Trains, Planes and Invisaligns

Well we are safely and soundly back from our trip to Boston. My ride out there was quite eventful. I left with a bad cold, and ended up rupturing my eardrum on my first flight into New York. I left during a storm so the ride was quite ridiculous, but I made it onto my connector after about a 5 hour delay.

Lets start with the negatives of the week:

-being herded like cattle to this place and that.

-avoiding people I hadnt seen because I really did not know if I could answer the question "Hows San Diego?" one more time, without losing my shit. Its just not alot of fun to talk about the same thing over and over.

-TRAFFIC: within a few minutes of being in the car in Boston I was quickly dropping f-bombs, d-bags, the middle finger and honking the horn incessantly.(people just don't do that in San Diego so I had to take advantage)

-rupturing an eardrum

-being told by my dentist that I need braces because my teeth are crowding. Especially since I prided myself on the fact that I saved my parents tons of money because I never had cavities, needed braces, and never got wisdom teeth. And now I will have to pay for them.

-getting the stomach bug at 3am at the same time as two other people and battling for the toilet

-having to leave and say goodbye all over again

Okay and the positives of the week:

-seeing Nana toast the entire nursing home "I love all of you, you are all beautiful people"

-seeing neices and nephew really enjoy Christmas for the first time

-meeting friends babies, and seeing big bellies

-hanging with my family

-seeing snow

-good Italian food

-getting a new video camera so I can capture moments like this!

-coming home to see the puppy

We are very excited to wake up tomorrow at 4am(its a good thing that I am still on east coast time) and drive to Pasadena to see that little old lady and floats of roses and the rose bowl! I will be sure to take lots of videos as we chant WE ARE PENN STATE. We are sitting in the end zone with the Penn State Kids. Maybe I will get them to pick me up and shake me around when they score!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Floods and boogers

So I have been living all by my lonesome for a week now since Bri had to go home early for business. This has meant a few things:

Cereal for dinner or no dinner at all

LOTS of bad television
LOTS of chic flicks

Destruction at the house: the lamp (my fault), my jacket (dog's fault)

Me waking up sleeping sideways

Of course Bri has been gone during the worst weather yet. I actually got home during a flash flood the other day where I had to wade through water just to get to my door. And just as soon as it happened it was done. Very strange. Apparently around 4 people or so a year die near here because of flash floods. Its no laughing matter.

Anyways this week has flown by at work. We had our holiday show today and it was so nice to see all the kids have their special moment. I was emceeing the event with one of our students so that was fun. I did not even make any inappropriate jokes.I wanted to, but I didn't. The only thing I said that was not on my original script was this "well that was a long skit so maybe he needed some extra protein." This was after one of the kids stood on stage, picked his nose, then ate it, over and over and over and over the whole skit. It was AWESOME. I'm pretty sure he did it on purpose so that made it even better.

I leave to go home just in time for all the snow so lets hope that I make it there on Sunday! I can't wait to get back to Boston!!! Lets just hope that I want to come back......

Okay well I guess i'll have to come back for Belle!!! Stupid jacket eater

Not quitting my day job anytime soon

I got bored last weekend and decided that I would try making videos. It is supposed to be to a really cute song about a puppy but I am not that good yet. Anyways I am going to attempt to put together some fun videos and figured i'd start with the dog. Afterall she won't judge me. She may eat my socks and underwear, but she never judges.

We are winding down here in San Diego and Bri is off for the east coast tonight. In case you are a psycho reading the blog, I am not alone, I have a dog, she is very big, and vicious, and I also have a loaded gun that I am not afraid to use. Although Bri has repeatedly warned me not to play with it, and that "wherever I point it it will shoot" well isn't that the point?!

Anyhoo that is just a precaution since I very often hear helicopters flying overhead making announcements about people running around armed and what not. Oh and I also promise not to do any late night runs through the canyons while he's gone.

Our water polo game this week was fun, we won, but at the end of the game my head had a major collision with the goalies elbow. I could have done without that.

Not sure if i'll make it to all the fun ugly holiday sweater parties this weekend, since I feel a cold coming on, but hopefully I do! Oh and hopefully the dog doesn't eat the christmas tree while she is left alone here all day for a week.

middle fingers and mylar

So after my dad left all diseased and what not I got to decorating and put up the Christmas tree.

I must say it is rather odd decorating in warm weather, but I am not going to complain. Running has been in full gear and this weekend I ran with my group on the half marathon route and it was beautiful. We run right along the ocean and its a beautiful view of the ocean and tons of surfers. Today was the first run and I mean first of many that I did not feel like I wanted to die.

