy and I am a wuss that gets cold way too easily. Thirdly, I have no one to go with me which makes riding on the roads of CT a bit nerve-wracking. Well on Saturday I had no more excuses so I dusted off the bike, filled up the flat tires, strapped on my helmet...and road. Yes! I was back in the saddle!!

I was nervous about riding since it seems like ions since I've been on my bike. I wasn't sure if I would remember how to change gears or get out of my clips. Have no fear, it all came back to me...just like riding a bike (ha ha! the saying is true).

I rode for about an hour and let me tell you there were hoards of people out. You would think that everyone had been couped up inside for months. Oh wait...we have been. It was like a parade was happening or something. So many people were out running, riding, walking, sitting at the green, the college kids were partying...seriously, there were SO many people around. It just makes you realize how desolate the town looks during the winter of dreary days. The winters here really do make you really appreciate California. There you forget how nice the sun is...because it's out all the time. You take for granted that you can go ride your bike any day of the week or swim outdoors. I wish I could go back in time and re-do my time in San Diego. Ah, when will time travel be possible? Oh well, I just have to make the most of the nice days here and when we go back to California I will never forget how great the weather really is there.

The week here is suppose to be dark and rainy, but the sun is suppose to come back for the weekend and be in the 70s-80s. whoo hoo! Oh, Schacalieu update...I got Jeremy a beach cruiser so he can ride to school from the train station and he is getting me one for my birthday. We ordered mine last night...hopefully we will be cruising around Fairfield this weekend. Here is the pic of what my new bike will look like. Happy early birthday to me!!!

Summer Race Update:

I am officially signed up for my first biathlon on May 3d. 2.5mi running, 10 mi bike, 2.5 mi running. Piece of cake!

The Schacalieu's (both of them) are signing up for a 5K on June 28th in Fairfield. It starts at the beach right by our house! Yes, Jeremy is actually doing it too! This will be his second 5K...he told me that this is my anniversary present. ha! They have a 1/2 marathon too, which I thought about doing, but my knee has been acting up...so I may just do the 5K. I want to be able to walk when I'm 30, not to mention when I'm 80!

Doin' the Danbury Shuffle

2009-04-06T11:27:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was the half marathon in Danbury. I was pumped and felt pretty prepared. This was the first ½ marathon I have done in about 3 years. My last race was a 5K the December we moved to New Haven. After that race I vowed to never run outside in the winter time again. I think my lungs froze during that one.

99.9% of my training was done on the good 'ole gym treadmill. Talk about monotony!! It was just way too cold and too dark to run outside in the morning. Basically, anything less than 50 is not considered running weather in my mind. I don’t like running in the evening (still to cold) because I just want to go home after work and veg (I become a lazy fat ass after 6pm). I got use to logging miles on the mill and it actually wasn’t too horrible. I did get a couple of long runs done outdoors so that was great! Plus I figured if I could run on the treadmill for over an hour, I could run outside for longer.

The race was in Danbury, which is about 40 minutes away from Fairfield. This was the latest start time for a race I ever had…10:25am. I was a bit concerned about eating too early and being hungry right before the race. This didn’t prove to be too much of a problem. It was nice to not have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to run.

It was an awesome day for running. The sun was shining and we were supposed to have temps in the high 50s. This is after it had been cloudy and stormy all day Saturday and it is rainy and dreary today (Monday). We all definitely lucked out with the weather! When we first got to the race it was pretty windy and chilly. I was worried I didn’t have enough layers on, but once 10am hit, the wind died down a bit and it got warmer. I was pretty nervous before the start—although that is usually typical for me.

So the race starts, I was on a good pace at the 1 mile checkpoint. There were some people I had in my sights I wanted to better than. One was a group of four girls in green tanks and black running skirts. I just cannot get behind the running skirts. I also cannot get behind wearing an ipod during races. Sure, we all train with them, but part of the fun of doing these races is letting yourself soak up the atmosphere and possibly even talking to people. I know...this is becoming a foreign concept. So I passed two of the four greenies early on, the final two proved to be more prepared and beat me in the end.

Really, I was feeling great for the first 8 miles. The course was a bit hilly, but I was powering along. At about mile 7 my right knee started to have some sharp pain, but I wasn’t going to let that get me. I gave my knee a good talking too and it got back in the game. Mind over matter! Actually when I am feeling tired, I like to mentally bitch slap myself...something like, hey get your ass in gear!

After mile 8 things got a bit tougher! The hills just kept coming. I was cursing each hill! This is not to say the first 8 miles didn’t have any hills, they definitely did, but my body was starting to feel ill prepared. My mental bitch slaps and/or positive pep talks weren't working anymore. During my ascent up one of the hills, a lady was sitting on her lawn, cheering the runners on. She must have seen the despair in my eyes because she told me it leveled off after the stop sign. Well, it leveled off…for about .1 miles and then the two biggest hills were next.

I started wondering how I ever did not one, but two marathons and I vowed never to do another one in my lifetime. I was also trying to keep pace with a man who must have been 75. One thing doing races has taught me is never judge anyone by how they look or what age they are. I have had to run my heart out to beat a 10 year old in a 5K and a pretty overweight dude in a 10K. This time, it was the battle royale with the old man. The old man won! While he took the hills like a champ, my legs decided to turn into a jello-y mess. I figure I must have looked like a 75 year old woman shuffling up the hills. That is definitely how I felt!

The course wasn’t well marked so mile 9 went on FOR-EV-ER. There were no race markers after mile 9. This turned out being good and bad. Bad because I thought I might die if I saw another hill on mile 9 and great because seemingly out of nowhere a volunteer shouted “One mile to go”. Even better than hearing one more mile was the fact that it was all downhill. The ladies running next to me were ecstatic and we had a short conversation about how hilly the course was.

The last .4 miles of the race were into a headwind, but then there it was the finish line around the corner…and of course Jeremy standing on the corner cheering me on. Next time I expect my big glittery sign like I was promised!

Jeremy met up with me as I was cooling down and gave me a race wrap-up. The Kenyan won (big surprise) and if I cut 15 minutes off my time I would have a chance of placing. Yeah—I’ll work on that! Who knows…maybe next time…

Don't have my official time yet, but it was 1:47 and some seconds. I'm pretty stoked with it since the Carlsbad Half was almost entirely flat and my time for that was around 1:45. All in all, I am happy with my performance. Next race: Greenwich Biathon!!

--------
Update: Offical time & standing

214 out of 618 participants
16th (out of 71) in my age division F20-29
1:47:21
averaged 8:12 min miles

A wee bit o'fun

2009-03-19T16:19:00.003-04:00

St. Patrick's Day is one of my fave holidays. First off, green is my favorite color--like I need another excuse to wear it, but I love seeing it all around me. Secondly, leprechauns make me laugh. Thirdly, bloody mary's are one of the best drinks around and I rarely drink them (the best ones are at Thrusters in Pacific Beach). Lastly, pinching people is funny as well.

All that said, New Haven has it's own pretty good St. Patty's Day celebration. It happens the weekend before the official holiday. They have a parade (although this is the second year in a row I have not seen it) and Anna Liffey's has Irish bands and makes for a perfect stomping ground. So Liffey's and not viewing the parade is our new tradition.

I believe I posted about last years St. Patty's Day shenanigans, so I won't go over that whole story again. This year my brother and his friend were visiting so we planned to meet up with the everyone at Wendy & Michael's house. Actually, Jeremy invited all of us over, so we were actually overtaking their apartment. We brought breakfast and morning adult beverages to satisfy everyone's needs. Needless to say, the morning started off with a bang!

We all headed to Liffey's with the intent of actually seeing the parade this year. The weather was mild and the sun was out. After some more drinking of adult beverages we all decided that the entire parade would be coming through Liffey's anyways...so why move. Plus we had mad a new friend, Leroy. We couldn't just leave Leroy...the drunk older man wearing a hat for people to do shots out of. Leroy also shared his sandwich with us...so we were indebted to him.

The Irish band was just as good this year as last year, actually I'm pretty sure it was the same band. The day concluded with the consumption of Modern pizza. Hey- we had to show the boys from Cali how pizza is really done. The East coast does have the pizza thing going for it! We also watched (feel asleep) The Big Labowski, some ate some corned beef and cabbage, and I requested a cake...so Michael made one.

All in all we had a great deal of fun and since we were asleep early, I think everyone felt pretty ok for Monday. I really think next year we should actually make it to the parade route. That is our St. Patty's goal for next year!!!!

I will update with pics soon!!!

FYI- on the actual St. Patty's Day, I wore green, but consumed no alcohol...no green beer was in my presence...well except for a 2am text of a green beer from Jeremy's mom. Thanks Tami!!!

A Little Spring in my Step

2009-03-12T11:49:00.002-04:00

I hope with all my heart that spring is truly knocking on our door. We have been fooled before by the nice sunny skies and warmer temps, and then two days later…snow storm. Lately though, there has been a steady rise in temp and the 40’s seem to be sticking around. Now, I know 40 is not really warm at all, but when you are use to the 20’s, this is a giant leap. Actually this past weekend it was in the 60’s. That is just CRAZY!

With the warmer weather comes a more positive attitude. The cold weather, snow, and overcast skies can really make you feel tired and despondent. I don’t mean to sound like I have been so depressed lately, but the weather has really been affecting my mood. It’s not like I feel like I need to slit my wrists or anything, but I have just felt really off. I’ve been snappy, tired, and basically horrible. Before you think it—no, it has not been related to PMS. I can’t really say that anything has triggered me turning into some kind of mess except for the winter months. Well, that and my overall annoyance with the “east coast attitude”.

The winter this year has been harsher than last year and while I have gotten use to the abrasiveness of the East, I have decided I just really don’t like the attitude. Not all people from the East Coast succumb to this attitude. I have actually met some supremely nice individuals! It’s just that all the honking, all the negativity, all the people saying things “just to get your goat”, strangers passing on the street and never smiling--everything is just really taking a toll on me. I just don’t understand why people are so rude and obnoxious. Why ask me what I think and then make fun of me for it? I really miss being able to be myself and not have to worry about how someone will make fun of me or just make me feel like an all out idiot.

I had a dream last night that I was back in Morro Bay and our friends, Laurie and Myles, owned the house we use to live in. I was so excited to be there and a we were going to get a veggie burrito from Taco Temple. The dream seemed so real!!! I was getting money from the ATM at the grocery store across the street from Taco Temple, when my alarm abruptly woke me up for cycling class at 5:15am. No veggie burrito for me!!! Ah, the days of the beach and Taco Temple…I do yearn for them. Just last night Jeremy and I were reminiscing about “The Temple”. I am sure that is why I dreamt about it.

Anyways, enough of my depressing ranting and raving about the East. Things are looking up and Spring may be here to stay!! That is enough for me to turn my frown upside down. I’m sure Jeremy will appreciate my new outlook the most, considering he gets the brunt of my craziness.

Here’s to the sunshine!

Bonspielin' It

2009-03-05T20:38:00.008-05:00

So we ventured to Boston two weekends ago for the curling bonspiel. The guys & Christen did great! They were playing against people who had been playing 5 years or less (they have only been curling for about 6 months) and they got 4th place out of 16 teams. Pretty impressive to say the least. There was some curling drama along the way.

We left on Friday afternoon for Boston. After getting to our hotel and settling in a bit we made our way down to The Country Club. Yes, it was called "The Country Club", very snobby and pretentious. At The Country Club they have a curling arena...very impressive next to the one we go to in Bridgeport. When you walk in you are on the ice level and then you can go up the stairs and there is a bar, a fireplace and a glass wall so you can watch what is happening below. Pish, posh! You were not allowed to wear jeans, so everyone is in the Sunday best upstairs, while everyone downstairs on the ice is in sweats and shirts.

The team had dinner to go to and Wendy and I (Wendy goes to school with Jeremy and her husband is on the team) went to dinner on our own...we weren't allowed to hang with the curlers. We had a great dinner, with a fab waiter and were very happy and then we went to The Club to be supportive wives and cheer on our men. All of us didn't really expect our team to go far since this was their first bonspiel...boy were we wrong!

During the gang's first game everyone was super excited because it was a really close game. There were 4 teams total from Bridgeport, so while our team was on the ice everyone was upstairs watching. If you don't know it yet, curling is synonymous with drinking. So everyone was upstairs, watching behind the glass, and enjoying some adult beverages. The curling peeps from Bridgeport were a little loud and rambunctious. They started getting really into the game, there was some yelling, there was some waiving, and then there was one really mad dude down on the ice.

Dan Nailor is a skinny little dude who got very, very angry. Like I said, it was getting pretty loud upstairs and the Bridgeport curlers didn't like the calls that our skip was making. I don't know if you could hear them down on the ice, but Dan looked up and shot us all the death glare and put his finger up to his mouth as to say, "Shut the hell up!" He would have actually probably yelled this if curling wasn't such a gentleman's game. Actually he looked like he was ready to run up the stairs and strangle someone. Needless to say, it was an extremely close game and came down to a single shot...Nailor's shot. Nailor ended up tying in that end and really even without the so-called "coaching" from upstairs, that is really all his team could have done. So it came down to one last end and our team pulled it out and won. Well, Nailor was such a poor sport and wouldn't sit with his team and our team after the match. This is simply rude. In curling, after the match is done, both teams sit at a table and the winners buy the losers first round. It was not a great end to an awesome game. Jeremy and his teammates didn't do anything wrong, but Nailor was just an ass. He tried to get the game overturned, but was unsuccessful. Really, the Bridgeport people were not coaching the team downstairs. They were loud and should have known better, but what can you do?

