The best worst birthday ever

So first let me say that this really was the worst birthday ever - well, 2nd worst. But that's ok because over the course of my life I've had quite a few great birthdays. Why is this the 2nd worst birthday ever? Well, I've never had to work or go to school on my birthday (yeah, poor me). That's right, for the past 23 years I've always had a free day to enjoy my birth. I had to work today...and that really takes about half the fun out of it. But that's ok, I was reminded how great my friends are - and how wonderful Facebook can be :-)

So let me get back to my worst birthday ever. It was a roller skating party at Skate King. Well, we made all the arrangements well in advance and arrived at the rink with about 3 car loads of kids. We waited and waited and waited. We eventually found out that the rink was closed for refinishing - lame. So we pile into the car and head to a local park to play. I slide down a hill and get a major grass stain on my white shorts - double lame. So then we pile into the cars again and head to Shaky's pizza. On the way to the restaurant a bee flies into the car and it freaks me out. So I move to get out of the way - and in doing so - I dig my foot right into my birthday cake.

All in all I realize I'm a pretty lucky girl and that I really shouldn't complain - but hey, it makes a good story.

inspired by themusar

I've been meaning to update for a long time.
Then Katie Musar updated so I thought I would too.

Hmm, I went to Tahoe. Hit the jackpot on the penny slots. $12 was mine! Needless to say I came out ahead. So far I'm 2 for 2 gambling (both times on the penny slots). We went to Tahoe for a Ford thing....well, Nick went to Tahoe for a Ford thing and I tagged along. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend the dinner. Only husbands and wives were invited. Where the heck is the love for the opposite sex domestic partner? Then again, I never would have spent 3 hours playing penny slots and video poker had I been invited to the lobster bisque/filet mignon/baked alaska dinner.

So wanna hear a funny story. Nick's stuff finally came last Thursday. He's been living out of a suitcase for about 3 months ...and that's not the funny part. So I'm unpacking a box and I get to an item wrapped in those big recycled paper sheets.
I unwrapped the 1st sheet...
the 2nd sheet...
the 3rd sheet...
the 4th sheet...
Well you better believe Nick's wooden spoon made it safely from Atlanta to Livertucky.
It happened 2 more times, once with a half-used roll of paper towels and again witha ziplock bag filled with about 10 boullion cubes.

Work's good. Building stuff and doing things. I'm way too busy but it's better than being bored.

We got a new game for the wii. I rule at it. I beat nick 90% of the time.

I need some city action soon. The tucky is a little too quiet for my taste.

National Spelling Bee

Eye've nvr bin a gud speler.

So the national spelling bee is on and it's pretty addicting. These kids are freakin' geniuses. And guess what...I know one of them. He was this young little genius kid that came to the labs. He'd go into this conference room and really smart people would come and teach him math (math that I've never even seen). Anyways, he's kicking some behind at this spelling thing too. My favorite quote so far is "Those silent letters are always tricky."

Nick and I spent memorial day weekend in Puerto Vallarta. We did nothing but relax and it was great.

Ok, the bee is getting intense.

I feel like a bad blogger

I looked at how often I blog and it has become less and less since the inception of "Live from the 925." (In case anyone is worried, I will still be "Live from the 925" once I move).

In any case, there are many things to update.

As you all know, Nick and I got a Wii. My mom came to visit last weekend and, among other things, she proceeded to WHACK me in the elbow with the Wii-mote (haha, I still think it's funny they call it a wii-mote). That woman has more muscle than I thought. No bruises, but I definitely curled up in the fetal position for a few minutes.

Mom and I had a fun trip into SF when she was here on Friday. We actually made an INCREDIBLE discovery while in Japantown (for some reason Japantown sounds way funnier than Chinatown.....anyone?). We found this little store that makes the BEST mochi and manju I have ever tasted in my life. For those of you not familiar with mochi/manju, they are little Japanese sweet treats. Mochi is sweet rice cakes and Kuri Manju is a sort of dense cake with sweet beans in the middle (trust me, it tastes way better than it sounds). Well, we decided grandma would really like this so my mom bought a pack of 8, intending to give grandma 6. Oops, mom and I each had 2....so grandma only got 4. She'll be ok. It was well worth it. Sorry g'ma.

Let's see....the whole house thing is still moving along. Stressful as all getout. It's not like the kind of stress you get right before a test....but I can't really think of what it is like...which is weird, because I feel like I've experience many different kinds of stress over my life. Anyways, it's stressful but still exciting. But like I was telling Nick, it's hard to be too excited until the whole buying process is done. It's like going on spring break.....you're super excited for that cool spring break trip but you know you have to go through finals first.