After my run Bri and I ventured out to a great little hole in the wall breakfast place, Big Kitchen in South Park and it became our fast favorite. The woman who owned it gave us a big hug on the way out, god bless Judy. I took a picture with Betty Boop outside of the restaurant as we were leaving.After breakfast we took off for the beach with the dog. And yes that is me giving the finger because I usually take the pictures to send to friends and family back home, and lets be honest, it is basically me giving a big giant middle finger. So I figured I would actually give it on this one.

We are off for some more holiday cheer tonight. THere is a big giant christmas extravaganza in Balboa park which is where we live, so if we can brave the crowds we are going to check it out and see some christmas lights.

Oh and this week we played the same team that gave us our name "we go for balls" in water polo, cause last season I actually jumped out of my tube to knee a fellow in the nuts cause he was really physical with me and I saw no other way to handle it. Anyways we played them and they are the reigning champs. They beat us by around 20 points last season but we managed to only lose by 6 this week.Yay for us!! I am still trying to post a video of us playing, but we are usually low on subs so I never get to get the footage. Maybe next time!

Happy 2nd birthday to Elizabeth!! I am very sad to be missing the family party today but sent a nice bunch of balloons for the birthday girl which i'm sure she'll still be dragging around for Christmas. SHe's got a thing for mylar!

The trip back to boston is coming soon! Two weeks and counting!

turkey with a side of shingles

So my dad has been complaining of neck pain and woke up today with shingles. Not fun, they are pretty much on the right side of his head. So he booked an early flight home tomorrow. Luckily he was here to taste Brian's first smoked turkey. He had me chronicle the entire event. It was rather delicious and is now going to be a tradition. Oh I should have mentioned that he was manning the grill in the heaviest rain we have had here. Happy Thanksgiving!

la la la la la la last night

After seeing my friends pictures from the numerous New Kids concerts that they went to in Boston I knew I had to go when they came out here. After begging pretty much everyone I know here to go with me, I finally convinced a friend of mine to come. I kept getting screwed with tickets but managed to find some floor seats last minute. My friend ended up getting sick, so I ended up posting the one ticket on craigslist and found a random dude(and surprisingly he was not gay) from good ole Dorchester!
So before the show, I of course took out my "play clothes" and tried on my go to 80's outfit: La Gear jacket, flourescent orange skirt, and black hat (all originals). I came out of the room and the dog started to bark at me like I was an intruder. I knew from that reaction that I was onto something. So yes I went to the New Kids by myself, and dressed up like an idiot. I was in good company once there, about 15000 screaming girls. I could have done without the chic next to me that puked on my feet before the New Kids even came out on stage, but hey she was having a good time.

I chose my seats because they were right next to the second stage that they sing about 3 songs on. However I chose to make a bathroom run before, and got held up by security for about 20 minutes. I was practically in tears once I realized that they invited everyone from my row to stand right around the piano that they sang at. I was trying hard to be nice even though I was pissed which paid off. Some security guard ended up letting me into a secret elevator so I could get back up into the stadium and then I had to fight my way back down. I managed to muscle through (probably poked people with my bedazzled jacket) back to my area. It was superfun, and during one of the songs it mentions spinning a pony tail and Joey Mac pointed right at me and made a spinning motion (my hair was in a side pony tail of course) so I spun it around for him, and he pointed and laughed. It gets em everytime!

So a superfun night, I pretty much peed myself all night from jumping up and down while screaming. I never thought i'd be at a New Kids concert drinking a beer, but it happened last night.

My dad arrived last night and we are going to try to get some sun before another little storm rolls through. It is amazing how much coverage "STORM WATCH" gets here for basically a sprinkling of rain.

Happy Turkey Day!!!

blah blah blah

There some pics from our hike in torrey pines on veteran's day and a pic of the flowers big al sent me!

A quiet week here, our water polo game was average this week, although we had 4 girls in the water and the other team only had 2. I would like to think that boys and girls are equal, but when it comes to physical sports, it just isn't true. Everyone on the team did score a point though, so that was fun. We have two weeks off so it will be good to let everyone heal, since half of our team is injured right now.

I am running a 10K tomorrow. Not sure how thats going to go, I still feel like I am dragging major ass, and my knee keeps popping in and out when I run, but we'll see how that goes. Its still early in the season so I am trying to take it easy. Anyhoo just one more full week of work and then my dad is here the week after. Then its only 3 weeks of work then I get to go home!!!!