Anyways, we were pumped that our boys and Christen won their first game Friday night. On Saturday the team went back to the ice to play two more games. Wendy and I tooled around Boston and had a fabulous day. We were excited to learn in the early afternoon that they had won their second game and would be playing again on Sunday...possibly in the finals. The team lost their third game, but played well so they were happy. Fun was had by all in downtown Boston on Saturday evening. Sunday morning we all got up and went to the Country Club. This was a big deal. Our team was in the finals!!! It was very ceremonious. There was a bagpiper that lead all the teams down onto the ice. Everyone proceeded to march around the ice and then it was ended with a shot of Drambuie.

I have to mention that Jeremy was the sickest I had ever seen him on Thursday before we left, but he rallied and would not have missed this bonspiel for anything. Another teammate was sick as well. I don't think the shot did either of them any good. The team looked drained out on the ice. Wendy and I were frustrated just watching. Needless to say, they got creamed in their last game, but still came out overall in fourth place. Not too shabby for their first bonspiel!!! Everyone was happy with the way things turned out and then I got to drive a car of sleeping sick people home in the rain.

Since the bonspiel, life in CT has been pretty quiet. We just hung around last weekend and nothing exciting happened. We thought Spring was on it's way, but we just had another snow storm that came in Sunday night. Hopefully it is the last snow we will see, I really can't take any more!!!

It also needs to start warming a bit because I am sick and tired of running on the treadmill. I am training for a half marathon on April 5th and almost all of my runs have been done at the gym. Running for over an hour on a treadmill is not exciting in the least, but I just can't bear to run outside yet. It is still cold and snow is on the ground. I miss SD and the ability to run outdoors year-round. You really don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. Anyways, it's cold. I know...I need to get over it. Hopefully Spring will decide to start soon!!!

Keepin On

2009-02-09T13:23:00.006-05:00

So...Happy New Year!! Wow, it's been a while since I've written. We brought in our New Year with a bang...well, I guess I brought it in with a bang. As in my butt making a large bang noise as I fell down the steps at our friend's apartment. My first fall of 2009! It was a good one. I had a large bruise on my buttocks for about 2 weeks. No, I didn't fall because I was drunk either...well, maybe a little tipsy!

We braved the snow and went to a New Year's party at our friend Erem's house. We celebrated the new year their last year as well. This year the festivities turned into an all out dance party thanks to my ipod mix! It was really fun. I actually only had 2 drinks because I was leaving for Prague the next day, but since I didn't eat dinner...I was good to go. Everyone had a great time and we counted down the ball dropping...such a silly holiday, but it was a fun one!

If you've been watching the news, you would know that the weather here has been super cold. Everyone in the area is saying there hasn't been a winter this cold in quite some time. Last year's winter was a joke in comparison to what we've endured this winter. The good news is...things may be looking up!

We had our first short taste of spring this past Sunday. We had a record breaking temperature of 50. I never in my life would have thought that 50 would be considered “warm” in my book. I was excited for days upon hearing that it was going to be 50 on Sunday, and sure enough…the weather forecasters did not disappoint. It was warm and lovely. I was excited because I could actually run outside. I am prepping to do a half marathon on April 5th, so it was nice to do a longer run outside and not on the treadmill. Today it is in the 40s, so I’m not sure how long this “nice, warm” weather will last. I’m trying to enjoy it as much as possible. It’s nice too because after two quite large heating bills, we have both decided to turn on the heater as little as possible. This means we are cold most of the time and I am now wearing my heavy coat indoors. It’s pretty hilarious!

January was a blur. I was in Prague for the beginning of January and Jeremy went to California almost as soon as I got back. The secret to our relationship is to keep it as long distance as possible. Ha ha! Actually, the past couple of weekends we have been enjoying some quiet time and catching up on Lost and seeing some movies. We are all caught up on Lost (it only took a couple months to watch 4 seasons), so now we can actually talk to people about it in real time! We have seen Slumdog Millionaire and this past weekend saw Milk. Both movies were great, but Milk really deserves an Oscar.

Jeremy is still curling. He’s had a couple weeks off, but on February 20th we are going to Boston. His team is competing in their first away bonspiel. They are excited, and Wendy and I (the supportive curling wives) plan to watch their tournament on Friday and then have some fun in Boston on Saturday while the curling continues. I’m sure there will be good stories coming up.

Recently, we went over to a friend’s house and watch Labyrinth. This was one of my fave movies from when I was a kid. Let me tell you…David Bowie and his tights were amazing! I had really forgotten most of the movie, but as I was re-watching it…it all came back to me. Jeremy had never seen Labyrinth before and I think he liked it. Some people there didn’t get it, but hey--their loss.

Here are some winter pictures along with some Prague pictures…enjoy!

Me with an ice-sicle from our roof

the astronomical clock-close up

approaching the clock

the city from above

old town square at night snowing

xmas lights still up

corridor in Prague

view from start of the Charles Bridge

We've got Flair

2008-12-30T15:55:00.006-05:00

I know, I know…it’s been forever since I have updated. Life has just been busy. Anyways, a lot of stuff has happened since I last wrote so let’s get too it.

Jeremy and I competed in our first bonspiel at curling. A bonspiel is basically a tournament and the group we play with were stoked to play the girls against boys. Unfortunately the curling club put us all into teams, so we couldn't have our duel. The good news was, Jeremy’s team and my team both won our games and therefore won our first curling pin. We now pin our flair onto our shirts when we play and practice. It’s pretty awesome! The curling club had a Christmas party as well. There was curling, food, and fun. We did the Yankee gift exchange and I came home with a fabulous pair of Lamb Chop slippers, although Gideon and scary Judy kept trying to steal them from me. Not to worry, I prevailed!! The curling season has come to an end for me, but Jeremy has decided to continue on with the sport. I will now plan on being the team’s cheerleader along with another wife/friend. I just decided I do not like being cold, although I am SO glad I tried such a random sport. Here are some pictures from when our guys vs. girls grudge match actually happened. The boys handed us our asses on a platter...it wasn't fun.

preparing to throw

the release

the winners

the losers...they made us smile

We had our first big snow storm a couple weeks ago. In Fairfield we got about 6-8 inches. It was really pretty, but very scary to drive home in. I left work early to avoid the major snow, but Jeremy got stranded in New Haven because the trains stopped running. Here are pictures from when it started from our back porch.

Since it has been the holiday season, we went to our fair share of holiday parties. The best party by far was the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Jeremy and I could not for the life of us fine ugly sweaters to buy. I looked everywhere—department stores, thrift shops, colleagues…so my bright idea was to make our own. I went to Michael’s and got the corniest Christmas décor I could find and the results were pretty amazing. What can’t hot glue do? We really thought our sweaters were the best. I also had a pair of antlers (pays to work for event companies) and a work pal lent me her light up Christmas light earrings. The earrings really completed my look. During dinner I decided that what my outfit really needed was a wind blowing machine to follow me around so it could blow my hair back and show off these fabulous earrings. Michael and Gideon decided to take on that job. I think their hard work really paid off and made me the belle of the ball. My sweater got more than one use out of it…I wore it Christmas morning. It was so festive I just had to show it off one more time.

Our lovely sweaters

Wind Machine in action

Christmas was really great, my mom came out to visit and I did what any good daughter would do…put her to work! I have been super busy at work preparing for our conference happening in Prague, so on Christmas Eve my mom got to come to work and help me out. Slave labor! Not really, she helped me check some lists and we went to lunch and then the day was pretty much done. After we got home from work I started preparing to make dinner. This was my first Christmas cooking a meal. This is a big deal considering I never use to cook and told my mom I was going to marry a chef and therefore I would never have to cook for her. Well, my mom finally got her wish…Christmas Eve dinner a la Angela. I decided to make a mushroom risotto and let me tell you…it was AMAZING! I’m not just tooting my own horn; this meal could have been sold in a restaurant…seriously! It did take forever to make so I was really happy it came out so good. Jeremy cooked for her on Christmas day…He made a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and Brussels. It was really good too, but not as good as the risotto!

New Year’s Eve is tomorrow and we plan on going to a party in New Haven. It should be fun and then I leave for Prague on New Year’s Day. I will be gone until January 12th, so once I get back I will be sure to post some pictures.

I have also deleted my vegan blog, not because I'm not eating vegan anymore...I just don't have time to keep up the two blogs. Sorry to anyone who was riveted.

Pie Palooza

2008-11-21T14:40:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was the 1st annual Pie Palooza at the Schacalieu house. Pie Night is a tradition of Jeremy's family. They all get together the night before Thanksgiving and everyone brings a pie. We thought it would be fun to get our friends together and have our own pie night early since we will be in Sacramento for Thanksgiving.

Everyone was really pumped to make pies. I had also planned to give out prizes for the best sweet, best savory, and most creative pies. There was some intense competition in the air. We had cards for everyone to write what kind of pie they brought and I made ballots and a voting box so that after everyone was done pie tasting they could vote.

I belive there was about 15 pies on our kitchen table. It was pretty impressive. We had everything from sushi pie to apple pie. All of the pies were very tasty too. Jeremy made an apple pie and I made an avocado enchilada pie. After the votes we tallied we gave out the awards....golden wooden spoons!

The winners were:
Best Sweet: Crapple Pie (cranberry-apple)
Best Savory: Sushi Pie (Eugenia was expecting to take this award & most creative)
Most Creative: Butt Pie (the pie was actually shaped like a butt and chocolate was coming out of the crack)

After the pie portion of the evening, the dance party started. At some point along the night, someone thought it would be fun to start some shenanigans. The next morning I realized that my Mr. Potato Head had been kidnapped!!! We sent out a missing flyer on Sunday. Yesterday, I received a ransom note in the mail, Mr. Potato Head's ear and pictures of him with a duct-taped mouth and his hands are missing.

From the pictures, some people are now more suspect than others. The ransom note said that instructions would follow. I will keep you all updated on the whereabouts of Mr. Potato Head. The people who have done this should be warned that they will have hell to pay. They have opened a bag of worms!!!

Officially a Nutmegger

2008-11-17T15:21:00.003-05:00

So I took a day off on Friday so that Jeremy and I could finally make it to the DMV. This would be our 3rd DMV attempt. The first attempt ended in getting lost…damn google map! We were pretty peeved since we had to wake up early on a Saturday. Our second try was on another Saturday, but because of Presidents Day the coming Monday, the DMV was closed. Yes, DMV employees already have Monday off so when the holiday fell on a Monday they needed to take Saturday off. UGH!!! On this last attempt, we got to the DMV (first in line actually) and they opened on time. Things were starting off on the right foot this time! That is until we actually started the process. We told the man behind the counter that we were from out of state and needed a CT driver's license. He then asked for our ID and a bill or letter mailed to our address proving where we lived. SPEED BUMP. I said, "what?" He told us we had to have a piece of mail and I just about lost it. If I was a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of my ears. The very nice DMV man gave us the papers we needed to fill out and told us we would also need a passport or birth certificate as well. I was SO pissed! Of course, I had just cleaned the car out and got rid of any mail that may have been lying around. So, we drove home...me cursing, Jeremy not saying a word.

Alright, so I calmed down on the ride back to the DMV. Fourth time would be a charm, right?!? So we got there, got back in line...to our amazement there really was no line. Got all of our paperwork started and then we had to go and wait for our eye test. The only test we had to do was the eye test. Well, let me tell you....this is where all the waiting came. They only had one person doing the eye test and after he did one test, he went on a coffee break. We never saw him again and some other guy took over. After waiting a half hour, Jeremy got called up. I figured I would be next. Ten minutes later...I was still waiting, 20 minutes later...I was still waiting and Jeremy already had his new license. This sucked since we had to go wait in another line to register the car and since the car is in my name only Jeremy couldn't do it. 30 minutes later...still waiting. I actually met the girl next to me who was also from San Diego. 35 minutes later my name was finally called. Passed the eye test (guess that corrective surgery worked!) and went to sit and wait to get my picture taken. This took another 30 minutes. Just waiting while a whole line of people who were in a different line got their pictures taken. I met another girl from Hawaii. We joked about all the lines and how completely absurd this process was. She said in Hawaii they do it all in one line. So you wait and then after you get up to the counter you are done. Finally I got my ID. The girl I met from SD still wasn't done with her eye test.

Oh! I forgot the BEST part about the CT drivers license. So you pay a certain amount depending on your birthday. You either pay $66 and your license is good for 6 years or you pay $77 and the license is good for 7. Of course, Jeremy, the man who brought us here...away from everyone and everything...gets to pay the $66. I get screwed and have to pay $77. Add it to the list for ridiculous things in Connecticut. Damn nutmeggers!

When we originally came in with all of our forms we had everything for the car registration so they started processing that and we got a "jet pass". You would think having this "jet pass" would be like an express line. Maybe at Disneyland, but not at the Norwalk DMV. All this meant was that we waited in another line. It was a different line from everyone else, but as soon as we got in line, one of the 3 people working there went on break. We only had to wait about 15 minutes in this line, so I guess it wasn't that bad. walked out with our new license plates thanking the good lord that we would never need to go back there. Hopefully the Saturn makes it through this CT venture...otherwise we will have to go back.

