Vegas

Dan asked me if I wanted to go to Vegas with him in March of 2011 nearly a year ago.  Our cousin, Adam, went to a NASCAR race every year in Vegas and he said I had to go and experience it.  I didn't question this at all and I immediately put my $200 down to reserve my spot.

Well, the trip happened last weekend.  It was my first time to Vegas and I really had no idea what I was in for.  One of the nice turn of events was that Kendra and I were able to drive to Vegas rather than fly.  Although driving took much longer than we had expected (nearly 6 hours each way).

But we got to Vegas on Friday and met up with Dan and a coupe of his college buddies and got right after drinking and gambling.  I fell into the Vegas trap and somehow lost track of time and wasn't able to head to bed until 5am.

Saturday held an exploration of Vegas that included all the classics of the Bellagio fountains, all you can eat buffet (including all you can drink mimosas), New York New York roller coaster, day drinking with plenty of great people watching.

Saturday night Kendra and I went to a great sushi restaurant which was made even better due to the fact that we got to the restaurant 30 minutes before our reservation and Kendra decided to sit down at a black jack table and walked away 20 minutes later $200 richer.  We later met up with the rest of the group to do something a little out of the ordinary: drink and gamble.

We decided to call it an early night on Saturday since we had to wake up at 8am on Sunday to head to the NASCAR tailgate party- so we left went to bed at 4:30am.  I fell into another classic Vegas-rookie mistake and lost $250 from 4:10am-4:30am on Saturday....that really hurt the check book.

We woke up early on Sunday to head out to the middle of the desert to watch some NASCAR.  This was another first for me and I was pleasantly surprised.  The tailgaiting wasn't very special but we got into the track and I was amazed at the production of the race.

And then the drivers started their engines.  It was quite impressive.  I thought NASCAR was the best live sporting event ever while the cars were driving in a pack.  There were accidents and a large amount of time to talk to people while the cars were on the other side of the track.

The "sport" got really annoying around lap 50 when the cars were so spread out that there was no chance to talk to anyone around you.

Lucky for me (for a couple of reasons) Kendra came to pick me up around lap 100 to head back to Los Angeles.  It was lucky because I was getting very drunk at this time (mainly because there's not much else to do since you can't talk to anyone) and I really couldn't take the engine noise anymore.

On the way home, I was told (by Kendra) I was fairly entertaining until I passed out 3 hours into the trip.

I know it was a good Vegas trip...mainly because it took an entire week to recover.

The New Family Edition

Kendra and I brought home Mac last Tuesday.  Mac (short for Macaroni) is a seven week old golden retriever.  Mac has been awesome so far.

I won't lie, he's been a handful.  We started out having a hard time learning the concept of peeing and pooping on a pee pad.  So, after two days of cleaning puddles of pee and piles of poop nearly every twenty minutes, we decided to start the house breaking training outside.  That worked like a charm and now we're taking every bathroom break outside.

Right now, we are slowly working on crate training.  This has been a very difficult feat to learn.  Mac spent the first four nights crying, whimpering, whining and barking for 30 minutes-2 hours off and on for the entire night.  Last night, we feel like we had a break through!  We woke Mac up every 3 hours to go to the bathroom and he fell asleep every time within 10 minutes in his crate.

And today has gotten better!  Mac has spent the majority of the day sleeping in his crate (he sleeps for nearly 18 hours a day right now).  We're hoping he will be completely crate trained by the end of this week.

We also started working on "Come" today and already Mac has picked up on it.  He's turning out to be a pretty smart puppy and we look forward to all the tricks that he's gonna learn.

Although it's been a tiring and stressful week, we have never doubted our decision to bring Mac home and we're excited for the opportunity to provide an amazing and loving home for him- and receive an amazing addition to our home in return.

Registered California Resident!

I became a registered California resident a couple weeks ago.  You have no idea how big of an accomplishment that is and how hard it was to become one.  To steal a line form Modern Family, the Los Angeles DMV was my Vietnam, and I was in Vietnam.

I scheduled an appointment for the DMV (which is what you do in LA, I guess) for 10:40am on Friday morning.  Little did I know, this just meant that this appointment only gave you the right to stand in line (see pic below).  When I showed up, the line was nearly 40 people long and out the door.

In 30 minutes, I got to the front of the line which was a large room holding about an additional 200 people!  I tried to stay positive about this through telling myself that I live 3 blocks away from the beach and in an amazing place.  The tradeoff is that there are a ton of other people who live here.  But that didn't help, I was pretty frustrated.

Once at the front of the line, they told me that I needed to go back outside and register my car with the state of California and come back (albeit, to the front of the line, thank God) when I have the appropriate paperwork.  So I drove my car into another line to get it properly registered and recognized by the state of California and headed back inside to the front of the original line.

Once I had the appropriate paperwork, I received a number and had to wait in the room of 200 for my number to be called.  This is where having an appointment is important cause I only had to wait 15 minutes before I was called.  I registered my car and applied for a California license at this point.

Everything went smoothly until they asked for payment.  I had lost my debit card the night before (at this snobby, stupid bar that has really good food and beer but the service is poor and I could write a-whole-nother post about them) and didn't bring my check book.  Well, the state of California doesn't accept credit cards.

So, I had to drive back home to get my check book and the lady was nice enough to say when I got back I can just come right up to her and finish the payment.

Once I got back, I paid and received my new California license plates.  Now I had to go get my picture taken for my new license.  I waited in another line to get my picture taken and after I finished that I needed to take a driving test for new state drivers.  I had to wait in another line to get my test.  And then wait in a completely separate line to turn in my test (which I passed, I'm proud to say).