Argyle

This week was pretty uneventful. The weather was warm again so we had a few later day beach trips. We witnessed the navy seals practicing the other night. It was pretty remarkable, they kept dropping some guys into the ocean from helicopters, leaving them there and then pulling them back up into the copters. Pretty hard core. Anyways I am back into marathon training. Well half marathon for now. I have to see how my legs/back/arms/entire body hold up before commiting to a full marathon. I am very much missing the team in training though, especially this time of year, but hopefully after this event I can sign up for the San Diego marathon.

We were victorious in our water polo game this week. I cancelled my MRI this week cause my wrist is finally better. In fact I didn't wear my brace on Friday because I had actually strained my right wrist at the game.

Anyhoo we had a fun game night at a friends house Friday night and I turned in early for my morning run. I already have a knee injury ( I tried to jump over a guardrail last week and missed) so I am kind of taking it very slow on the runs, but getting my mileage in anyways. I finally got an IPOD courtesy of Bri. I have no idea how to use it, and the plugs don't fit in one of my ears, but I love it and it makes the runs go by alot quicker.

We went out to celebrate a friends birthday that we met at the dog park. We went bowling downtown. We had some rather rambunctous and funny peeps next to us, who spent their night razzing Bri for wearing an argyle sweater. They were dressed up in crazy gear so they really made us normal folks look like freaks. Anyways it was a fun night. It got freakishly windy here last night, and I thought we had animals in the house in my haze, but it turned out to be the windows slamming open and shut all night. Good times!

Fall back

A semi eventful weekend here in sunny California. The weather has been from what i'm told, unseasonably warm, which is just fine with me. Halloween night we ended up staying in and giving out candy,which was probably a good call because I had to be at my group run by 7:30am. I had an okay first run, just 4 miles so we will start building up slowly for the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January. At that point I will figure out if the San Diego Rock n Roll marathon is something i'm willing to do. I am also going to do it with the Leukemia Society. Its just not the same running with a different group that you can't cry with every weekend. I just figure I may want to begin marathon training in running shape...what a novel idea!

We bombed the house for hopefully the last time. We are now flea free, and i'm pretty sure I will end up on an episode of House with all the pesticides that I have been inhaling for two weeks now.

I wanted to wear my fancy new shoes that I bought so Bri and I went out for dinner downtown to our favorite restaurant Croce's. We sat outside and quickly realized we were sitting next to Jim Croce's wife who owns and runs the restaurant. They were sampling the new menu. So of course I had to pipe in over and over with my iron chef like comments. She was so nice as well as her husband and they let us sample some of the new items on the menu as well. Dinner was fantastic and we hot footed it to a bar up on top of a hotel to meet some friends. It was a very cool place with a great view of the city and Petco park. However at some point I stepped into a big wad of gum. Pissah.

Anyway we are just hanging out today, taking the dog to the beach and getting ready to smoke a pizza for the game tonight!!

Oh and the best news EVER!!!! My dad is going to come for Thanksgiving!!!! I am very excited, especially because my homesickness was at an all time high for me here this week. I so badly wanted to come home next weekend for a suprise visit but I have some meetings at work that I really can't miss. So this is going to be very nice.

Also want to send out good fundraising and running thoughts to the Barnes family who is holding a 5K in memory of Jason who passed away a year ago. There is no better way to honor someone than to get a whole bunch of people together for the same cause.

Happy Halloween!!

What do you think Belle is thinking?
a. "I hate you for doing this"
b. "orange is not a good color for me"
c. "I can't wait to eat this costume"
or d. "at least I am not a stupid cheerleader like last year!"

Happy to be ending a long week of flea killing to celebrate Halloween!

We had our first water polo game last night and played the defending champions from last season. I'm pretty sure they beat us by about 15 points last season but only 6 this time, so not too shabby. I had to play one armed again and am hoping that I can make it to the game next week after my MRI. I am guessing I freak out after about 2.2 seconds so that should make it pretty quick. Not sure I want those results, because the word "surgery" has been thrown around. Seeing as my medical experiences here in Cali have not been up to par, if I have to do surgery I am definately flying home for it.





Happy Halloween!!

You dropped a "bomb" on me babay

Well, where to start. Okay so there have been many posts about annoyances here in San Diego, such as raccoons, possum, flies, maggots and now we have one more to add to that FLEAS.

I was brushing Belle as I do about twice a day and I saw a little critter. Of course I freaked out and made Bri catch it. At that point I started googleing about fleas and read that it was most likely not alone and that if there is one on the dog then they are in the house.