Our new favorite sport

2008-11-03T20:28:00.002-05:00

Recently, Jeremy and I were introduced to the amazing sport of curling. Eh? What's that you say? What the heck is curling?

Just in case you don't know, curling is an Olympic winter sport. You know...that funny looking game where they yell and are brooming while a circle thing goes down the ice? Yep, that is curling.

Now, I know you are wondering how in the hell we discovered curling. It all started when a new post-doc (Wendy) joined Jeremy's lab. Wendy is married to Michael and they use to live in Michigan where Michael was in a curling league. Upon moving to New Haven, Michael looked up the nearest curling league and lo and behold there was one in Bridgeport. Michael then convinced Jeremy and two other guys from Jeremy's lab to join his curling team. Quickly team names were discussed, among the favorites were...Sparkle Magic, My Little Ponies, and The Sweeping Beauties. Of course, they went with Sweeping Beauties. Face it...it's an awesome name!

So the boys were all geared up to join this curling league before ever stepping foot on the ice. Then one night, Wendy, Christen and myself decided that we wanted in on the action. The Nutmeg Curlers (the league in Bridgeport) was having a learning night. You could come, learn to curl, and then decide if you wanted to join the league. We didn't have a clever name yet, but were ready to try out this strange Canadian sport.

On a Thursday evening, not long ago...the group of us headed to Bridgeport. It didn't take long for all of us to realize that the sport of curling is awesome and we were ready to join the league!

On our first night we learned the basics of curling. The round thing that slides on the ice is called a "rock". When you are sweeping with a broom that is called "sweeping" (duh). The piece of plastic that you put your right foot in when preparing to slide the rock is called "the hack". The bulls eye design where you push the rock to is called the "house". The person standing down at the house yelling is called "the skip".

The basics of curling were pretty easy to pick up, but the finesse and strategy are truly complicated. The rock flies pretty fast down the ice, so finding the perfect balance of releasing it takes a lot of time to perfect.

Of course, after our trial of curling we all decided to join the league. We are now in the Greenhorn League of the Nutmeg Curlers. On Thursday nights and Saturday mornings you will find us on the ice. I (of course) am the only one freezing my ass off! I am hoping that once we start playing games I won't be as cold.

There have been a few tumbles on the ice so far. On your shoes you wear "grippers" that keep you from falling. When you are getting ready to throw the rock you put a piece of teflon shaped like the bottom of your shoe onto the ice and then you really slide fast. I was getting use to the teflon and decided to lift my gripper foot up...let me just tell you...I saw my feet go above my head before I crashed down onto the ice. My rear was quite a bit sore the next day!

Due to work I am forced to miss my first Thursday of league play, so I will have to let you know how that goes in a couple of weeks. It is great to be a part of a team and have some fun while meeting some new people and bonding more with the people we already know. It is also pretty cool to be doing a sport that not many people can say they have tried.

So there you have it, we have a new favorite sport. Maybe we will start training for the Olympics soon! ha ha!

Kickin it NE syle

2008-10-27T16:20:00.009-04:00

A couple of weekends ago we invited our friends Phin & Carla to come down from New York so we could embrace the fall of New England and go apple picking.
There are a lot of u-pick farms here and this seemed like a lovely fall activity. Of course we added some healthy competition to the festivities by having an apple pie bake off after we picked about 20 pounds of apples.

The apple farm was really fun. We took a little tractor ride and the dropped us off in the apple orchard. There were a few different varieties of apples to choose from and everyone knows that an apple pie is only as good as the apples you put in it.

Jeremy ate about 3 apples while we were picking and they were all delicious! We had our game plan in place for picking the best apples, as did Phin & Carla. We went our separate ways in the orchard to find our prize apples.

Here are some pictures that re-cap the afternoon.

Once we got back to our house, the real competition began. Jeremy and I went with an old fashioned, no frills apple pie. Phin & Carla went with a fancier recipe that required a skillet, food processor, and all kinds of ingredients...apple cider, maple syrup.

While the pies were baking we played some horseshoes in the backyard. I have to say...I really suck at horseshoes. We would interrupt the game to check on the pies periodically. Phin was running up the stairs to check on his pie when the outside banister came crashing down. Phin put it back up and continued up the stairs (This piece of information isn't of much interest now, but it will be as you read on).

Here are the pictures of our pies. Our pie is the top one and Phin & Carla's is the bottom pie.

After dinner we had the official taste test. Although I we did not agree on a clear cut winner, my decision is that our filling was better, but their crust was better.

Sunday was a pretty typical day. We just relaxed and went to Best Buy to get a universal remote. We haven't been able to watch any of our VHS because the TV we got from Craigslist doesn't have a remote, so we can't get to channel 3. We had a gift certificate that we forgot, so I ran into the house to get it. As I was running up the stairs, the banister broke. I fell onto the stairs and slid down about 5 steps. It hurt pretty bad and it sounded even worse. I'm surprised my fall didn't break the rest of the stairs. Jeremy laughed when I told him I fell and called me Boomer, but this fall was not the result of my clumsiness (as most of my falls are). I blame Phin. He is a one man destroyer. I know Phin felt super bad when he found out and I'm sure I looked ridiculous. Jeremy and I were laughing about it.

So...that is the story of apple picking. Our day kickin' it New England style!

The Schacalieu Shack

2008-10-17T10:33:00.010-04:00

Here are pictures (finally!) from our humble abode...

Here is the view of our street complete with fall colors.

Outside

The kitchen

Looking towards the kitchen from the living room

Where all the DVD watching takes place

The magic box

The office/Jeremy's sacred place

Side view of the hallway and entrance to bathroom

The glorious ikea dresser that Jeremy built

Where we lay our heads at night

Prize Idiot

2008-10-15T07:45:00.006-04:00

If there were an Olympics for the stupidest things people can do...I would win the gold metal!!! Before I get to explaining how my actions would win me the gold metal at the Stupid Olympics, let me tell you about the weekend.

Like I said last week, we would be trying to get to the DMV this Saturday. Well, we set our alarm so we could wake up early and get there a bit before DMV opened. We got to the DMV about 15 minutes before it opened, which was 8 AM along with a few other people. The line kept growing and at about 2 minutes before 8AM, no lights had been turned on inside. The natives started getting restless and one man went up to the door (the other people at the front of the line could either not read or were blind) and saw a sign that the DMV would be closed this Saturday. Why, you ask...good question...two words...Columbus Day. But you say to yourself, "Wasn't Columbus Day on Monday?" To which I reply, "Yes, but apparently the DMV is closed every Monday, so to insure they got a day off, they closed on Saturday." So our rising out of bed early on Saturday morning was for nothing.

Saturday was a beautiful day, it was about 70 outside and just gorgeous. Jeremy and I walked into town and ate lunch outside. When we got back home Jeremy had to do some work, so I made some vegan pumpkin muffins and then decided to take a drive to explore Fairfield some more. This is where the Stupid Olympics come into play.

On my way home from my drive about town, we were low on gas and I decided to fill up our tank. We had a party to go to that evening and I just figured, might as well. This was my fatal mistake...or my road to gold...you be the judge.

So I stopped at the gas station, there was a pretty long line and I debated leaving and just getting gas when we went to leave. If you know me, you know I am persistent, so I decided to wait it out. Finally it was my turn at the pump, I grabbed the nozzle, it was a little tight, but it went in to my tank and hit the button. That Texas Tea began pouring into my tank as I dazed off. I got back into my car and drove home.

We got ready for our evening out and it was time to go. I had forgotten my phone in the house, so Jeremy said he would start the car. (Can you feel it, if I were running the marathon in the Olympics, I would just be about to start taking my lead at mile 20)

I come out of the house and there is a great cloud of smoke coming out of the car and it is making a weird noise. Oh shit!!! Now, we have been having a lot of problems with the car. The latest one being a weird noise, which turned out to be we needed oil. (Thanks Jeremy for not getting that oil change while I was gone) This was not good, the car was running perfectly all day...what happened.

Jeremy meanwhile is cursing up a storm about how he hates this car. We go back inside to figure out our plans. Jeremy had to leave from New Haven at 6 am the next morning and the trains don't run into New Haven from Fairfield that early on Sunday. What were we to do? We checked car rental places, but apparently they all close at 4 pm on Saturdays. Shit!!!

I just couldn't believe the car wasn't working. It had been working fine all day. It was filled with gas and should have been good to go. ( Now, it is mile 24 and I have a great lead in my Olympic marathon race) Jeremy asks me, "Did you fill the car up with diesel?"

I reply as if this was a ludicrous question. I have been filling up my car (by myself) for 11 years now, why the hell would I fill it up with diesel. Then my doubt sets in, the insecurity...I decide I must walk my butt back to the station where I filled up to solve this mystery. So at 7:30 PM Saturday, I walk 1.5 miles back to the gas station.

When I arrive, there is a man sweeping up around the pumps. Of course, I look totally out of place since I don't have a car. I let him know that I got gas here and he wonders if I want a receipt. I tell him no, but unfortunately I am checking to see if I filled my gas tank with diesel. (I am a mile away from the finish line with no one in sight) I tell him which pump I used (I never saw two) and ask if the regular unleaded gas will work with the pump, he tells me no only diesel. Well, shit, this means I filled my tank with diesel. (I am crossing the finish line with photographers cameras flashing to capture the moment) The sweeping attendant then says, "Oh no, that is not good." Yeah, I know. Pissed at myself and wondering how I am so stupid...I call Jeremy and tell him the news.

Jeremy takes the news like any supporting husband...no, I'm not that stupid...it could happen to anyone...he's almost done it before...He was actually happier that it was my stupidity than not knowing what is wrong and needing to buy a new car!

So after all this hoopla, we board the train for the party we are suppose to go to. I am on the verge of tears and my tummy hurt. Needless to say, when we got to the party we made a bee-line for a drink. Nothing like a couple glasses of wine to take the edge off.

Monday my car was towed (I had an advantage for winning my prize as an Idiot, since I let my AAA run out and now needed to pay for a tow). Hundreds of dollars later the Saturn is running like a dream. The automotive guys also gave me a pumpkin....guess they thought that would lessen the blow of how much my mistake was to fix.

Now you know the story of how I am Queen of the Idiots. Gold Champion! If I was in the Olympics for stupidity, I would compare myself to Michael Phelps....no one could beat me!!!

Fallin' for Fall

2008-10-05T16:11:00.003-04:00

I have to say that Fall is increasingly becoming my favorite season. The leaves changing, the weather becoming brisk and cool...I love it! Not only does the humidity go away, but I get to bust out my boots and sweaters.

This weekend was fairly mundane. We had it on our clipboard of fun to go to the DMV on Saturday, but we went to a birthday party on Friday and didn't get home until 2am. Needless to say, rising at 7am did not seem like an option.

We slept in on Saturday and then drove into New Haven so that Jeremy could pick up his backpack from the lab. While in New Haven, we decided to catch a movie and grab some grub. We walked from the lab into town and went to Claire's for lunch. Claire's is an awesome place that boasts healthy fair and has vegetarian/vegan options. It is always crowded. Since it was a bit chilly most people sat inside, so we grabbed an outside table. It was a delicious lunch as always and then we walked over to the movies and saw Burn After Reading. My recommendation would be to wait for video on this one. It was entertaining, but we felt as though the Cohen Brothers wrote the movie and re-read it and realized it wasn't that great. The ending of the movie pretty much sums it all up, but I won't give that away here.

Sunday, we discovered that someone (I suspect our downstairs neighbor) moved our washer and unhooked it. It seems as though the electricity is plugged into his meter. So we are unsure if he was pissed and moved it...or who knows? Anyways, our laundry is hanging all over our house in order to dry. I called our landlord because we can't seem to find the outlet that goes to our meter. My question here is, if it was our neighbor that moved the washer, why not just walk up and talk to us about it. I don't get people. Hopefully our landlord will call back today. We figure we need them to hook up a new outlet from our meter.

After spilling flax seeds all over the kitchen and throwing a hissy fit that included me hiding under the covers, I made some vegan pumpkin muffins and hummus. Both turned out awesome! Hummus is super easy to make, I don't know why I haven't done it before. I do need to tweak the recipe to try and get it a bit smoother.

Now we are going to take a little walk to downtown Fairfield, so that Jeremy can treat himself to a birthday movie. He's buying Return of the King...the trilogy at our house is now complete.

That's all from Schacalieu land. Hopefully, something fun, funny or exciting will happen next weekend. We do have a party scheduled for Saturday...so you never know!! Also, I'm sure there will be some interesting characters at the DMV.

The New Blog has Begun

2008-10-01T19:41:00.003-04:00

Alrighty, as promised in my last blog...I have started my new blog...Tastes Like Chicken? The address is http://pangegoesvegan.blogspot.com. I hope you check it out!

I have set it up so you can subscribe to my blogs, that way you will know when I update. I am going to try and update at least once a week, if not more. We'll see how that goes :)

Weekend Update: OCMS in NYC

2008-09-29T16:26:00.005-04:00

In case you have read the title of this blog and have no idea what OCMS is...not to fret, it is not some kind of weird disease or rash (although the abbreviation does kinda sound like one). OCMS stands for Old Crow Medicine Show. They are an old-timey folk band and they rocked the house down at Webster Hall in NYC. I'll get to more about the show after I go through the weekend.