So I have a mini gripe about banks. So I have been a loyal WAMU customer since my days in elementary school when I started my first savings account (I think my opening deposit was $10 and I'm pretty sure $9 of it was my moms). Well, Nick and I decided we needed a joint account for bill paying, house buying etc. So I opened a joint WAMU checking account. Turns out that accounts opened in separate states can't be linked. Basically, this just means that it takes almost a week to move money from my personal account to the joint account...even though they are BOTH WAMU accounts. Does this make sense to anyone? What's the point of having the same bank in different states? Just call it WAMU and WAMU-CA. Then I wont complain. It's false advertising. And why does it really take 5+ days to transfer money in the first place. It's not like they hand a check to a little guy on a bike in WA who has to ride down I-5 to the bank in CA. Even if they did, I bet he could do it in less than 5 days. I can think of about 10 million things I can do in less than 5 days.....but transferring money is no longer one of them.

And one last note, if anyone is interested in a hideous picture of me, click Bryn
I really need to stop smiling like that.

crazy few weeks

So last week Nick and I watched "Supersize Me." It was a pretty good movie. The guy ate nothing but McDonald's for a whole month and ended up having severe liver damage (as bad as an alcoholic). So we watched the movie, thought about ... then Nick promptly had his favorite midnight snack - ice cream with maple syrup topping.....yes, I live with Buddy the Elf.

After more than a month and a half of searching, we finally got a Nintendo Wii. It is well worth all of the hype. I beat Nick at tennis. It was glorious.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot....I think we're buying a townhouse eek! Well, we basically are....the offer was accepted and we close in the middle of May. It's by far the most expensive thing I've ever bought...kinda freaks me out...but hey, it's the thing to do right :-) It's pretty sweet, granite counter tops....2 stories...2.5 bathrooms...2 bedrooms. Come and visit! But not for at least a few months. Funny...we were only going to go and look....now look what happened!

My day at the DMV

Well it has been a long time since the glorious day at AT&T Park. Today I had a not so glorious day at the DMV. I made an appointment because apparently that is the thing to do. I show up at the DMV and they inform me I need my passport. FINE! I go home and return to the DMV.....now I am appointmentless and among the common folk. Apparently I need a smog test....I thought I had read something online that my amazing Honda Civic VP was exempt from the smog test....I was wrong (as I was informed). So I was suppose to get a CA license and register my vehicle. I couldn't register my car but I could get my license......but FIRST I had to take the written test. So this test is kind of a beast, 36 questions and you can only miss 3 (that's better than 90% for you folks out there). This test really wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be....I wont go into the details of the questions....fortunately I passed, phew! Then hilarity ensued. The woman who corrected my test then proceeded to say the following, "Ok honey, now, this permit allows you to drive as long as you are driving with a licensed adult...." Hold on 1 second. Do I look 15?! I corrected her and my WA state license got a big ol' punch through it :-( I should receive my CA license in 4-7 weeks. Wow, slow turnaround.

BTW...did anyone catch that amazing Mariner's game a few days ago. A 1-hitter. Incredible!

Ichiro Denied Me

As new residents of Northern California, our official initiation would not be complete without a trip to SBC, I mean PacBell, oh wait, I mean AT&T park to see the San Francisco Giants and everyone's favorite steroids user, I mean home run hitter, Barry Bonds. AND were in luck, the Mariners were in town for a spring training game.

So last night after work we headed to the park. I decided to be super cool and surprise Nick with really good tickets. And when I mean good, I mean, SUPER SWEET!

In case you missed us last night on FSN northwest, I have provided a picture for your viewing pleasure.

More on these amazing seats later.

The park is really nice, very much like safeco. We got to our seats and then decided to explore.
We had our own special underground area with our own bathrooms and food. But the coolest part was the area right next to the women's restroom. It was the area between the dugout and the clubhouse. Every Mariner had to walk right across the hall to get to the field. So we decided to hang out and see what would happen. Well, after about 15 minutes of waiting, I caught Willie Bloomquist's eye and asked for an autograph. Ok, so he doesn't start, but it's Bloomy! He signed my "Official Major League Baseball" I got a few years ago at a game in Seattle.


We decided to wait and see if we could get Ichiro to sign. The professional guys were cautiously optimistic. We had a kid and a girl (me). After another few minutes, and getting faked out about 5 times by the bat boy, Ichiro walked by. I yelled "ICHIRO" and he turns, looks me square in the eyes and says "Sorry." UGH! Oh well, I was about 5 feet away from him and it was a good story.

So we went back to our incredible seats where I was able to snap the following photos:




Ichiro stole a base in the 1st inning and the Giants didn't know what hit um.

Bonds. He's still good.

It was definitely a fun game. So now I have to talk about out seats. We were on FSN periodically all night so we thought we'd call our parents to see if they could see us. Let's just say that it took a few innings before our parents could locate us. Oh well.

1 last tidbit of info....these seats are actually located closer to the batter than the pitcher. Sweet! Too bad Zito killed us :-( It was still fun.

I was going to go on a run but there was a mountain lion sighting 4 blocks away....I don't feel like getting eaten or mauled today. I'll go golfing instead.