Now let me backtrack here. Bri and I just got our long awaited new bed delivered. And just this morning woke up to Belle who managed to wiggle her way in between us, onto my pillow, and UNDER the covers.

So of course after finding a flea I was concerned. We had just frontlined her the night before so we couldn't give a flea bath or anything like that so we hot tailed it to Petco to get something to BOMB the house with.

Bri set two bombs and we had to shut the house up and vacate it for two hours. We fortunately were able to visit friends of ours who just had a baby girl two weeks ago so that was fun. But we had to come home to a smelly house and I proceeded to clean from top to bottom, and then worked on about 10 loads of laundry. No kidding. I had just done all our sheets, towels and duvet covers on Monday, psyched to be doing them again.

Anyhoo we just did another check on Belle and it looks like she is now flea free and that the frontline is starting to work. Hopefully we caught it in time, and with the bombing we killed EVERYTHING in the house. I came home to MANY dead daddy long legs. Apparently fleas are really bad in this area because it never gets cold. Its just crazy that she never got them in Boston even though she was at doggy day care every day. Anyhoo I guess this is one of the negatives we have to deal with out here. So for tonight Belle is banned to the floor.

On the upside it is still beautiful and in the 80s! I start training for the half marathon on Tuesday, and a new season of Inner Tube Water Polo. I will still be playing one armed since my wrist is still shot. I see the PT tomorrow and they are supposed to make me some kind of brace or something. Oh and I am supposed to go for an MRI on November 5th. Yes that is almost two months after the injury. I guess things are a little slow out here.

all torn up

Okay so the curious creature living in our wall was a possum. So happy to report that we have had some good nights sleep since it was caught and released and Bri put up some screening so no more animals can make their home in our walls.

This weekend was a fun filled one. Bri and I met up with some people I work with for happy hour on Friday. It turned into a few more hours past happy hour, and some bad decisions, but really it was my first drunken night since we moved here. I was due to take shots, and harass old men that never saw it coming. I was sorry the next day, but whatev. Anyhoo I was pretty much pathetic all day Saturday but made it out to get some sushi with some girls. Since I was hungover I did get some deep fried sushi to take the edge off. Anyways while there one of the girls who is a PT did a great eval on my wrist and determined that it was probably a torn ligament or cartilege. I was finally able to get an appt with an orthopedic today and he said the same thing. However he still wants me to get an MRI in a few weeks. I warned them that there is a strong possibility that I won't be able to sit in the MRI for long. It is at night though, so I may be able to drink some wine to relax and not have a full fledged panic attack. Should be interesting. So I have to go see someone to make some molded to my arm type brace.

We had a fun cookout yesterday and Bri fired the grill up at about 9am for a 4 o clock cookout. You know what that means, smoky delicious, fall off the bone ribs. yummy.

history

Here is why it is in my DNA to hate raccoons. Many years back when I was in high school, my mother was awoken to shrieking. So off she went to investigate and ended up seeing a raccoon that fell through our skylight. It shimmied up the wall and ended up on top of the valence in front of our bay window. At this point I heard my father "shit balls etc" as he attempted to squeeze through their bedroom window because my mom was afraid that it was rabid. Anyhoo we had to play it cool the whole time because they were afraid that Mark would wake up and shoot it with his bee bee gun. Anyhoo long story short, the police came, pepper sprayed the poor thing, and my father was left to clean up raccoon diarrhea all over our living room. Oh and my mom ended up with shingles right after, which was most likely a direct result of the stress from that night.

So now that we now of my genetic disposition to stress induced from wild animals I will share our current situation. For the past 2 weeks each night from about 11-3 there are wild screeching sounds, that wake us up, wake the dog up, and sound like animals are in our house. So we got a guy to come out here today and he crawled under the house and saw that "animals" have torn through the insulation and have set up shop IN OUR WALLS. No problem, they set up a live trap. I am soooooooo not looking forward to them actually getting caught, but I guess I can go with a few more disruptive nights sleep. But as long as I don't have to wake up to skunk smells and animal screeches I am good.

Peace be with the coons.

Del Mar Dog Beach

Just spent the day at the Del Mar dog beach right by the horse tracks. Here are some pics! GO PATS!!

Greek Life

This week pretty much consisted of recovery from Vegas. I returned to work on Monday, exhausted, and beat up, when I heard the not so great sound of the alarms. At my school the alarms either mean fire alarm, earthquake, or OH SHIT A KID GOT LOOSE!!! It was the latter.