So Jeremy and I both took Friday off so that we could spend some time together in NYC before Phin's "surprise" party. Well, things just didn't quite seem to work out that well. First off, we had decided to go to the DMV to finally take care of this pesky registering our car in CT. I know, I know, we should have done this within the first 30 days of moving, but eh...what can I say...I did not want to part with my dear ole' California ID. So anyways, we got some bum directions and could never find the DMV in Bridgeport. Not to worry thought, I found out the other day we wouldn't have been able to register anyways since I had not gotten an emissions test yet. That is fate for you.

I also forgot to mention that Friday was pouring down rain, so much for our lovely day walking around New York and taking in new parts of the city. Anyways, we got into NY in the late afternoon and found out that so many people had flaked on the surprise party that it was no longer a surprise. It was still lots of fun complete with banjo playing and debate watching.

Saturday we woke up to another gloomy day and so we all decided that the day would be best spent at the Natural History Museum. Now, let me tell you...this is one cool museum!!! It is huge and we only saw a few exhibits, but we did see the giant whale and it was amazing.

After the museum we were a bit hungry and went to get some food at Uno's. I know this isn't amazing food, but it was drizzling and no one knew where else to go. The interesting thing about our late lunch at Uno's wasn't just the fact that Jeremy got a free meal because the waitress kept screwing up on his order, but the fact that they now post calories next to every menu item. This is enough for me never to want to eat out again. I mean, seriously, how can you still enjoy your food when it is 1200 calories!! Yikes!! Needless to say, I wasn't that hungry and I just had a side salad (the lowest calorie item on the menu, next to the veggie soup). I perssonally thing it's good that restaurants do this because I don't think enough people really think of the impact of the food they put in their bodies.

One side note here, since we are talking about food...I am going to be starting a new blog...scheduled to debue Oct 2nd about my journey into veganism. So far it's going good! The blog is going to be called "Tastes like Chicken?". I am going to put a link to it in this blog so you'll be sure not to miss it.

Ok back to the weekend...

So, then it was time to start taking off for OCMS. We toasted to the memory of Paul Newman, finished our drinky-poos and were on our way. We stopped at the Old Town bar before hand to get a drink and then it was off to Webster Hall. We got there just as the show was starting and it was packed!!! Now, if you haven't heard of these guys you should definitely look them up, they put on a fantastic show and who knew that so many people liked the folk music. They came back on for two encores and during one played 'Soul Rebel'. The cover was great!!!

After the show we went back to Old Town (phin had forgotten his credit card) and of course we all drank one too many. It's always that last one that gets ya!! It was a late night and we all felt really old the next morning and the morning after that.

Before we left some more banjo and guitar playing commenced and then it was back over the state line to Connecticut.

This weekend we are taking a second stab at the DMV. I passed the emissions test today. I was kind of nervous sitting there waiting for it, almost like for a pregnancy test, but of course not as intense or life-changing. So, hopefully we find it with the new directions. Please take a moment of silence on Saturday to recognize the loss of a California resident.

Thank you and goodnight.

Domestic Diva?

2008-09-22T13:49:00.003-04:00

So, if you know me you may know that I am not much of a cook. It’s not that I can’t cook, it’s just that I am lazy and cooking takes planning and time. When I go grocery shopping I don’t make a list of ingredients I need to make a dinner, I just buy things I enjoy like stuff for salad, hummus, yogurt…..$80 and a week later there is no food in the house and Jeremy is ready to gnaw his arm off for fear of starving to death.

I have told Jeremy to look through my cookbooks and pick out a couple of recipes and I will be glad to make them. Has he done this? No. why? I assume it’s because he is lazy too!

Anyways, something new for me is that I have become a vegetarian. I stopped eating red meat my first year of college and just ate chicken and fish. Now I am allowing myself sushi once a month, but that is it. Since turning vegetarian, I have caught a lot of flack from people I hardly know, but that’s ok. The reason I decided to make the change was for health reasons, I don’t have a “save the animals” vendetta or anything like that. I mean, I like animals, but I sure do like the way chicken and fish taste. Actually I read a book called, The China Study. I highly recommend it to anyone who is in to health or has some health problems. It really did change my world and I plan on going vegan at some point. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go Level 5 Vegan and not eat anything that casts a shadow or anything like that. Right now my plan is to I am incorporate a vegan day into my week and then eventually eat vegan on the weekdays. One day I may be vegan 24/7.

This past week I bought a vegan cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance, and last night I made my first recipe….white bean and roasted garlic soup. This recipe was fairly easy and chosen because I had most of the ingredients at home. This was my first venture roasting garlic and using my new Cuisinart hand mixer (thanks Lil Naf and Laura). That hand mixer is the best invention ever!!! I mean seriously, if you want to puree a soup you definitely need one of these babies!!!
Needless to say, my soup rocked and our tummies were happy and full. I will be in need for a good health food store, there is one close to us, but I’m not sure how good it is…I had to go to 3 stores yesterday to find Bragg’s Liquid Amino’s!!

Anyhoo, my first recipe tryout was a success and now I feel like Emril. Bam! Watch out for my cooking show!! I AM a domestic diva in training.

Other than my souptastic dinner last night, our weekend was pretty mellow. We got a dresser for our room and can see our wood floor once again. I know…exciting stuff!

Dear Blog, I've missed you

2008-09-18T10:50:00.004-04:00

I know, I know...I have totally neglected my dear, ole blog!!! I am here to apologize and to get started again. I can't promise that some days will go by when I don't write, but I hopefully will not fall into a 5 month hiatus.

So, obviously things have been rockin' and rollin'. I have been super busy and that is the reason I have neglected my dear blog. I know, excuses...excuses!!!

Well then, lets get back into it...

We are now officially married!! The wedding was great and fabulous and everything we imagined. So many people worked so hard to make it so special for us and we will be forever indebted. I am still trying to convince Jeremy to change his name to Schacalieu, but he is still resisting. Here is one of my favorite pics from the big day... After the wedding, we were busy trying to find a new apartment so that I wouldn't have to battle traffic for over an hour in each direction to get to and from work. Let me just say, finding a new place to call home was no easy task. I don't know how people think that other people want to live in dirty places where fake wood is pealing off the walls or walk on floors that are severely slanted. Saying that most places we looked at were dumps, doesn't even give you an accurate description. It is highway robbery to charge people $1400 to live in a shoebox. This story did have a happy ending and we did find an awesome 2 bedroom in Fairfield. We are close to the train and the beach, which is super nice!

Now we are working on turning our piles of moving mess in to our home. The place is almost together--well every room except our bedroom. It looks like our bedroom threw up and spewed out clothes and hangars. We are searching for a dresser and hope to bring one home this weekend. I will try to post some pictures soon.

I have been busy with work and just got back from a program in LA. It went really good and I had a couple of D-list sightings. I saw Tanya from the Real World and Brooke Hogan. Actually, these are probably more like E or F list celebs, but oh well. One of our guys saw Lindsay Lohan when he was at the airport waiting for one of our VIPs. On my plane ride back, I did sit behind Trent who writes Pink is the new blog. I wasn't sure it was him until I got back home and went on his blog, now I wish I had said something, he could have posted a picture of us on his website. I could have been famous!!! Bummer!

On my flight from NYC to LA, there was some interesting conversation taking place before we took off. This older gentleman behind me (i'm not sure how much of a gentleman he actually was) was on his cell phone. Of course, I could hear him talking and I didn't try to stop myself from listening. His conversation was the typical, "we're getting ready to take off" and blah blah blah, but then it got a little...weird. He kept calling the person on the other end "Lover." It was like a skit on Saturday Night Live! "I can't wait to see you Lover" and "I will be in LA around 8pm Lover" and "I've missed you so much Lover". I seriously almost threw-up in my mouth a bit. Note to cell phone users in public places: we can all hear you and yes, we are listening. Please don't gross us out by calling someone Lover or if you must...please keep your voice down. The entire plane does not need to be filled in on your life.

Wow, I kinda just grossed myself out again.

Spring is in the air?

2008-03-19T15:26:00.002-04:00

So, it is March and that means things should start warming up. Now, I'm not counting my chickens before they are hatched, but it does seem like Spring is here.

I woke up the other morning and had heard that it was suppose to be 50 degrees. I was ready to break out my tank top, but alas...the sun was not shining. Still, it looked like it could be warmer outside. I decided to put on my winter running gear consisting of tights, and two long sleeve shirts. I also had my warming head band, but when I stepped outside it seemed so nice I opted to leave the headband at home.

It was warm enough to run outside!!! I was SO excited. I didn't sleep well the night before, but the 4 mile run was just what I needed. It felt so great not to be on the treadmill. I almost forgot what running outside felt like.

Of course today it is raining and gross outside, but it has to be at least 40 degrees so that is better than 30 degrees.

Look out California! My lilly white legs will be gracing your beaches. I plan on running outside every day while I am back in California. I've been embracing the Jergens self tanner, but that doesn't seem to be helping much.

Oh well! Bring on the flowers and singing birds...Spring is here! (almost!)

Things are looking up

2008-03-13T11:01:00.001-04:00

Many of you know that I have been temping as an Administrative Assistant for a non-profit with the promise of helping to plan their conferences/events. This seemed like a good opportunity, but the job has been much heavier on the filing, answering phones, and copying than any kind of event planning. Needless to say, I am bored every day at work, trying my hardest to look busy. I am working in a Communications department that ironically does not communicate. I have met a few nice people here, but for the most part there are some crazies.

As of this Friday I will no longer be a temp!!! I got a job at a meeting planner company. I am super excited! The only downside is that I am going to have to commute for an hour and a half every day because of traffic. The upside to this is that Jeremy and I are planning to move once our lease is up, so I just have to stick it out for a while.

I am so glad that this job opportunity came up when it did. I was ready to walk out of my temping job the other day. I just can’t stand to be bored and the worst part was my supervisor. She would roll her eyes and talk down to me pretty frequently. Yeah…I have some stories about that lady. She is a piece of work!

Anyways, my last day at the temping place is Friday!!! TGIF for reals!!

Shenanigans!

2008-03-10T19:53:00.008-04:00

Who doesn’t love a holiday that is built around wearing green and drinking beer?

I proved my love for St. Patty’s Day by donning my green hat and gloves to go to an Irish bar at 11am with the intention of seeing a parade at 1pm. Let’s just say it was a great day and I am a wee bit tired this Monday morning.
Jeremy missed out on this fabulous day because he is in California soaking up the sunshine…and rubbing it in when he calls me! So, I decided to have some fun of my own…without the ball and chain. Ha ha!

Christen, Jacob (also known as Jaykob--because it looks cool), and I met up just before 11am to walk to Anna Liffey’s (the coolest bar in New Haven) for some St. Patty’s Day shenanigans. (Shout out to the O.G. Team Shenanigans!) We sat down to a traditional Irish breakfast complete with eggs and all different kinds of pudding. Pudding is actually sausage. I tried a bit of everything in order to get into the spirit of things. Well, we had to eat something to get a table so the three of us shared the meal while drinking mini Bloody Mary’s. Our waitress did not like us very much because we worked the system, but we left her a really good tip! Everything was pretty good, even the blood pudding…until I realized that actual blood is in the blood pudding. Then I felt a bit sick and in need of a larger Bloody Mary. Thank goodness those aren’t made with blood.
We stayed at the bar for a while and then decided it was time to venture onto the parade route. It was SO cold and windy outside that we decided to head back to the bar until the parade actually made it down to the end of the route where we were. We talked with 2 cops that told us it would take a while for the parade to reach the end and that it would be going on for two hours. Basically, we never made it back onto the street to watch the parade. The parade instead was brought inside the tent where we were stationed. Really, this worked out to our advantage. I even got a picture taken with the bagpipers.

We stayed in the tent and watched a couple of really awesome bands that played Irish tunes. It was one of the best days in New Haven to date (Jeremy you really missed out!). After many hours of listening to music and drinking Irish beers, we decided we needed some food and headed to Mezcal. It is the only decent Mexican food place in town. My camarones were muy delicioso!!! What a better way to end an Irish themed day than with Mexican food.

After eating, it was time to call it a day/night. I was tucked away/passed out by 9pm. Here are some more pictures that sum up the day….

As Requested...

2008-02-29T13:51:00.005-05:00

So one of my loyal readers has asked for me to blog about some wedding updates. Well, Murray man stan, here you go…I am not sure that you wanted to open this bag of worms, the wedding planning is kind of like Pandora’s box right now. I feel like if I don’t talk about it nothing more can go wrong. Alright, I’m gonna let it fly!

Let me just say, I wish we had eloped. I had mentioned it in the beginning but was told by my mother and best friend (who ironically just eloped) that they would hunt me down and kill me if I eloped without them. Jeremy also agreed that I wouldn’t be happy if we went to Vegas or something, but I think he is regretting that he talked me out of the “easy” route.

Weddings are notoriously stressful and I know this. My work experience is in event planning, so really I wasn’t that worried. It’s not so much that the planning has been stressful. We had all of the big stuff nailed down before we moved. Recently, there has just been some bumps…or should I say...sinkholes along the way.

What? Sinkholes? Angela…you are so dramatic! Maybe I am, but then again….After announcing the engagement I proceeded to have two nervous breakdowns concerning aspects of the ceremony. I won’t get into details because it is personal and those breakdowns have been talked about and we are over them. Next, up…sticking to the budget. Of course, we are on a budget…I am no Paris Hilton, I don’t come from “old money”, and right about now I wish that I had been born a trust fund baby.

