The trouble with landlords....

Life has gotten a bit hectic and stressful in the last few weeks. Being an adult can really suck sometimes. This past week Chris and I found ourselves in a heated battle with our management company and landlord over Indy. We had told them we were going to get a dog and had gotten verbal permission and now that we were asking to have something fixed we were being told we needed to pay dog rent- an extra $50 a month on our already outrageous rent. What they did I'm pretty sure is illegal and above all else unethical, but when they threatened us with eviction and served us with a 3 day "get the dog off the property or get out notice" we had no choice but to surrender and agree to the extra rent. It's hard being the little guy with no lawyer on tap, no endless pool of financial resources and at the mercy of those we somehow own property.

The entire experience was an opportunity to learn some valuable lessons: 1.) Always get things in writing. 2.) Don't trust people who have the ability to make you homeless. 3.) As long as you're in a financially vulnerable situation there is always someone who will try to take advantage of you. 4.) I love my boyfriend for being the very calm and level headed yin to my outspoken and passionate yang. Aside from being out a few more bucks a month, everything turned out fine. We still have a roof over our heads and the cutest doggy ever.

We also found time before all this happened to paint our living room last weekend.

Note the really awesome peach walls...especially the orange in the entry way.


And after- Birchwood. ahhhhh sooothing.



Kickball has been plugging along. After a particularly devastating loss we turned it around last week in a riveting game that involved us coming from behind with a 4 run grand slam!!!! Some picts from earlier in the season.



I'll narrate this picture for you.
Chris: "Indy....Indy....sit....sit...seriously...SIT!"
Indy: "Play? Food? Trash? Play? What? What'd you say dad?"
Travis: "Gee! I love kickball! And ice cream! And puppy dogs!"
Dustin: "Mumble...mumble...do you know the way to the weight room....mumble grumble...when i was in the marines....".



Indy is an excellent coach...maybe next time he'll bring orange slices and capri suns.....if only he had opposable thumbs!!! damn these paws!!!



"I've got my seatbelt on and I'm ready for a car ride!!"


well...it's been in the triple digits here in SoCal. 109 in the valley yesterday....that's 109 DEGREES!! I think we'll go abuse our friend's pool today. There may be some badass pictures of cannonballs for you later. :) If you're lucky.

Because it's awesome.

"I'm not a policeman! I'm a pirate!"

I feel like this just sums it all up....





Yay! It's Friday! There's nothing like Friday at 6:01pm. All the possibilities. 6 hours to go....tick tick tick....

Coffee and Run-on Sentences.

My most recent concern is that after many years of leading a relatively caffeine free existence (within reason, I mean, seriously folks) that I am slowly becoming dependent upon a morning coffee run. It started a couple weeks ago when I woke up extremely tired and with a hankering for a non-fat sugar-free vanilla latte from Starbucks. Now, mind you, I am consciously aware that Starbucks coffee basically tastes like sewer water, but in latte form with some vanilla syrup it's fairly tolerable although has a slight aftertaste of steak juice. But I digress...

So I rediscovered that there just happens to be a Starbucks directly on my way to work, convenient side of the road and all. So I stopped and felt that rush of energy and mental alertness that carried me through to lunch. A couple days later I found myself craving that foamy latte and what turned into an occassional fix has become a regular (although not daily) stop for coffee. I have abandoned Starbucks though...because when I decided that, in an effort to make my caffeine fix more affordable, I would switch from a latte to regular coffee with an exceptional amount of milk I realized just how unpalatable the coffee is at "the bucks". I tried a new coffee shop also on my way to work called Java House....the place was empty...$1.52 later I realized why.

Today I woke up in an exceptionally bad mood. The dog was whining, I was having a weird dream and it was Monday. As Chris woke me up I was already pissy ( a mood which wasn't helped by his subsequent comment about my particularly bad morning breath). As I got out of bed the dog was already getting into the garbage (something he's become ESPECIALLY fond of the last few days) and I basically woke up yelling. As I walked out of the house I decided that I needed a narcotic fix for my mood. I stopped at a new coffee house that sells organic coffee and espresso- Village Joe. I ordered a small coffee with room for milk. I was bummed they didn't have any non-fat set out and settled for the 2% and 4 packets of Equal. By the time I arrived at work I was already feeling a bit better. I'm not sure if it was the coffee or that I booked two scouts before lunch, but this day was looking downright up (yea figure that one out).