I received all the appropriate paperwork at around 2:45pm on Friday.  4 hours of hard work and I could officially say I was a California resident.  I haven't received my license in the mail, but I will say that the old Buick looks a little weird with the new plates.

Jim Accepted a Position at Fidelity

Jim was offered and accepted a position with Fidelity Investments in Santa Monica.

The role Jim accepted is an Investment Representative role.  The investment representative:

• deals one-on-one with customers on a broad range of investment issues. The Investments Representative is supported by our innovative technology, a wide variety of investment products, and a dedicated management team. This position also participates in branch seminars and sales campaigns, works with reactive and proactive sales contacts, and partners with Financial Planning Consultants on client/prospect business opportunities.

Jim is excited for this role (beyond being just excited to have a job).  He's excited for the experience and he is excited to have a lot of mobility with Fidelity.  Plus, Jim's office will be in Santa Monica which is just 10 minutes from their place in Venice (Jim could even bike to work along the ocean every day).

Jim starts on February 24.

Hermosa Beach Bike Ride

Kendra and Jim jumped on their bikes (aka their friends bikes...their friends have graciously "forgotten" their bikes for the last 3-4 weeks) and headed south down the ocean.  They happily biked the 12 miles on the beach to Hermosa Beach.

We stopped at Hermosa Beach for three hours and shopped, got ice cream and grabbed a drink at a classy joint called Sharkeez (think Tiff's mixed with Bunny's- with much better deals and packed at every moment that it is open).

After a quick drink, they jumped back on the bikes to begin the 12 mile bike ride back to get home before dark and to meet friends out for drinks.  Overall, a pretty good Saturday.

One of Many to Come

We decided on Friday that we were going to wake up Saturday morning and crush the Santa Monica Mountains for a 12 mile hike. A little skeptical if it was going to happen considering we were successful in our search of "our bar" Friday night and having a couple cocktail there. The first Friday of every month a street not far called Abbot Kinney has food trucks lining the streets, the gallarys stay open late and its kinda a free for all. We went there, got an amazing steak and cheese and called it a night.

Not knowing exactly where we were going, we set the alarm for 6:30 am, Jim packed a hiking pack complete with cheese, crackers, sandos, bug spray and of course, sun screen, we were on our way to the Los Liones trail head. We were one of the only people there that early and it was beautiful out. The hike started really narrow and had the feeling of a jungle, the greenery that covered the mountains was pretty incredible.

6 miles up and 2 hours later we hit a perfect spot for a snack with amazing views of the ocean. We soaked up some sun, and then headed back down. All in all it took us about 4 hours and was absolutely worth it. Los Liones is a hike we will do again, but knowing how many there are around us, some with huge waterfalls, we have lots more weekends to look forward to!

Cribs

We wanted to open our doors so that when you wonder "where is Kendra when we are talking on the phone?" or "what "office" does Jim keep referring too, he doesn't have a job yet right?" You can now feel like you are right there next to us.
For those of you who have seen our places in the past you may recognize certain items... such as Jazz, the cat.. But there are many new things added mainly due to the former comment of the jobless roomie. Jim has taken the bull by the horns and has brought light to the house, not only with his natural presence, but with spot lighting, chandeliers, and remote control switches to make this house shine like the top of the Chrysler building. I knew he liked warm lighting but this takes it to a different level.
The place looks amazing. So far he has painted, organized, ordered internet, hung guitars, and made me a very happy girl (thats been most of the work) We finally feel like we have our feet on the ground and after a very messy bike ride home from the bar tonight in 70 degree weather, we only get more pumped about things to come.

The Trip Out

Friday
6:20 am
We are on the road.  A lot of the nerves that we felt the first time around don't exist this time due to two reasons: (1) been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, gave it back (2) We left ourselves 36 hours in Frisco, Colorado just to hang out and this certainly eases the tension of 28 hours in the car.

Friday
2:00 pm
We stop for gas in Nebraska.  We think this picture is funny.

If you look close enough, there is a "Live Nudes" sign in the background.  Funny, right?

Friday
8:00 pm
Pull into Kendra's parents house in Frisco, Colorado.  Weather cooperated fully and we got into town right when we expected to.  So we shared a bottle of wine, grabbed sushi in town and partied it up at a classy joint called Shag with some locals.


Saturday
12:00 pm


We drive to a trailhead and set off on a hike at 10-Mile Creek.  The hike goes through the mountains and there was rumor along the trail of a moose.  20 minutes after hearing the rumor, we discovered moose tracks.

But, alas, after a three hour hike, we didn't find the moose.  But, the hike was still amazing.  The best part was sitting on a mountain side, surrounded by mountains with no other people around.  It's a type of silence that we don't get to experience that often (especially now that we're in the big city).

Saturday

8:00 pm

Grabbed dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in town.  Went back to the house immediately afterwards and had a nice, quiet night.

Sunday

6:00 am

On the road again.  Weather continues to cooperate.  There was a light dusting on Saturday night, but nothing to worry about.  And up in the mountains, the plows come through pretty quickly and clear the roads well.

Sunday

12:00 pm

This was the best part of the trip while in the car.  We went through southern Utah that had a stunning mix of vast winter landscapes and bright desert cliffs and colors.  

Sunday

8:00 pm

We had entered the Los Angeles area around 6:00 pm on Sunday but it took us another two hours while driving 80 miles per hour to get to the coast and our house.  It is a wake up call about how large and expansive this city actually is.  

But, we were happy to be home!