We have been pretty on track with finding steals and deals, we are getting a lot of help from family and friends (thank you!), but somehow things are starting to go wrong. First of all…the dress…Ok, I didn’t totally go WAY insane and get a dress for thousands of dollars or even a thousand dollars, but we spent a more than expected on this. Of course it will be totally worth it because I am going to look SO amazing and everyone will tell me how pretty I am (P.S. if you are invited to the wedding you better be showering me with compliments).

About a month ago we found out that our DJ quit on us. My Aunt and Uncle have graciously taken care of the DJ for us (I can’t tell you how grateful we are for this), but due to technical difficulties…he quit on us. This was resolved pretty quickly, my Aunt found another awesome DJ for us! So that was really just a little hiccup.

I have also been stressing about my bridesmaids, except for Melinda because she is the only one who has purchased her dress. Thank you Melinda, you will be getting a prize!! I have felt like I have been nagging them all since November and now it is getting down to the wire. Note to readers: if you are a bridesmaid…just get the dress!!! Don’t wait till the deadline to do it, it is just one more thing that the bride has to stress about. Needless to say, I am sure they will all come though and everything work out.

The dress is really no biggie in comparison to what has hopped on our plate this week. Yes, a poop-sandwich hopped on our plate this week! Our plate before was just fine, a nice open face turkey sandwich with provolone cheese and now….a poop sandwich is there. How the hell did that transformation happen??? Linens! I wish I had a team of little men to sew me linens at night or if I was the girl in Enchanted and I could sing a tune and all the mice and forest animals would scurry around me and create amazing linens out of my sheets. A girl can dream can’t she? Anyways, so I thought getting linens from my old job would be no biggie, right? WRONG! I don’t know what the final say in this matter is as of today, but I'm positive there will definitely be a cost. So, I started shopping around for linens. I know that linens are super expensive from my last job, but seriously $27 for a chocolate lamour linen, that’s $27 each. It’s ridiculous and I know this already! This is just something I was not budgeting for and even if I was I wouldn't have enough money to pay $27 for a linen. I don't have a money tree in my backyard. I don't even have a backyard.Our back up plan is to get cheapo white linens and butcher paper and put crayons on the tables. I call it butcherlicous and it will be FIERCE!

Next up, a nice cup of rotting berries to accompany the poop sandwich. This would be the fact that we are having catering drama. Christie (a friend of the Beaulieu’s) is doing our catering for us. She isn’t a caterer, but she has done parties for people in the past. Since we are on a budget, she said that she would do our wedding for us. We were and still are ecstatic about this! Our venue had a list of caterers we could choose from (which we could not afford) or you could pay a small fee and do whatever you want…or so we thought. Yesterday, Christie was notified by our venue that “You must work out of a health permitted kitchen, carry workers compensation and one employee on premise must have an American Food Safety Institution Certification” What!!! I thought Jeremy was going to pass out. Yeah, we were very stressed. We are 3 months away from D-day, how are we going to find a new caterer and better yet how are we going to pay for it?? Discussions of canceling the wedding were occurring last night. Thank you for vino!!! After a large glass of wine I just passed out.

WAIT!! Hold on…our regularly scheduled blog has been interrupted by a news break…

Breaking news…Christie just emailed me and we are in the clear. She will have her American Food Safety Institution Certification in time for the wedding!!!!

Seriously, as I am writing, I just found out this information. No more rotting berries!!!! The poop-sandwich is a little less stinky!!! The liability insurance has also been worked out as well!!!

Ok, so that makes things a hell of a lot better! So there is your up to the minute Schacalieu wedding update.

Are you sorry you asked?

Boredom Blogging

2008-02-26T13:32:00.000-05:00

Last Friday was super snowy. It basically snowed all day. My work was closed so I got to relax at home and watch everything turn white outside. The snow is sill on the ground today, but it is suppose to rain soon so I don’t know how long that will be “sticking” around. (that is some snow humor for you all)

All I know is that I cannot wait for my trip home to California at the end of March!!! Jeremy is worried that I will go to visit and will never come back. I think his worries are genuine. Hopefully it will be sunny and nice, not rainy. Then I may really not come back to New Haven.

This weekend was pretty boring except that we went out for a birthday dinner for someone Jeremy goes to school with and then went to see a rockabilly band at a nearby bar. The band was fun to listen to and we had a good time.

In other extremely exciting Schacalieu news….Jeremy and I have finally found a sushi place to frequent!!! If you don’t know, we have been on the search to find an awesome sushi place since we arrived in Connecticut. We have tried a lot of places and they were all pretty good, but they all were lacking in some area. If they had good rolls, then they didn’t have sashimi-- if they had good rolls & sashimi, then the ambiance sucked. Basically, we were looking for a place that would be on the same level as Zen 5 (reggae & sushi) in San Diego. We have finally found a place that plays music (not reggae), has good rolls and sashimi that aren’t too expensive, and has good service (actually the service is a bit TOO fast, but I guess you just can’t have everything). So, the search is over for a regular sushi place.

That’s all from the East, hopefully I will have a more interesting post next time. Truthfully I am just bored at work so I figured I would update the blog.

Finally, something to write about!

2008-02-16T15:34:00.009-05:00

Wow! It has been a super long time since I have posted anything. I would like to say my excuse is that we have just been leading such a busy and exciting life, but alas that is not the case. We are just boring.

Yes, it has been pretty cold here. It has been staying around 35 degrees, but it has dropped down into the 20s and the teens. I think one day with the windchill it was around 3 degrees. Yeah, it's cold! Although I think it is suppose to be 50 on Monday...weird, but I plan on embracing it. Maybe I will actually break my promise of not running outside until March and hit the streets instead of the treadmill.

So what is new with us? Seriously...not much. Jeremy is going to school. Although he did have a trip to Santa Barbara and Florida to speak at meeings and rub elbows with amazing scientist people. I have been trying to not get too depressed. I have a serious case of California Dreamin' and it's not helping that I am bored stiff at my job and can't seem to find any kind of promising job prospects. I am trying to keep positive, I'm sure something will come up soon.

This past week we did have our first out-of-state friend visit. (to clarify: my mom did visit us and so did Phin, so Ian was not our first visitor, but he was our first friend from CA to visit) Ian made the trip out and stayed with us from Sunday until early Friday morning. We hope he had a good time. It was great seeing him and we tried to show him all that Connecticut had to offer....which isn't a whole hell of a lot. Although, we did eat some good food.

Jeremy was able to show Ian the sights of Yale. Ian took some pictures of the amazing architecture of the campus. We ate some amazing tapas at my new favorite restaurant, Barcelona. Jeremy and I both took Thursday off so that we could spend the day sightseeing. Thursday was also Valentine's day, so you know there was alot of romance to be had. We took a ride up the coast. We ate some chowder at the USS Chowder Pot.

The decor was very nautical and the chowder was pretty good. Jeremy realized his love for Rhode Island style clam chowder. We had all never heard of it before. It was tasty. If you don't know...it has a clear, chicken soup syle broth. We saw the "beach" at Branford and walked around the town of Guilford. Drove around some more and saw a seriously weird apartment building that we all thought was pretty cool.

After that, Jeremy wanted to drive over some "really cool" bridge. Instead of driving over the bridge that we couldn't seem to find, we took a stroll in New London. On the way into New London Ian looked up the town to see some facts. He did find a top 10 things to do in New London list and if you haven't heard New London is pretty exciting. The number 10 thing to do in New London was "go to the post office." What!!! There is nothing better to do, than take a trip to the post office?!? Unbelievable. There really wasn't that much in New London, but they were constructing a Calypso bar, so hopefully that will take over the number 10 spot.

After seeing all that New London had to offer, we were exhausted and in need of substinance. Who wouldn't be? I mean taking a trip to the post office really takes it out of you. We headed back to New Haven to satisfy Ian's need for a slice. We went to the famous Pepe's Pizza. Jeremy and I had never been there, so we were all excited to try some of this pizza. The pizza was delicious. The only thing that took away from the experience was a man at the booth behind us. He had some kind of cold and kept sucking up his snot. It was really loud and disgusting and did not stop the whole time we were there. Somehow that made taking a bite into the pizza just a little less appetizing, but we were troopers and still ate. The pizza we got was huge...mama mia!!!

Thursday night we made our way to the Peabody Museum. There was a exhibit opening and Jeremy had done an illustration that was on one of the exhibit walls. It was great to see what he will be working on for the next 4 years. I finally understand what he is doing...kinda.

After the exhibit we went to the local dive bar and chatted it up with a few people from Jeremy's lab and then headed home to finish our romantic day off with some episodes of Arrested Development.

Friday morning came way too soon. Ian had to be at the train station by 6am, so it was an early morning after not enough sleep. Friday was rough for me (note to self-2 gin & tonics are too much!) but I made it through. Now we have a 3-day weekend. Well, I have a 3-day weekend, Jeremy is going to school on Monday. If the weather permits we are going to walk up East Rock since Jeremy hasn't made it up there yet. It is a huge rock that is right by our house. Apparently there is another half of the rock on another continent (I can't remember where right now, I will consult my encyclopedia...Jeremy and get back to you on that). Anyways once you get to the top there is a pretty awesome view of New Haven.

Miss you all! Our place is always open for visitors. I know you will all be rushing to visit after reading all of the fun that is to be had in Connecticut. Don't you all call me at once!!!

Christmas in Connecticut

2008-01-02T19:03:00.000-05:00

So Christmas has come and gone and I hope everyone had a great holiday. Jeremy and I were unable to travel home, so we had our own little Christmas in Connecticut (No, I haven’t watched the movie, but I did DVR it). There were tears (from my eyes) on Christmas Eve since I was missing out on spending time with my family, but we made the best of Christmas with just the two of us.

We spent the weekend before Christmas in New York because my best friend, Rene was coming out. Little did she know her boyfriend was planning on purposing to her on The Top of the Rock. Both of their families came out and I lied to her saying we were late. She was totally confused when she spotted her mom, but Doug did a great job and now they are engaged!

The proposal

Typical tourists

Cutest couple of 2007!!! We bought matching hats

Now that I have seen the New York shop windows and the Rockefeller tree, I never need to be in New York before Christmas again. It was so crowded! Even with the crowds, we had a great time with Rene and Doug and their family!!

So here are more pictures from our holiday. Enjoy!

This was our lovely Christmas Eve dinner (before the tears)

My Favorite part of Christmas....The stockings!!! One from Jeremy, one from my mom!

Jeremy loves coffee!!

Present time!!!

Jeremy trying on a sweater

Jeremy's New Year's Eve "hot boy" outfit

Jeremy & Kelli playing Wii boxing

SWF Desperately Seeking Snow Boots

2007-12-13T21:43:00.000-05:00

Well, if I thought last Friday was exciting with all the snow, imagine my excitement when my work closed at 1:00pm due to weather. That's right people, the big storm has hit the East Coast. Break out your shovels, ice scrapers, and boots!!! We were expected to get between 6-12 inches of snow today. Driving home in this mess was my first real snow driving experience. I made it home safely. Apparently the only thing that slows down Connecticut drivers is snow. Winter is rapidly becoming my favorite time of year around here.

Today I did have an epiphany....high heels do not work in the snow. I need to purchase boots...pronto! When I got ready for work this morning, I knew the terrible forecast. I also knew that practically every school in Connecticut was closed today. So....of course....I thought high heels would be proper foot wear. Somehow the heels did not work out in my favor. Traipsing through the snow to get to the parking lot was not fun. Snow was going inside my shoes and freezing my feet. When I got to my car there was about 3 inches of snow covering the saturn(of course this was the day that all the inside parking in the garage was full...go figure)! So as my car was warming up, I was busy excavating it from the snow. Needless to say, I was a bit wet and cold when I finally unearthed my car.

Moral of the story...I need to buy snow boots ASAP, but snow days do equal fun days! I spent the rest of the day getting ready for my Arbonne party and watching Ellen. It was magnificent!!! Now hopefully work is not closed tomorrow because it is our Christmas party day. That would be a bummer, although sitting inside with a hot cup of cocoa sounds very appealing right now!

It is suppose to snow again this weekend, so Saturday will be spent baking Gingerbread cookies. I will post pictures of our masterpieces this weekend.

Christmas time is here!

2007-12-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

We had our first real snow here last Friday and I gotta tell you…I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I was sitting at work when I looked outside my window and saw snowflakes falling sideways. Within minutes the sidewalks were totally white. We probably got an inch of snow, which in reality isn’t much at all, but I was thoroughly excited. Walking through the snow was interesting. Steve Madden boots do not make for great snow boots. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. I really don’t know how I managed not to fall. I figured I would for sure go down as I was crossing the street so I could provide entertainment to those driving home in their warm cars.

The cold weather and snow does really make it feel like Christmas time. Jeremy and I bought ourselves a 4’ fake Christmas tree at Wallmart this weekend. (We aren’t allowed to have the real deal in our apartment because of the fire risk.) We unpacked all of my ornaments and put on some Christmas music and decorated our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We put in on a box to make it look taller. It actually looks really cute. We also made stockings. What is Christmas without a stocking? Santa better fill that bad boy up!!

Good thing I've been working out...I can lift a 4' tree like it's nobody's business!

Jeremy tried to write in cursive...I think he failed that assignment

The finished product. Charlie Brown would be jealous!!