So one of the kids snuck off and was missing for TWO HOURS. This meant a hot pursuit on foot running around the neighborhood and pretty much shitting our pants. We had the police helicopters out and everyone looking. He turned up at a sorority house. Classic, the kid took the trolley to a nearby college and probably followed a pretty girl home. NICE. Anyways needless to say I felt no need to exercise that night.

Tuesday I took the dog to Coronado beach and we did a nice little run and then played at the beach. When we left the beach Belle got attacked by two "friendly" dogs. It was pretty ridiculous, but luckily she was not hurt, I on the other hand was pretty traumatized, and killed my wrist that finally felt like it was getting better. Ho hum.

Bri came home from Vegas on Wednesday but missed our last inner tube water polo game cause he had to meet with a client. I on the other hand made it to the game, one handed and all. I couldn't even put my wrist into the water cause I was nervous it would get bumped, so I paddled one armed. I managed to score about five goals, so I can only imagine how the guys on the other team felt when they finally realized that I was only using one hand. I hate to sound full of myself, but I have NEVER been good at any sport... ever. It is not easy always being the worst person on your team, or finishing marathons while they are already cleaning the streets. I have never let it bother me, or keep me from trying any and every sport. This beings said, I am also going to appreciate when I am actually on the better end of it all. We have a few weeks off and then our team which was 'team ocho' will now be renamed 'we go for balls', because we do. Anyhoo I am supposed to be playing in a beach volleyball tournament right now but since I can't touch my wrist I figured that was not a good idea. So unfortunately I am not going to be able to play next season either.

I did however sign up for the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January. I am going to train with the same league that I do all water polo and vball with. We train on Tuesday nights at Mission beach, and then Saturday mornings all around San Diego. I figured that I might try starting marathon training in good shape as opposed to how I usually do it...completely out of shape from not running at all since the previous marathon day. San Diego marathon training starts in January so this way i'll be ahead of the game, and maybe I won't end up injured.

As for this weekend I pretty much kept my schedule open because there is TONS of cleaning and lounging to do after last weekend. That and Bri lost all our money on the craps table. Come to find out, being in vegas for six days does not bode well for the savings.....

Happy bday to Mary, and to Cakes!! Also my friend out here Erin, is having baby Leah as we speak!!

The Pats are in town this weekend but since I have to work Columbus Day, and have a big meeting first thing in the morning, I will most likely be watching the game from my couch. Bummer. Go Sox, Go Pats!!

Michael Jordan

Well I just got back from my weekend trip to Vegas, so yes I am currently sitting on the couch, watching TV and trying to rehydrate. We left Friday to meet up with our friends Tiff and Bill and had a grand ole time. Friday night I ended up venturing off to a craps table by myself when I spotted a crazy chinese man that could barely stand up. That seemed like a good sign. So I dropped down my money and ended up throwing the dice right away. Lets just say that about 5 hours later I went back up to the room with a wad of cash in my pocket. My little friend "jimmy" which I am pretty sure is not his real name, was screaming "Michael Jordan" and attempting to hold up the number 2 and 3 with his fingers. It looked more like gang signs but whatever. I took his fancy bracelet off of him and made everyone that was throwing the dice wear it. I did notice the next morning that he had it back on. And yes, he pretended like he didn't know me. Anyways it was loads of fun. I think Jimmy was going in for a smooch....awesome

Saturday night Bri and I went to his mentors restaurant, Mesa by Bobby Flay. It was an amazing meal and we chatted up our neighbors at the restaurant and despite me not being hungry AT ALL, I finished the appetizer, meal AND desert. It was a great meal that hopefully gave Bri a few good ideas for cooking. We were going to crash Nicky Hilton's bday bash at PURE, but I realized I was not 23, and did not have slutty enough clothes to enter. So we ventured back to the craps table. Lets just say that the Merrill's changed the vibe at the table and had another good night. I had to turn in early because my back was spasming in about 4 diff areas. Bri staggered back to the room around 4:30 "I was so hot, I rolled for 45 minutes", "I was so hot, I rolled for an hour and a half" "I was so hot I rolled for like 3 hours"...you get the picture.

A quick flight home and some lame jokes made by the southwest workers, and I am chillin with the puppy and watching some baseball. I still can't move my wrist and have been in back spasms every day. I tried the chiropractor, accupuncturist, the DO, and had x-rays. Noone has been able to tell me whats going on. It is really cutting into my extreme sports though.