So the point of this whole story is....am I becoming caffeine dependent??? Part of me feels like saying "screw it. whatever gets you through the day", but another part of me knows that it's a slippery slope from coffee in the morning, to coffee in the afternoon to "man my head hurts! don't talk to me until I have coffee!!!" and not sleeping at night (which is already a problem for me). So I'm going to chalk it up to just a case of the Mondays and try to stay away from that delicious organic coffee on my way to work tomorrow....maybe I'll have to take a different route.

Hey. At least I'm not robbing CVS drugstores for Sudafed and setting up a meth lab.....not yet at least. It is a slipperly slope though.

Sunday Night Blues

Well....another weekend has passed. Again I feel like it was wasted. I'm not sure if there is anything I could do on these precious two days a week that would make me feel relaxed, rejuvinated and ready for another work week. I had a mental list of all the things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend. Laundry, paint the living room, re-pot some plants, lay down some grass seed and fill in the holes in the yard from Indy digging, organize my desk, UNPACK MY BAG from when I visited up north....the list could go on and on. What actually ended up happening feels so much less productive, sounds much more relaxing, and yet somehow wasn't at all. I did manage to get in a good run with the pooch, spend some quality time hanging out with Linus and Chris, discover a good recipe for sunday morning waffles, give the dog a bath, see Stardust and make some vanilla bean ice cream from scratch. Somehow, at the end of all that I'm still exhausted and not at all ready for another Monday...especially one that I know will be a demanding one.

I talked to my parents briefly tonight...and when I expressed a dread for the upcoming work week and a lack of enthusiasm for working in general, rather than tell me, "hey! it gets better!", they responded, "yup. us too. we know exactly how you feel". Well....at least I know that in 20 years I'll still feel the same every Sunday night. At least I have that kind of consistency.


On the bright side....I do have new hair!

I Feel The Earth Move Under My Feet.

We had an earthquake last night.

I'd been in bed since 11:30pm and at 12:57am was having a hard time falling asleep. I was starting to feel the sleepies taking over when I heard a rumbling and the entire bed started shaking side to side for a few long seconds and then shook head to toe. The sound was louder than I would have expected. I layed quietly until the house stopped moving and then looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. Both Chris and Indy lay blissfully unaware of the commotion. I tried to go back to sleep but for the first time after an earthquake I felt scared. I got up and Indy looked at me like, "hey mommy! what's up?!" I did a brief check of the house to make sure everything (especially the plasma) was in the right place. I peaked out the window and could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance. That confirmed it. Not a dream. I climbed back into bed wondering why my heart wouldn't stop beating...and why, this time, I didn't think it was fun.

The quake originated in the mountains by Chatsworth...only 9 miles from us. The strength was a 4.5, but as it was happening I was guessing closer to 7.0. I used to think Earthquakes were fun...if no one was hurt. I think it was the fact that I was the only one awake surrounded by darkness as the boy and animal that I love the most slept, that scared me. I think the older you get the more you can wrap your head around the potential for devastating loss, injury and property damage that can come with an earthquake.


I remember very vividly the '89 earthquake in the Bay Area. My mom had just picked me and my brother up from day care and we were on our way home. I sat in the front seat while Danny was in the back. We were stopped at a red light when the car began to bounce. Gently at first and then more violently. My mom turned to the backseat and yelled for Danny to stop jumping around back there. We then realized that all the cars were bouncing and the road was rolling like a wave. The giant oak tree in front of our dentist's office swayed as though it were a daisy in wind. After the ground stopped moving we made our way home. The damage was apparent all around us. It wasn't until later that we would become aware of the devastation occuring on the Bay Bridge and other areas. We met up with my dad and went home. I have a vague recollection of getting fast food and then roller skating in our front driveway. I thought it was fun.

The most bizarre thing about all of this...is that at the same time we have an earthquake, Brooklyn has a tornado. The first to hit that area since 1889. Coincidence? Or apocolypse? Discuss.

A little ray of sunshine.

I was trolling through old postings on blogs that I stalk and found this picture amidst one of Tracy's posts. It makes me happy. So I'll post it. :)




that is all.