One thing that the snow and cold doesn’t make good times for is 5K runs. This past weekend, Jeremy and I, along with some of his fellow students competed in a Christmas 5K run. This was Jeremy’s first 5K and I was so excited that we would be running together. This was a small Christmas miracle! After running this weekend I decided that I won’t be running outside until April!!! It was soooo cold and I have been doing all of my running from inside a gym on the handy dandy treadmill. So…a 5K is only 3 miles, but I have never felt so terrible after running. The race started 15 minutes late, let me tell you… that did nothing trying to stay warm. My feet stayed frozen for about 2.5 miles and my throat was burning the entire time. Even though we felt like we were frozen popsicles running through the streets of New Haven, we both finished with respectable times. Jeremy finished in 28:09 minutes and I finished in 22:41. Not my fastest time, but I was ninth in my division (20-29) out of 166…so that is not bad at all. Jeremy and I both felt like we were coming down with colds after the race, so we rented Superbad and Waitress and sat like vegetables for the rest of the day.

It's Snowing!

2007-12-02T13:25:00.000-05:00

Our first day of snow has arrived!! We were eating breakfast on Sunday morning and when we looked out the window it was snowing and the streets were all white. Here is a picture from inside our place...

Seeing it snow was pretty exciting. We were kinda like little kids on Christmas morning. Although I'm not sure why...we have both seen snow before and there really wasn't all that much on the ground.

I was a little afraid to do errands outside today, but I decided to brave the cold, hop in my car, and officially start my Christmas shopping. Here is a picture of the snow from inside my car.
Told you I was excited about the snow! I just keep taking pictures of it like a person who has never seen it before.

The cold weather and the snow are making it really feel like the holiday season. The cold makes it much more festive than eating Thanksgiving dinner or shopping for xmas presents when it is 65 and sunny outside. We were looking forward to buying our first tree together and decorating it, but that plan has been derailed. I came home one night to a note on our building saying that we aren't allowed to have live Christmas trees because of the fires they could potentially start. I was so bummed! Our apartment complex is killing our Christmas dream. Now we are probably going to get a fake tree, but as I learned this weekend those suckers are super expensive! I am going to hunt around for a deal so wish me luck!! Christmas depends on it!

So, I dread Christmas time because of the present buying. It's not that I don't like to shop and buy things for other people because I do. I just like buying it for myself more! Just kidding....well only half kidding, but I digress. I dread Christmas because it is so focused on presents and some people are hard to shop for and I stress out that they won't adore their present. I like Thanksgiving a lot better since it is all about cooking and eating! Christmas present buying also does a big number on my wallet, I wish I was rich and could buy super nice things for the ones I love, but they will just have to settle for bargain/small presents for another year. The end of this year has not been easy on our wallets, the move was super expensive and we just had to fix our car, so you know that one is still stinging! I actually found some great stuff today and it was my first time in a Kohl's. That is my new favorite store!! They have the best deals!! It was also nice out today for shopping because there was hardly anyone in the stores. This snow thing is growing on me already.

Turkey Day in Boston

2007-11-28T20:41:00.000-05:00

Turkey, stuffing, and wine…oh my! Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday. It’s all about being surrounded by good food and family/friends. This year I was dreading the calorie laden holiday since Jeremy and I couldn’t go home and be with my family. Thankfully (pun intended), Jeremy’s mom and sister came to Boston to celebrate with his brother and wife, so we trekked up to Boston for turkey day. Even though the thought of Thanksgiving had brought tears to my eyes leading up to it, we had a great time with Jeremy’s family and got to see the sights of Boston. I just wish there had been leftovers of turkey sandwiches and stuffing to eat the next day, but oh well. Next year!

Zach hosted Thanksgiving for the Beulieu's and a few other folks. It was an awesome dinner, complete with turkey cooked with bacon, grand marnier stuffing, corn, brussel sprouts (my new favorite food...I never had them before), sweet potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, and rolls. The only thing missing was the pickles! Here is a picture of our host Zach and the next one is Corey cutting the juicy turkey.

So Boston is my new favorite city! Why, oh why, did Harvard reject Jeremy? I guess settling for Yale is alright…the architecture at Yale is much more grandiose than Harvard. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Harvard!

Corey and Caroline live right next to the Public Gardens and Boston Common. We stayed at a hotel in the theatre district (less than a mile away). Every morning we would get up, walk to Starbucks to start our day, and cut through the Commons and the Garden. Their place is a street away from Newbury Street which is where all the fancy schmancy stores are. Placed among Valentino, Cole Haan, and other expensive stores that I can’t name was a Filene’s Basement. I was so excited! We went in the day after Thanksgiving. It really wasn’t that crazy. I would compare it to a Marshall’s or TJ Maxx, but with some better designer stuff. I had self control and didn’t buy anything.
(Jeremy practicing his Tyra pose at the Public Gardens)
(me in front of Filene's)
(The State House)

The great thing about Boston is that it is a big city, but it isn’t overwhelming. You can pretty much walk anywhere and the T is really easy to use. The day after Thanksgiving we avoided shopping (except for a quick morning stop at Filene’s) and opted for a tour of the city led by Jeremy’s brother. Corey was an awesome tour guide! We started walking towards Beacon Hill and took customary tourist photos in front of Cheers. Then we walked along the Freedom Trail to the grave of Samuel Adams. Side note: I was excited to go on the Freedom Trail, for some reason I thought it was going to be like a hiking trail with lots of trees, maybe a brook running through...I didn’t realize it was a red line that goes through the city. It was awesome and I’m not sure why I thought it was something more surrounded by nature, I guess the “trail” in the name through me off. Anyhoo, the graveyard was pretty interesting. The headstones were very intricate. There was another graveyard along the “trail”, but after traipsing though the first plot of dead people, we had seen enough. Next up on our whirlwind tour of Boston was Fanuil Hall. Outside of the hall we saw some street performers doing some break dancing. We walked around the shops that were outside, (unique shops like Ann Taylor and Urban Outfitters) and April tried to find something warm at Gap. It was really cold outside! My hands were numb and I had gloves on. (I really need to buy non-California gloves) Then we went inside Fanuil Hall. The first floor had shops with touristy stuff to buy and the second floor was the hall where all the greats gathered. The hall was very impressive and you could feel the aura of greatness hanging in the rafters. Next up on Corey’s tour was the North End. I was excited to go there because I had heard it was a really cute little Italy area and also the residence of Paul Revere. I was more excited for Italian food, but Paul Revere is pretty cool too. We ate a late lunch at a cute little Italian place, I ordered a delicious soup that came ten minutes after everyone else was served. I have bad restaurant Karma. Maybe I should tip everyone 20% regardless of service. Hmm… I will think about it. After lunch it was starting to get dark and it was really cold, so we went to buy some cannoli’s at Mike’s. Jeremy’s mom had been there before and said we just HAD to try their cannoli’s. The place was packed…there were people packed at the few tables inside and a really long line along the counter. I used my extreme navigating skills to jump to the front of the mass of people waiting to order and we successfully got our cannoli’s in record time. Our first day of sight-seeing was great and we finished off the night at Corey & Caroline’s pad eating pumpkin soup and cannoli’s. Those things were AMAZING! I am still having dreams of them at night. Here are some pic's of the sites...

On Saturday Jeremy and I wanted to get some more sight-seeing/eating in. We started off walking in the bitter cold to the U.S.S. Constitution. Apparently this is some kind of big boat. Just kidding! Corey had wanted us to walk to it the day before, but it was getting dark and cold and so we decided to see it the next day. I kept joking with Jeremy, calling it a boat, and he would get mad and tell me it was a ship. Not just any ship though, a ship that was a major part of his childhood. Who know Jeremy was in love with this ship? When we got there we decided to go on board since it was free and Jeremy had been longing to see this “boat” since he was a child and missed out on a family trip where the rest of his family got to see it. Did you know that the U.S.S Constitution is heavily guarded…just like at an airport, we had to go through security. Yeah, I bet the terrorists are just waiting to take over that ship. I don’t know what America would do without it. I must have looked like a terrorist in my big puffy jacket because when I set off the metal detector I got pulled aside and had to pull up my pants to my knees. Good thing I wasn’t packing my AK47 and knife! After making fun of the U.S.S. Constitution, it had it’s revenge on me. While taking a picture I banged my head on some boat thing. It hurt really bad and Jeremy laughed, pointed, and took pictures of my agony. After looking at the boat we walked back to Tami and April’s hotel to say goodbye. I have never been so cold in my life, my feet and hands were frozen!

After saying a short goodbye to Tami and April (Long story- but no one thought they would get a flight out…April ended up getting on a flight), Jeremy and I headed back to the North End for some clam chowder at America’s oldest tavern, The Bell in Hand. I have to say, the chowder didn’t even come close to Splash in Pismo Beach, but the clams were hearty. Next up on our clipboard of fun was going to Cambridge and seeing Harvard. We took the T and managed to not get lost. Thank you Jeremy! Harvard was nice, but Yale is prettier. Cambridge was bustling with people and seemed like a great college town. We had a drink at the coolest place ever….Upstairs On The Square. It was decorated in bright colors and had funky furniture. Check it out…www.upstairsonthesquire.com. After our coffee and baileys we headed back on the T and met up with Tami. We all went to Corey and Caroline’s and had one of the funniest nights ever.

We decided to grab some wine and ordered pizza in. Corey & Caroline’s friends were going to come over and they had talked about going out. Tami, Jeremy, and I didn’t want to go out, but we said they could ditch us after dinner. Well, after having a glass of wine or glasses…the music came on and the singing began. We basically made our own Karoke bar in Corey’s apartment. I am sure the neighbors loved it. Hairbrushes and curling irons were broken out as microphones. It was truly hilarious and classic!

Since Sunday is the day of rest, our trip had to come to an end. We said our goodbyes and took off on the open road. Apparently a lot of other people set out on the road as well and it wasn’t open at all. It took us almost 4 hours to get home (It is only a 2 hour drive). All in all, it was a better Thanksgiving than I imagined and good times were had by all! Boston is my new favorite city…sorry Chicago!

The Big Game

2007-11-18T20:26:00.000-05:00

We had been looking forward to the weekend because we were going to the big game...Yale v. Harvard and tailgating beforehand. Phin & Carla were coming in from NYC to visit and go to the game with us. We dropped a car off early at the festivites and then we met people from Jeremy's lab around 9:30 to go get the festivities started. Well, of course, people were late and we didn't actually leave until 10am. (this is my biggest pet peeve ever!) Anyways, then we had to fight the traffic to get to the stadium. The traffic was really unbelievable, but we got lucky and found a place to park on the street and walked the rest of the way there. Here is a picture of the traffic.

Once we got there, the masses of yalies and harvard preppies were buzzing with pre-game excitement. Basically just lots of people dressed in blue and crimson. It was very festive. We were lucky and our car was parked close to a stero set-up so we had some tunes to listen to. Jeremy and I brought the famed "skip n' go naked" juice to get the party started. There is nothing like starting to drink at 10:30am to get your motor goin'. It was pretty cold out, so when the hot chocolate and baileys was broken out, we welcomed it into our hands and mouths. Here is a picture of me with Christen and Kristin double fisting it...

And then there was Phin...triple fisting it!

After tailgating for a while, we decided to go into the Yale Bowl and catch the game. I have to say...it seemed more like high school football than college. The stadium was kinda small, but the saddest thing (besides Yale losing horribly) was the half time show. Man was it nerdy!! Yale had constructed pterodactyl and a big dinosaur type thing and there was this whole story that went along with it. I feel that if they put that energy into practicing football, we might have scored some more points. Here is a picture of the halftime show.

After the amazing show and checking the scoreboard, we decided our time was better spent tailgating.

On our way back, we happened upon a preppie that had had waaaaay too much fun and needed a little nap. This is just some random dude.

After we got back to our spot, Christen took us to play a little cornhole. I had seen this game before, but never knew what it was called. People play it on the beach in SD. It is like horse shoes, but you throw bean bags into a board with a hole in it. Christen and I lost horrible to some guys. Oh well, it was fun, besides the guy trying to convince me that my name was Angel.

The weather had started to get super chilly and the skip n'go naked was all gone, so we decided it was time to call it a day. I navigated our car out of the parking lot...and this is where the story gets really good...So we are waiting in traffic, once again, this time to get out of the Yale Bowl and there was a group of older people tailgaiting. We thought it would be a good idea to dare Jeremy to steal one of their cookies off of their table. Jeremy decided he would do it and took off running from the car like a mad man on a mission. He ran to the table, grabbed a cookie, and bolted back. The old people started yelling (all in fun) and laughing. Then one of the ladies came up to our car with a glass of chardonnay in her hand and offered us muffin tops. She was distracing us while one of the men stole our cooler from the car. We were all laughing hysterically when another lady came over and offered us brownies and sandwiches that were labeled "tuna" and "turkey." She asked us who we were rooting for and we said Yale and she said "good. If you were from Harvard we would take everything back." They took pictures with us in the car. It was hilarious!!!

The episode must have made everyone in the back of the car pretty tired. While I was sitting in traffic, this is what transpired in the back seat...

We made it home and around 5pm and it felt like it was midnight, but we rallied for some dinner and then passed out around 10:30pm. Here are some more pics of the game for your viewing pleasure.

We woke up on Sunday all rested and ready for the day...well all of us except for Phin....

Ha ha! Not really, this is in the car after walking around. Phin was showing off his amazing greasy hairdo. This took days of work!

We went to breakfast and then checked out Yale. The colors are really beautiful now. Here are some pics. I can't get over the red colors. It is truely breathtaking and I don't think the pictures fully capture the beauty.