We are really crossing our fingers for a red sox/dodgers world series so that we can try to get to a game. Here's hoping!

hangin tuf

Okay so I was major jealous of the girls going to the NKOTB concert at the Garden. They kept me involved with pictures, videos and stories. To take the edge off I slapped open the lap top and went to you tube and found the most recent concert on there. I was instantly swingin my arms and chanting whoa oh oh oh oh hangin tough with all the concert goers. Bri suggested I put headphones on so that he didn't have to endure the madness, but really it just made me sing louder. I finally convinced a friend to come with me and will be getting tickets for their show out here.

The weather has been beautiful, so we have been beaching it quite a bit. I managed to get up early yesterday and go for a hike up Mt. Cowles. It was beautiful and challenging, but not too long so it was perfect.

I just signed up for the Carlsbad half marathon and will start training at the end of the month with the same group that I do the water polo and volleyball with. Maybe now when I start training for the full marathon I won't be so out of shape, or injured right away. Fancy that!

aye yay yay

I had to go back and read if I recalled hurting my wrist during last weeks volleyball game. I have not been able to move my wrist side to side all week and it is somehow getting worse. I cracked down and bought a makeshift wrist brace, so hopefully more time off it will help. I did however make the smart decision to play water polo on Wednesday. It was actually okay cause I really just tried to use my right arm. Even with one arm I showed some guys how the ladies play and tried to be as scrappy as possible. It was finally an evenly matched game, which made it fun, yet competitive, and its always more fun when you win right? Bri was a superstar in the goal yet again and I think he even scored. I am taking tomorrow off from volleyball (not sure how you play with a brace on) so maybe my team will actually win without me there.

We are having breakfast with a couple we met at the dog park tomorrow, then dinner with someone Bri met and his wife. I am going to try to hike the mountain we did a few weeks ago since I can't use my hands right now. It has shockingly been the hottest its been out here, so Bri and I ventured off to the beach to body surf yesterday. Unfortunately the waves were weak but it was nice to get into the ocean during the week! The beach was next to empty which was nice, but the seagulls were worse than the ones in Revere in front of Kelly's!!

Spaz

I must be getting old. Both of my athletic endeavors this week left me battered and bruised and very sore. Wednesday night we had another water polo game. We played another hot shot team, who took it way too seriously. There was one particular squirrely guy on their team that decided to pick on me the entire game. I was so weak from my "bug" and could have cared less about this game but this guy was out to get me. Not only did he grab my crotch, but he also put me in a wrestling move, in which he had my foot wedged in between his legs and he started to twist back and forth, wreakin havoc on my ankle. Mind you, I was nowhere near the ball in play. I kind of lost it there and decided to reach over and dig my nails into his arm. It didn't even end there, but whatever. At least I scored a goal while my eyes were being covered and my head being clawed at by the other team. Needless to say I pulled a few muscles that night. Did i mention the game was at 9pm?! That is pretty much my bedtime. Anyways I was pretty much dead tired the next day.
Friday night we got to meet up with a few of Bri's coworkers and went out to a great Mexican restaurant in Old Town. I had a volleyball game Saturday and bellyflopped onto the sand at one point. I remember saying "someone remind me why I will be at the chiropractor this week" but just kept playing. Well anyways I woke up at about 2am last night with horriffic spasms. Once I managed to get out of bed I popped some advil and tried to stretch out a little bit. The spasms are in my shoulderblade area, which I have never had. Needless to say once I tried to get back into bed I realized I was in trouble and sent Brian to search for some muscle relaxers. Luckily I had one left from years ago and that seemed to help. I am still in a fog, but the spasms have let up a bit so thats good.
We were invited to a block party yesterday. There is a little alley way street behind our house, so they were hosting it. It was lots of fun, and a good way to meet some of the people in the neighborhood. The weather is still beautiful here, but you can definately feel the chill in the air at night!

Damn your balls, you gave me GD

Yesterday's post was full of yumminess and my desire to eat golden fried balls. Well right after eating I realized that my stomach did not feel so good. Needless to say, my own midnight madness started and I was up sick ALL NIGHT! Gripping the walls, moaning out in pain. It was absolutely pitiful. No amount of imodium helped, and I now have to add a more severe rating to my diarrhea scale because UD (unfathomable diarrhea) would not cut it for what I went through last night. I am thinking GD (ghastly diarrhea). I would have gone with ungraspable diarrhea, but I already have a UD. Anyways, Brian insists it was not the balls, since he ate them as well and did not get sick, but I beg to differ.

