Thankful Thursday

Last weekend was a whirlwind. So much for a 6-day vacation! Seriously: we drove up super late Thursday to Oregon, getting in at about 2am, then crashed for a few hours before I had to LEAVE for Coos Bay at 7am to start wedding stuff. All the crazy stuff and events for the wedding happened, then back to Brookings for a couple days in which we rested, but I still felt like it was just a weekendand not any longer, and then we drove back down home on Tuesday evening. FINALLY I had a day to just rest and relax at home on Wednesday before heading back to work on Thursday (today). And whoo boy. I had me a lot of emails to catch up on. Anyway: Wednesday was awesome in that we got tons of stuff done, and mostly finished cleaning up (ahem: Nolan's room...), and took some boxes to Goodwill in Menlo Park, which turned out to be a "Goodwill Boutique" (wtf) meaning they wouldn't take our crap at their upscale charity store. We lounged around...and even got in a good dinner and watched "Thor"...which was a cool movie but not necessarily a great one. Eh. Also we ate pears. And DID WE EVER eat pears. Since one of the themes of the wedding was "the perfect pear", there were boxes upon boxes of pears left over, and guess who got to eat them in every single salad and at each meal and OH BY THE WAY WHY DON'T YOU TAKE A BOX HOME WITH YOU. I've been burping up pears for days now, AND WORSE. It's a good thing it's one of my favourite fruits, because otherwise I would have died of pear overdose a couple days ago. Also handfuls upon handfuls of pear candies = terrible idea. I spent the car-ride home listening to Milo cry while my insides threatened to hurl up pear jelly-bellys like an automatic weapon. Anyway. The good parts. The wedding went off without a hitch, and the rain even held off long enough to get some good shots outside, although I have to say that if you're reading this, Chelsey, you owe me a coffee for nearly making me go into hypothermia out there. xoxo.
Want to see?
Don't they look lovely?! Picture courtesy of (meaning I yanked it from facebook) Applewood Photography.
Also the less significant Caldwells at the wedding cleaned up pretty nicely (at least for the rehearsal: I don't have any good ones from the actual day yet):



And right here, I'm going to tell you that I'm putting up pictures of our new place (w00t w00t!) at the end of this post, but you have to slog through my thankfulness to get there. If there's anything I've learned from marketing and the business world...

1. I'm thankful for the GORGEOUS weather at our new home. I think I'm going to be thankful for this every single week FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. But seriously.
2. I'm thankful my sister-in-law and her new hubby are getting settled into their new lives. Such an exciting time and they had such a great send-off! But I'm a little bit thankful the wedding madness is over, heh. And I didn't even do that much for it!
3. I'm thankful I got to take yesterday off. I needed a lazy/productive day around the house.
4. I'm thankful we're done moving in at last!
5. I'm thankful for pears and other tasty foods, but please God, I need a little something else.
6. I'm thankful that I'm still enjoying my morning commute, and SPEAKING OF:
6b. I'm thankful that the Millbrae BART station always, ALWAYS smells like warm chocolate chip cookies in the mornings. I don't know why, and I probably don't want to know, but after the foul stenches of the Muni and of San Francisco herself...warm chocolate cookies? YES PLEASE.
7. I'm thankful for Nolan's new motorcyle. Oh, did I mention he got a new motorcycle? And that it's beautiful and perfect and purrs like a kitten? You should see how happy it makes him. Along with his new bikes, and his new egg-shaped car...sigh.


If you're still reading by now, you probably want to see pictures of our new home. Ready? Obviously these aren't all of them (I didn't include a picture of Milo's "room" or of the garage or the hallway, or random other angles, blah blah blah...but you get the picture.):

Kitchen:

Kitchen with our little dining area and leaf-less table:

Living Room:
What you didn't see in the previous one:

Bathroom:

Separate shower! Love!

Guest bedroom/Nolan's office/MANCAVE (Milo obviously needs his man time too):

Our bedroom:


Want to see more? Come visit us!

Thankful Thursday

Today, I'm simply thankful that I'm leaving on vacation for 6 days. Y'all know I need it.

Will post more later.

xoxo

I prefer carcassonne to carcass

This Oatmeal article was pretty much written for us...

In other news, my house is staying brilliantly clean because I've been tenderly loving up my new vacuum. I'm serious - who knew there could be that much cat hair/human hair shedded every few days? This is why I got the special "pet care" vacuum. Also our shower has the most excellent shower pressure/amount of water EVER, and it is SO GLORIOUS having a dishwasher and a clothes washer and dryer. You have no idea.

With the exception of the rotting rotisserie chicken carcass that Nolan left in our always-warm oven (and we discovered last night by the putrid stench wafting through the house), our house has generally smelled like a clean, apple-cinnamon department store (with an underlying hint of bleach as I frantically scrubbed the bathroom with it yesterday). And really: the chicken? That is a familiar story that I thought we had left far behind us, NOLAN. Apparently he's trying to force me into vegetarianism by using only the power of my nose and the feeling of nausea generally connected with it.

Bliss

On the first of what is sure to be many beautiful-weather weekends here in Atherton, Nolan and I spent quite possibly the most perfect Saturday in complete laziness. Woke up late, I sat at Starbucks and read for awhile, then we both hopped on our cruisers and took our sweet time biking to Stanford campus in the sunshine, and even got sunburns to show for it. We biked all around the campus and marveled at the beauty of it, then biked back towards home. We stopped at Starbucks and sat in the sun and sipped passion iced teas while talking about life, and then slowly pedaled back to our home and ate lunch. Then we hopped in the car, drove to Fremont, and bought Nolan a new motorcycle! I would post a picture, but I just can't do it justice, so I'll wait until I have a good one. But I will say that it was a smokin' deal and it's an absolutely gorgeous bike. Nolan's found his new mistress. We drove it home (he was happily weaving across our little road near our house), and then went to CostCo for some leisurely shopping and sampling. And there was literally like 50 sample carts. Smmmhhh! Then we came home and ate dinner and finished watching "Eat, Pray, Love", then drifted off to sleep with the fan on. Utter bliss.