All in all, it was a great weekend!!! Up next...Schacalieu takes on Boston with the Beaulieu's for Thanksgiving!

Happy Monday

2007-11-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Ah, Monday...say goodbye to the weekend and hello to the start of a new week. It has been pretty cold here lately and I have been trying really hard to stay warm.

This is my cute outfit to try and stay warm inside the house. I'm heating my hands over the stove. Not to worry, we do have heating but since we are on the top floor we haven't had to turn it on...yet.

This weekend Jeremy and I took a field trip to Hartford. It's about 40 minutes away from New Haven. I wish I had my camera because the colors were beautiful. I have never seen a red leaves like that before. Anyways, we headed to Hartford to check out Crate & Barrel for registering. That's right...we can't wait to get asparagus tongs and wine glasses. ha ha! Registering was fun, I think I always want to shop with a scanner. It adds a nice element to browsing. Realizing that our day out was spent registering for stuff, we felt so domesticated. We didn't have enough time for Home Depot and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but maybe next weekend.

The Crate & Barrel was actually in West Hartford and had alot of cute shops and restaurants in about a three block area. All around the area were painted cows. I didn't have my camera to take any goofy pictures, but here is one that I found on the web. I plan on going back and taking oodles of pictures with the cows.

We also found a Whole Foods there!!! I was ecstatic. We didn't go in though because we found it as we were leaving. I swear, I will drive 40 minutes for their tofu and fabulous chicken & blue cheese burgers! Oh, how I miss the WF salad bar for lunch with my PEPsters.

On Sunday we went to the movies and saw American Gangster. We liked it, but don't really think that it should be getting Oscar buzz. I wouldn't deter anyone from going, but I wouldn't say you have to run out to see it either. We saw a preview for a independent film called Juno. It looks awesome! Jason Bateman is in it along with George Michael from Arrested Development. I am definitely going to run out to see this one! The movie theatre in New Haven has $5 movies on Sunday at 11am with $2 Mimosa's. They play older movies like The Princess Bride and since we are getting close to the holidays they will be showing A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation. I think this is brilliant and cannot wait to go!

Next weekend we will be going to the Harvard/Yale game and plan on tailgating before. I am sure there will be some good pictures and stories!!!

Winter has arrived

2007-11-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

As I write this post today, it is roughly 44 degrees outside, there is a wind advisory, and the rain has just cleared up. I am sitting in my chair with a beenie, blanket, sweats, and uggs on. I have been FREEZING all day. That's right people...winter is finally here. I am scared to see what January and February are like because apparently those are the coldest months. At least it's not humid! I am going to keep reminding myself of that.

Besides trying to stay warm, things have been pretty quiet for Jeremy and myself. We did venture to New York to hang out with Phin, Carla, and Jake for a little Halloween party. It was a great time filled with awesome costumes and even more awesome karaoke. I think that is my favorite thing about New York, they have karaoke places where you go into your own little room with all of your friends and sing your heart out. This appeals to me because I have a horrible singing voice and only want to inflict pain on my closest friends, not strangers. Although, I don't know if that is fair...oh well.

So Jeremy and I were traveling gnomes this Halloween and I think everyone really enjoyed our costumes. Here we are in all our glory...

At my work we had a Halloween party and I dressed in Jeremy's costume. I thought I would be more recognizable as the traveling gnome if I was the boy. I didn't win our costume contest, although I think I was shafted because I am a temp. I did bake cookies and with Jeremy's help they were decorated as awesome bloodshot eyeballs.

So that is about it from New Haven. We still keep our head on a swivel when driving or walking because you never know what some crazy person is going to do. We got honked at while walking in a crosswalk and of course I started freaking out on the lady. I just gave her a nasty look and yelled what the hell. Jeremy had to hold me back. I think I need to start meditating because I obviously have some anger issues to work out. Or maybe I should just start taking Paxil. Hmmm, at least I have options. I wish my option was to move back to San Diego where it is sunny and I have friends.

Speaking of San Diego, for the past week I have been fixated on the news surrounding the fires. So far everyone I know has been affected in some way, but I think things are getting back to normal and all of their houses were safe. I just want everyone there to know that I have been worried and thinking about them. Here are some crazy pictures that my old roomie lil' naf sent to me. It really is horrible and beautiful. When tragedy like this strikes it really makes you appreciate your life and to not get too hung up on the negative. Life is too short and too fragile not to make the most of it.

I hope everyone is doing good. Thanks to everyone who has been calling or writing us. It really makes my day when I get a message or email from people we know. Until next time...You know we will be trying to stay warm and dodging cars!!!

It's beginning to feel like Winter

2007-10-15T21:29:00.001-04:00

For all of you who already think we are freezing our asses off...well we will be shortly. It has actually been pretty warm lately, near 80 with humidity. In the past week though it is definitely starting to get cold. It is already like San Diego in December, but apparently it is suppose to be 75 this weekend. I wish the weather man would stop teasing us. Either get cold or stay warm!

So things in CT have been good. My mom came and visited last week. She thought it was nice scenery here, but that the people are a bit off. She understands why every time I go to the grocery store I need to make a drink after. (I'm not kidding, I get that stressed out!) It was great having her here...Jeremy really loved it because he got to eat something different from salad for dinner.

We went to NYC and were on the search for the best black and white cookies. We thought the best one we had that day was from a place called Juniors. Why is the black and white cookie so good? Seinfeld was really onto something. Maybe we need to be on the lookout for marble rye as well. One thing not to get while in NYC would be a pretzel. Jeremy & my mom were on a missing to try food from the food carts. I tried a bit of the hard, cold pretzel and found a hair in my piece. The warm almonds from the card were mighty good and a steal of a deal. I think they were $2 for a bag.

We did almost get killed by a semi-truck getting on to the freeway. I'm not joking. I don't understand why truck drivers are so insane here. They are either riding you tail like white on rice or pass you going 85. SCARY! We made it ok, I just had to drive in the shoulder of the road for about a half mile.

Jeremy and I also thought it would be a good idea to drive to Queens after dropping my mom off at JFK. We were wrong. We thought drivers in CT were bad. New York was insane. I was fearing for my life at every turn. Why do the rules of the road mean nothing to the people here? I did like Queens, it was alot less tourist, although we ate at the most absurd French restaurant with Carla and Phin. We actually got into a fight with the waiter and manager. They told us that just to sit at their table was $15 and that no one is allowed to just order appetizers. It is a really long story, but that was basically the gist of it. The manager yelled at us and told Carla that she had never eaten at their other restaurant. It was quite comical and unbelievable all at the same time. After that we did hit up this really cool bar that was like Germany at Octoberfest. All in all in was a good night after we de-stressed from the drive in.

Also, getting to JFK was not bad. Talking to people from here you would have thought that we would have been in traffic for 5 hours. Obviously these people have never been to LA and have no real concept of traffic. Even going around the airport wasn't bad. The San Diego airport has more traffic than the Jet Blue terminal at JFK.

Since it is October we are starting to get into Halloween. We carved a pumpkin this weekend while watching a couple of scary movies....Pumpkin Head and Cabin Fever. Both solidified my hate for scary movies. I seriously felt nauseous after Cabin Fever, it was so gross & bloody, although it was kinda fun to laugh at. With lines like "He asked us for our help and we lit him on fire" and "Why would you shoot a squirrel?" ..."because they are gay."

Anyways,here is s a picture of our little guy on the drive home. His name is Jack and when he gets excited his smile just lights up!

I did see the funniest thing this weekend while driving to the gym. This lady was walking on the sidewalk with one of those baby carriers on the front of her chest, but instead of a baby being in the carrier....her dog was. Seriously!!! Get a leash!!! And they say people in LA are bad.

On a side note, I would also like to address all of the people who said that they thought I was from the East Coast. I am deeply offended. After being here for almost exactly two months, I do not see ANY correlation between myself and the people in New Haven. Except for the fact that I am not blonde. If any of you would like to discuss this more, you know who you are and you know my number.

Onto more happenings in our life....

While walking home from watching The Darjeeling Limited, Jeremy and I almost got our butts kicked by some kids on bikes. We were just crossing the street when this gang of 13 year olds almost ran us over on their bikes. Jeremy stared the one kid down and they yelled some obscenities. I cannot describe the look this one kid had on his face. I think if he had a gun he would have shot us. Jeremy claims he would have crushed the kid, but I didn't really want to chance it since he had his posse with him and Jeremy just had me. I mean...I have been working on my guns, but I'm not sure I could fight some 13 yr old kids and win. Sad, but true.

Yes. We do live in a bit of the ghetto. This has proven it. Along with the bums telling my mom she was pretty and asking her to give them money. New Haven is definitely a strange place.

We are still on the hunt for a kitchen table. The tag sales are proving to be, how do you say, terrible. Maybe they should try having garage sales, you know, having enough stuff on your lawn to fill a garage, not one table on a street corner.

Well, I think that is about it for now. Here are some pictures of the area, along with some from our trip to NYC with my mom.

My place of employment...Casey Family Services

In FAO Schwartz playing the piano from Big

Jeremy and my mom eating a slice in NYC

Starting our day off on the train to NYC with a little love from Dunkin Donughts

Ready for a carriage ride in Central Park

The view of the street that we live on

The colors are starting to change. It must be fall!

One of the buildings at Yale

Another Yale Building

That is the Schacalieu update for the week!! Hope you enjoyed!

All settled...Finally!

2007-09-23T19:41:00.000-04:00

I have had multiple requests for pictures of our place. Well, the day for pictures is finally here. I was holding off because the place was still a wreck with about 6 boxes left in the living room. After a final trip (well...really two trips) to IKEA to purchase a TV stand, bookshelf, and file cabinet...our new apartment can now be shared! This weekend Jeremy worked hard constructing our new furniture, and we hung curtains and pictures. The apartment is now beginning to feel like home. Here are the pics....

So there you have it, the living room, office/eating area, and kitchen. We still need to acquire a table and chairs....hopefully soon! There is a bedroom and a bathroom, but I didn't take pictures.

Along with finally getting our place furnished, I started my new job on Monday!! The first week went really well. I am working at Casey Family Services (a non-profit agency that deals with foster care programs). Right now it is just a temp position, but I am hoping it will turn into a full time job or give me some good connections. I am doing administrative work along with helping to plan conferences. All I can say is that any company with a delicious coffee machine and free/water & sodas is A-OK in my book!

Now onto the weather...

The weather was beginning to change to Fall earlier this week. At night we were down in the 40s and mid 60s during the day, but it heated up this weekend to 80. Let me just tell you...we are NOT prepared for Winter. I went for a run on Wednesday morning in my "winter" running clothes. These running garments were resesrved to December through January (maybe February) in San Diego. I have no idea what to do when it actually starts to get really cold.

I am judging that it is starting to turn to Fall by one tree in front of our house. Some of the leaves are already turning red and orange. I am excited to see Fall, if that one tree is any indication it should be breathtaking.

I did purchase two full length jackets at TJ Maxx this weekend. I couldn't decide which one would be better, so I bought both. One is a wool jacket and the other one resembles the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man. Jeremy had a great time standing there watching me. The look on his face was one of pure retail loathing. I wasn't planning on buying a jacket when it was 80 degrees outside, but I want to be prepared!!!

That is all the new haps in New Haven for now! Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Liquor, radio stations, and snakes....Oh My!!!

2007-09-14T18:12:00.000-04:00

So this blog is kinda ragging on New Haven, but after this, I think we have found all the oddities of this place.

First up....The Liquor Wars.

All Californians...please take a moment to thank your lucky stars that you are able to go to any local Ralphs, Albertsons, or convenience store and purchase beer, wine, and liquor.

I need a moment of silence. Alas, that freedom has been taken away from Jeremy and I. Not that I usually buy large amounts of alcohol or make it a priority to drink on Sunday...but shouldn't I have the choice. Connecticut is another state (like Utah & Colorado) that still have blue laws enforced. If you didn't know, blue laws are "a type of law designed to enforce moral standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest. Most have been repealed or are simply unenforced, although prohibitions on the sale of alcoholic beverages and occasionally almost all commerce, on Sundays are still enforced in many areas. Blue laws often prohibit an activity only during certain hours and there are usually exceptions to the prohibition of commerce, like grocery and drug stores. In some places blue laws may be enforced due to religious principles, but others are retained as a matter of tradition or out of convenience." Wow! Doesn't seem like these laws are ridiculous and outdated!

In addition to the inconvenience of needed to plan ahead, in New Haven they don't believe that my ID is real. Story time! So...last weekend, we had a lovely day in Branford at the "beach". I put that in quotations because the "beach" had no waves and had boats docked extremely close to shore. Anyhoo, after a day at the beach, a group of us decided to make dinner, so we went to the store to get some food and beer. I said that I would buy the beer and when I got up to the register, I gave the checker my ID and she said I wouldn't be able to buy the beer. I was bewildered! What? We had to call the manager and then I was able to make the purchase. My ID was also questioned when I was buying some wine at the liquor store and the guy asked me if my ID was really a real California ID. I almost started laughing and wanted to invite him outside to look at my license plates. I can tell that this is going to be a problem for all of our years here, since I never plan on getting a CT license.