goodness gracious great balls are frying

Another eventful weekend here in sunny San Diego. Speaking of weather, we had the very first day of complete cloud coverage last week, it was very strange. Good thing it was just a day or I would have started to complain about the weather as if I have not lived my entire 29 years in the most volatile climate of all. Anyways I had a great sushi night out with my friend Susie and some of her friends. I am getting over my love hate with sushi. See the problem is I have a freakishly small mouth. So when I try to fit a roll in there, it just gets ugly. Food dropping out, me merely choking, you get the picture. Anyways I am somehow perfecting this and am actually able to still breathe while trying to chew. It was a delicious place with fun drinks and lots of laughs with the ladies. We hit up a wine bar after that was also in Old Town, which is a quaint part of town. Saturday kicked off with beach volleyball and Bri got to accompany me and play since half of our team did not show up. We sucked, big time, but at least we got a good two hour workout in there. I was supposed to go to the bar with Bri today to watch the pats, but I opted for a day at the beach with the dog. She tore it up all day and will now sleep for the next two days with all her rambunctious activities.
I was having a craving for pasta, since it is Sunday afterall! So I made a yummy sauce, and decided to fry up some meatballs. Boy oh boy, that smell took me back to childhood on my grandmothers street, as her friend Connie would fry up the balls every Sunday and you could smell it down the street. I would go down to her house and she would stick one on a fork for me, and it was like a candy covered apple,,,,so yummy! Speaking of sundays and pasta, my sweetiepie Nana was back in the hospital this week, but luckily is back at her place. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Not entirely sure what this entails, but I have been calling and checkin in on her daily. She sounds okay, but kind of like someone is sitting on her chest. HOpefully its not Harvey the cute little old man that has an uncanny resemblance to my grandfather. I think its just an old age thing, but keep her in your prayers anyways!!
Wishing all a great upcoming week! And a happy bday to Melanie today and Boho in a few days!

Finally got the W

Well things were looking dismal for our inner tubve water polo game this week since only 5 of the 9 people on our team were able to make it. We sucked it up and played down two players and we kicked ass. The turning point of the game was probably when Sarah, who can barely touch the water, and flinches everytime the ball comes her way, and often chastises players for playing dirty, gave me a delicate pass in front of the net. My back was to the goal so I just smacked it behind my head and got my first goal of the game. After that I scored a whole bunch with a few assists from the hubby. Oh and Bri got a goal too, but mostly dominated in the goal. It was a fun game, and a great team that we played against. So we won 13-7 and can only go up from here! We went out to the bar after for a quick drink and some eats, but since the sox decided to go 13 innings we were there a bit longer than expected. So even though the sox could not pull off the W, team 8 did!

We are off to try out "the best bbq in san diego." We'll see.

Fro-Yo

Is someone going to judge me if I get frozen yogurt for maybe the 50th time since I moved in? I am not even sure if I have been here that long, but basically I crave frozen yogurt from the most fantastic place, sweet Golden Spoon. They have about 20 flavors to choose from on any given night. They are all fat free. Then you have about 100 choices of unhealthy things to put on top of it. The best part is that I am not keeling over at night with "stomach issues" aka UD. I am still figuring out the best variations but they are all good. I finally asked about the caloric intake the other day and its really not bad. If you get a mini its only 88 calories. And that is typically enough for me. I am sure I will find an excuse to go later.

I made it to another yoga class this morning at a new studio and I LOVED the instructor. She just got back from a sort of pilgrimage to India practicing all kinds of yoga. And she did not get upset when I was making jokes during poses to the classes. She actually had the balls to use me as an example during one of the poses. Fortunately it is like the only known yoga pose that benefits long legged, lanky, monkey armed people like myself. I joked that it was just about the only pose I could pull off. Anyways I did things that I did not think possible and felt pretty comfortable. I bought a little package so I could go 5 times.

Once I got home I felt a little guilty that my poor husband was all alone at a bar watching the Pats, so I jetted off to Longboards. It is a bar in pacific beach that is filled with Patriots fans. I ran into a few Waltham people there as well. We will most likely be there every Sunday.

Oh I am happy to report that my beach volleyball team finally turned it around this Saturday. We lost the first round and won the second. I was shockingly the "ace" and served both times to the win.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

battered and bruised

Okay so last night was game two of inner tube water polo, and I am now covered in bruises. Apparently this sport has been around long enough for people to have played "for years" together. They were ripped and they were not holding back from destroying us. It was pretty ridiculous, and by the end of the game I got so aggravated of being manhandled but one of the guys on the other team, that I got out of my tube and kicked him very hard up the ass. Probably ruined his night if you know what I mean. Anyways Bri kicked ass in goalie, and it will be the perfect position to get footage of him falling out of the tube and trying to get back in, there is alot of it in that position. I shouldn't talk, because I got so fatigued that everytime one of those bastards flipped me out I had to go over to the stairs cause I had no arm strength left. Oh and I scored last night!
Waiting for my college friend Allard to get to our house, he is here on business. Always good to see familiar faces!
Week one of back to school week is almost over. Looking forward to catching up on some sleep this weekend.