Sunday was a little more hectic - we tried a new church in the area, both knew immediately (as in, within exactly 2 minutes of finding seats) that it was NOT a good fit for us, left, and drove to the city for the service at Reality :) Ah, well. Then we picked up Ash U and got Santung before heading back home to get ready for game night with several friends at our house. I should mention that Nolan forgot to eat breakfast, so he was SO hungry right after church and could not wait to get home to eat, so he rummaged through the remaining CostCo items in our trunk, dug out a can of chili, and ate it. With a playing card. Yep, my husband the doctor is super classy when ravenous. Fortunately, I grabbed my phone in time to capture the devouring:

Yep. Uncooked chili with a 9 of clubs.

Thankful Thursday x2

This past weekend, our lives changed in a few big ways. The first, is that Nolan graduated from medical school, marking the official end to his long education and all of his hard work. Of course, he'll have residency and maybe fellowship and other educational opportunities he'll need to take part in, but he is now no longer a student. The second big change is that we moved out of San Francisco, and down to Atherton/Redwood City on the Peninsula. I still commute into the city for work (looong commute!), but other than that, we're officially in the 'burbs, baby. Moving has been long cited as one of the most stressful events a person can go through, and we're feeling pretty lucky to have gone through it pretty simply, with a lot of help from friends! So there is a lot to be thankful for:

1. I'm thankful for our new home. Each morning, we wake up to the sun in the windows, the cushy new carpet, and coffee smelling up our warm house. Milo loves sitting in the windowsills, watching the birds. And 2 nights ago while I was folding laundry (BECAUSE WE FINALLY HAVE A WASHER AND DRYER, PRAISE THE LORD), there was an owl in the tree out the window, hooting away. And I felt really peaceful and relaxed for about a minute, before Milo starting freaking out about it and twitching and making little chirping noises.

2. I'm thankful for our bikes! It's been super fun to have bikes to ride in a place we can actually enjoy them! Last night we biked around our area and got something to eat and a nice warm churro for the ride home. Bliss. Plus I'm a big fan of my cruiser.

3. I'm thankful for my commute. Yes, you heard that right. Even though it's long, it could be SO much worse. And I leave to and from work at such times, that there is practically no traffic on the 101. Generally, I just hop in my car with my coffee, listen to the Sarah & Vinny show on the radio, then park and hop on the BART at Millbrae, which shuttles me directly to my building in exactly 30 minutes. SWEET MERCY I've been missing out, riding the MUNI all these years.

4. I'm thankful for our friends and family, who helped us move smoothly and quickly, and made it, dare I say, FUN? Then again, I wasn't the one carrying the heavy stuff.

5. I'm thankful that I have vacation coming up next Friday. Even though it's only 6 days off, it is MUCH NEEDED.

6. I'm thankful for Nolan, as always, who is truly my media naranja and partner-in-crime (uhh, literally). Would I be overdoing it on the cliches if I said My Life Would Suck Without You?

Happy Weekend, all...I hope you enjoy the weekend (and Friday) as much as I'm going to!

Party in the USA

Tonight, Nolan and I are headed off to a partay for all the UCSF folks who are graduating/not graduating but want to celebrate/people like me who are just married to a UCSF person. So we're off to 111 Minna, which is an art gallery and I feel a little bit like I'm going to be in a movie where people are way cooler than me, have a fancy sounding cocktail in their hand while mingling with other cool people while checking out art. I will most likely be following the appetizer guy around all night and looking for excuses to talk about Milo. What can I say, I'm a desirable partner.

Our house is slowly but very surely getting all packed away and cleaned. It's hard to pack up and all the time that takes while at the same time trying to enjoy your last few days...I have been to Santung twice in the last few days just to enjoy it while I have it close. And even looking at this picture from last night makes my mouth water:

Also, I realized just now that I have some pictures to post from when my parents came to visit me several weeks ago. For example, Alcatraz (this is the main cell block...igh):

Also we witnessed two epic fails. One was the breadmaking machine at the Boudin's factory, which was supposed to cut out tiny little balls of dough...and we watched as hundreds of those little balls stuck together and clogged the machine. Nobody noticed 'til it was falling onto the floor. See? Bread fail:

Also a sign fail that we saw in a mexican restaurant we visited:


And then I also found this picture from like 2 weeks ago when we signed our lease for our new place, and celebrated at Fresh Choice...one of our FAVOURITES. Nolan may or may not have gone back to the food bar 5 or 6 times when I took this picture during dessert:

Thankful _________

Since I was in training and packing the last 2 days, I wasn't able to get to my normal Thankful Thursday post...so here it is (albeit on Friday, if you'll forgive me):

1. I'm thankful for the gorgeous weather we've been having. Makes a HUGE difference in my daily happiness level :)

2. I'm thankful for the more relaxed week I've had. I really needed a lighter workload and I got it. Thank goodness.

3. I'm thankful for Nolan because he takes care of me when I'm sunburnt and sore and nasty. He deserves a prize for all this and more.

4. I'm thankful we're making progress in our packing! Finally things are starting to disappear and get packed safely away, ready for next weekend.

5. I'm thankful for our resources. We've had so many huge expenses lately (and are adding even more on in the next couple days...stay tuned), and have come out no worse for it (relatively speaking!). Whew.

6. I'm thankful for our friends who are pretty much the only reason we're feeling sad to be leaving the city.

7. I'm thankful for a lot of things, but mostly that it's Friday and time to start the weekend! WOOOO!