Now onto...Radio Stations

Right now, one of the things I am missing most about San Diego and California in general is the variety of great radio stations. Radio stations have themes in California. You have oldies, rock, alternative, classical, pop...you get the idea. Here in good ole CT the radio stations are SO random. One moment you are listening to a White Stripes song, so you think you have found an alternative rock station, but then Celene Dion comes on. WHAT? Of course, you don't want to listen to Celene so you change the station, you find what you think is 80's, but then comes Shania Twain. AHHH! The insanity!!! The sheer madness of it all!!! Why does no station follow any kind of format? The only station that seems to have a theme is the oldies station. Basically, there is not one radio station worth listening to and we are no longer hearing any new, current music. Now, this isn't a big problem when we are at home because we can stream Internet radio, but in the car....ugh, words cannot describe the frustration.

Last but not least...A party with snakes?

Saturday seemed to begin normally.... We were invited to a block party, so we went to the store to pick up supplies for skip n' go naked juice. The block party was fun and everyone was enjoying our special juice. Once the block party was over we all decided to stop by a party that a grad student in the biology department was throwing. Now, when you think house party...what do you think of? Close your eyes, let's get a visual of what is typical of this kind of party. People talking, music playing, cheese and crackers sitting out, dancing? Well my friends, none of that compares to this house party!!! In your visual did you picture people sitting and talking and holding snakes???? Yes, that's right snakes!!! When you walked in the door to the house party, did you picture yourself smelling a funk? Was the funk the pee/poop of a snake? NO I DON'T THINK SO!! Normal people don't have a party like this. This guy took us on a tour of this room that was filled with snakes and if that wasn't enough....tarantulas!!! Jeremy shot across the room when that little guy was pulled out. I swear, this was the weirdest party of my life. At least all of the people we went there with thought that it was the weirdest party ever, so that must mean that they are normal and did not expect it to be a hands on biology party.

I know this blog has been filled with gripes, but I really don't know what else I can gripe about after all of this. Nothing can beat the strange snake souiree!!! Next up....it's getting chilly...I have a new job...1 more trip to IKEA should finish off the apartment!

Adios Amigos!!

Weekend Update

2007-09-04T12:00:00.000-04:00

I hope you all had fun labor day weekends. Jeremy and I managed to keep ourselves busy. It weather was really nice, although I hear that in CA it is hot, hot, hot! Thankfully it was pretty mellow here with a nice breeze and NO humidity! Thank goodness!

So friday night we met up with some of Jeremy's fellow students for drinks and dinner to celebrate one of the students defending his thesis and officially becoming a PhD. The margaritas were flowin' and it was nice to be out and about.

Saturday was a big day for me because I got to go to a spin class at the gym. Yeah! I joined Bally's for a month to try it out. I've been running and cycling around town, but I have totally been missing the gym and spinning classes! It was great, except I was the only one in the class. Hopefully on Tuesday when I go again, there will be some other people there. After my trip to the gym we had plans to go into Branford, a town about 5 minutes away, to check out Branstock. We had read about Branstock in the local paper and it sounded fun...a day of bands, booths, and fun. But upon our arrival to Branstock, we got the feeling that maybe this wasn't going to be a day of fun. The town of Branford was really cute and nice looking. Branstock however, was another matter. It looked as if everyone there had stepped out of the "Smells like teen spirit" Nirvana video. Not kidding, it was the town that grunge forgot. The band onstage was a bunch of high school students, they were ok, but once they were done the WWF style wrestling began. There was also a couple of sad tag sales going on. For those of you west-coasters, a tag sale is the word over here for garage or yard sale. Basically, there wasn't much to do and the wrestling was humerous, but really terrible. We decided to stick it out until the reggae band came on, but that proved to be a waste of time. We left after the second song. All in all, Banstock was great for people watching, but I don't think we will be attending next year.

Sunday we started out on our trip to visit Phin and go sailing, but a stop at Dunkin Donuts needed to be made in order to get us ready to brave the CT drivers. If you don't know, Dunkin Donuts is huge out here. There are more Dunkin Donuts than Starbucks if that puts it into perspective. The slogan of the dominant donut chain is "America runs on Dunkin" and let me tell you I am becoming a believer! Let's change that to "Schacalieu runs on Dunkin." It is some yummy, yummy coffee. Don't know about the donuts though, if you know me, you know that I do not eat that kind of fried goodness.

Sailing with Phin and Carla was great! It was a really nice day, could have been a bit more windy, but it was still fun. It took a while for Phin to get the motor started, some technical difficulties, but once it started, it was full steam ahead. Phin gave us some lessons on what we needed to do and now I know that port side means left and starboard means right. I also got to steer the ship, which was lots of fun. I'm steering and saluting at the same time in the picture! Jeremy learned how to tie a knot. No one lost their cookies (although I think all of us at one point felt a little sick) or fell overboard. Here are some more pics of the day.

This is Phin starting the motor, this was pretty much his position for about 30 minutes before we left the harbor.

It was really beautiful out there. We were sailing around the Long Island Sound. It was really cool that you could see the New York Skyline from out there!

After sailing, it was time for relaxing. We watched Steel Magnolias, which wasn't a good idea because I was bawling!!! I have no idea why Jeremy agreed to watch it with me, he just kept laughing at my crying.

Yesterday was labor day, so no work! For me that really means nothing right now though. I started out the morning with a nice little run and then we went downtown and checked out the 20K race that was going on. If I had known about it before and had money to spare I would have trained and registered, but I was just a spectator this time. Probably a good idea since my knee has been bugging me. After the race we relaxed at home and then got ready for a BBQ at Jeremy's professor's house. It was a nice little party with a lot of great food. We brought the famous 7-layer bean dip. Oh, little known fact about CT...refried beans do not exist! I about had a fit in the grocery store. The only ones we could find was refried black beans and there was only one kind. There is no rhyme and reason to the grocery store here....there were olives placed in 3 different aisles!!! Ugh, don't get me started, we were so frustrated!!! But I digress.... Once the night got movin'...the guitars and bango's got pulled out. Yes, Jeremy's professor is an awesome banjo player! It was a fun party, we got to mingle some more with the other students and professors.

Today is Jeremy's first day of school. No....I didn't take a picture because he did not pick out a special outfit. So, hopefully that is going well and he is learning all about what is in store for him.

Peace out!

First Impressions of New Haven

2007-08-27T14:33:00.000-04:00

We have been in New Haven a total of 11 days so far and aside from being totally different from California (as expected), we are learning alot about the East Coast.

If you didn't know, it is pretty historical out here. New Haven, also know as Elm City because the first settlers planted lots of elms, was founded in 1638. The Amistad trial took place here and it was considered one of the first towns because it had a plan. That plan consists of the city being built around a green, which most of the towns around here duplicate. What is a green you ask? Well, it is basically just a big square with grass. People hang out there, on the green in New Haven there is 3 churches surrounding it.

What you may not know about New Haven and Connecticut in general is that people are crazy drivers. People decide to straddle lanes for miles, merging is a totally foreign concept, and I basically fear for my life every time I get into the Saturn. Now, I know what you must be thinking...but Angela, you're from California and have lived in LA, that's where the crazy drivers are. Oh, contrare monfrair!! In LA it is a controlled insanity....people drive crazy, but you can predict it, you know what is going to happen. Here....it is just insanity. Another thing that makes driving difficult out here is that they apparently don't belive in hanging street signs where the signals are. You are really lucky if here is a street sign anywhere at all. You just kinda have to guess or piss off people when you realize you need to be turning right because you just noticed the tiny highway 1 sign way to the right of the road, not visible unless you are the first car at the light. One more thing about driving, there is rarely a on and off ramp at the same exit. You think that if you head towards the highway you can get on going either direction, No you fool! It isn't so.

Aside from the driving hassles, the people seem to be pretty nice and welcoming. For instance we went to Wallmart to pick up some necessities and the checker woman is going off (in her brooklyn type accent) that so-and-so told her that she had to ask her when she needed to go to the bathroom and she didn't need to listen to her, she just got out of the hospital the other day, and she can go to the bathroom when she wants and she is going to take this up with the management. Seriously, she was talking about this to the lady in front of us and to us. But seriously, the people do seem to be nice and extremely nerdy. What can you expect though...we are up the street from Yale. I think I should start selling pocket protectors, fo' sho!

These 11 days have been spent exploring New Haven and CT in general. There is a nice running trail just down the street from our place that goes around a lake and I took a nice bike ride on another trail today. There are tons of trees here! The humidity is taking some getting use to, but hey~ I figure I can bring sexy back even while sweating and having fro-ey hair! We went up to Mystic, CT on Saturday and ate at Mystic Pizza. The pizza was really yummy...the sauce really is spectacular!

Other than that, I have been applying to jobs like a mad woman. I have put out so many resumes I don't even remember where I have sent them anymore. We have also been searching for a good grocery store. Trader Joes here just isn't quite the same, and there is no Whole Foods! AHHH! What am I going to do? I don't know, I had a mini panic attack, but I think I will pull through. I have no money to buy food anyways. We did go to a gigantic store that was out of the way, but pretty awesome. It is called Stew Leonards, I think it's a big deal around here, it's the largest dairy farm according to Ripley's Believe it or Not. It was kinda like Disneyland, the corn and milk statues sang songs....that resembled It's a Small World for sure! They had really good produce though, something that we totally take for granted out in Cali. I almost cried when we went to the normal grocery store and I saw the lettuce for the first time.

We also got internet and cable hooked up. One week too late though...sadly we missed the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. I seriously almost cried then!!! Good thing the beers with Jeremy's fellow students kept us occupied. Don't worry, I got filled in on all the haps.

Oh! Some breaking New Haven news from this weekend. It's pretty funny actually. The Hash House Harriers, the drinking group with a running problem (they put on the red dress run in SD), well they were marking a trail for a race and decided to go through the Ikea parking lot and people mistook it for a bioterrorist scare and the entire Ikea was evacuated. They were marking the trail with arrows made out of flour on the concrete. Here is the artice....big news! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20441775/

So all in all, New Haven is pretty nice (well except for the outskirts...that's where the ghetto is...Jeremy swears he saw the aftermath of someone getting capped), but it's going to take a while getting use to going South on the highway and having the ocean be on our left hand side. Too weird!

The trip of a lifetime?

2007-08-26T17:39:00.000-04:00

Well, for those of you who don't know....we made it to New Haven!

Let me re-cap a little bit of the trip for you. Jeremy and I drove a 16ft Budget truck complete with car carrier 2,901 miles...coast to coast. (well, actually Jeremy drove the whole way, he wouldn't let me drive) Although most people go from East to West, we just had to be difficult and go the opposite way.

So at 4am on a lovely Friday morning, we set off into the dark. Jeremy was sweating, hoping he wouldn't crash the truck or lose my car from the carrier. I was crying. That lasted about 2 hours before I passed out from tear duct exhaustion. When I awoke we were almost to Stateline..things were going smoothly as we passed into Nevada...then....trouble!

A nice couple in an RV signaled to us that something was wrong with our truck and we should pull over. Oh shit! So, we get out of the truck and we see smoke billowing from our car carrier. Awesome! Jeremy starts to freak and I see it in his eyes that we should just turn around...this has to be a sign. I get on the phone with Budget and we make it to a gas station.

Long story short, we got the car carrier changed out in Vegas and it was smooth sailing from there on out. We passed the time with our "clipboard of fun"~kudos to mamacita! So as we played license plate bingo and crosswords the miles just flew by.

On our trip we listned to alot of NPR, oldies, and my fabulous singing! The NPR was great along with the spectacular views of corn fields to lull me to sleep. About every 30 minutes I was nodding off. We stopped in Cheyenne for a day and saw the sights. Thanks Rene & Doug for entertaining us with a tour of their new abode furnished with the most beautiful red and gold carpet I have ever seen!

After Cheyenne we were ready for Chi- Town. But, before Chicago we really got into corn country. Besides seeing fields and fields of corn, where you could almost hear the whiperings of "If you build it they will come" I asked Jeremy..."Is this heaven?" to which he replied, "No, it's Iowa." Besides seeing corn and pondering life, wealso got hit with the knowledge bomb that Kool Aide originated in Nebraska. Kool!

So we finally made it Chicago and found a place to park the truck. Only one tree was scarred in the process. Melinda took us sightseeing and we saw "The Bean."

If you have not been to Chicago and seen this beautiful piece of art, put it on your life list. It will entertain you for at least a half hour. Amazing! Jeremy entertained himself flicking the bean and laughing about it for at least 3 minutes.

We have also checked off "seeing Wrigley Field and take a picture in front of the sign" from our life list. Chicago was awesome and it was great to have a couple of days out of the truck.

Then we had to get back to reality and get in the truck again. We almost made it through Pennsylvania, but couldn't take it anymore. That is a really long state. So we headed to the Comfort Inn just in time for "So you think you can dance." Perfect end to a 14 hour day of driving.

The next morning we woke up and were excited that this would be our last few hours of driving. We were really excited, but the though of moving all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs didn't seem all that appealing. We made it to New Haven, Thursday the 16. The drive was over! Moving up the stairs wasn't too bad. It was humid, but anything was better than driving another 14 hours. With all of our stuff in our new apartment, we had one last task...return the Budget truck. We would no longer be truckers, which entailed waking up at 4am, drinking endless cups of horrible coffee, and navigating highway 80. A tinge of sadness crept into our hearts, but was diminished after a hassle of driving through narrow one way streets in New Haven and dropping it off at the Ikea parking lot.

The trip was officially over. We were now in New Haven. The next week was filled with unpacking, getting to know the area, and cursing Connecticut drivers. More on that in the next post....