Close call

So after a large helping of the killah baked pasta that I made, I decided to walk the dog down to the park. I turned the corner and behind me heard a loud bang, and then a loud horn. A drunk driver nailed a car head on that was parked. At this point I try to run to see if I can catch the plate and the frigin guy with a scrunched up hood, smoke coming out, and leaving a trail of fluids behind him, was just bobbing and weaving down the street. Shortly after I did hear and see the police helicopters looking for the crazy bastard, so hopefully they found him with no injuries to anyone else. I tried to get home quick thinking Bri would be worried sick about his newlywed, but he has the sox game blaring so loudly he missed the whole thing. I think I deserve a frozen yogurt for this.

Back to reality

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend. Its hard to believe its the last official weekend of the summer, but I have a feeling things will feel a little different this year. Anyways we have had a fun filled weekend. We had dinner at a great place that is right on the water called C level, and besides the $30 glass of scotch that Bri ordered it was reasonably priced with great food, and a spectacular view.

There was no beach volleyball this weekend so we just leisurely went to the beach. We boogie boarded for the first time at pacific beach, and the waves there were intense. I pretty much catapaulted and was tossed into a full out sommersalt so I called it quits after that, but it was fun. We met up with one of my friends Erin and her husband Tao. We worked together at my first school out of grad school and it was super fun to hang out with some familiar faces and have some laughs. I was relieved that people were around to enjoy a bbq at our house because that is typically how we rolled back in Boston.

Other than that we are just dandy. We went for a hike today up Mt. Cowles (pronounced coals) and unlike NH trails, you are totally exposed to the sun the entire time. Poor Belle was panting the whole time and kept trying to find refuge in the small amount of shade under some random shrubs and rocks. Needless to say we didn't make it all the way up with her, but I think once the weather cools off she'll love it. It had the most spectacular view of San Diego. Unfortch my camera pooped out up there so no pics of the view but i'm sure we'll do the hike this fall.

I am tirelessly trying to find the best deals on good tickets to the Pats vs Chargers game, so wish us luck on that.

On another side note, I will do my best to getting some footage of Wednesday nights inner tube water polo game. We are playing the champions from last year so it should be good.

Back to school tomorrow!

My true calling in life

Well we just got back from our first official inner tube water polo game. We showed up to the Wavehouse which is a huge compound in the Mission Beach area. It has a bunch of wave pools where people learn to surf and whatnot. Then there is a massive indoor pool area where they keep the water nice and warm(always wonder about the warm pools). Anyways we met our teammates there and attempted to get into the tubes. There were a few guys on our team that had played before, but the rest of us were newbies. I must say I giggled the entire hour. I did more than laughing though, I took advantage of us being new to the water and flipped a boy out of his tube and then taunted him.

Upon reading the rules of the sport I thought that there was "no contact" and that you could not flip people over. I was WRONG. So after quickly realizing that cheap shots were in, and that the ref could have cared less, I grabbed the bottom of the tube handles and flipped and kicked and splashed and even took a few cheap shots under the tubes to boys private areas. Whatever! They were rough too! I was actually not half bad, but I think it was because I was pretty much the only girl whose legs hit the water and so for that reason I tore ass around the pool. I had a few assists but did not score. I have to stop throwing the ball directly at the goalie. Anyways it was loads of fun and I could not stop laughing. Especially when Bri would end up out of his tube and to watch him writhe and wiggle his way back on and off and on and off the tube again was priceless. Although he begged not to post any pictures I have to do it. Of course in good Vavi fashion we went out for some spirits and wings after, which only reminds me of my good ole' Joe Sent Me summer soccer team.

Oh we lost, but it was 9 to 11, and the other teams girls really never touched the ball, and we did. Heres to improvement! Next week our game is late, so we will drink before then swim after. We will see how that tactic works. Oh also I will be sure not to use any type of body lotion right before entering the pool. Made for a slippery polo team member.

GO TEAM 8! 0 and 1

Pics of the house

Here are some pics of the house. I am also happy to report that Belle is doing just fine after her surgery and doesn't even need to wear the annoying lampshade over her head!