Happy anniversary sweetheart! This has been a tough year for us, but we are getting through it together; just as we always have, and just as we always will. I love you!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Happy 9th Anniversary!
Happy anniversary sweetheart! This has been a tough year for us, but we are getting through it together; just as we always have, and just as we always will. I love you!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
What it really means to be Southern in SoCal
This is probably the first time in years that we have updated the blog more than once in a 2-day period. Don't get spoiled.
As many of you know, I love to cook, and having lived and eaten in many parts of the U.S., my cooking has many influences. I have a fair amount of family from Mississippi and Louisiana, and have always enjoyed Cajun and Creole food, especially the gumbos and stews that are so prevalent along the Gulf and bayou country.
When you combine that with being Southern in SoCal, some pretty cool things happen...
(click on photo to embiggen. I can say embiggen if I want to, dammit!)
It's amazing what you can make with some red wine, a few tomatoes, okra, catfish, oysters, and mussels. And a bay leaf, salt, and creole seasoning. That's one hell of a stew!
Who's comin' for dinner? There's plenty more red wine!
As many of you know, I love to cook, and having lived and eaten in many parts of the U.S., my cooking has many influences. I have a fair amount of family from Mississippi and Louisiana, and have always enjoyed Cajun and Creole food, especially the gumbos and stews that are so prevalent along the Gulf and bayou country.
When you combine that with being Southern in SoCal, some pretty cool things happen...
(click on photo to embiggen. I can say embiggen if I want to, dammit!)Who's comin' for dinner? There's plenty more red wine!
An Unwelcome Awakening
Wow! Has it been a long time.... we've had an extremely busy Summer 2011. So busy in fact that I am months behind in posts. I will try to remedy that soon. Here are some of the high (and low) moments from May through July:
May: The McArthur-Wilson clan comes for a visit! We had so much fun with our favorite Canadian family. I wish they were back already- Galen and Raynham at Disneyland is my favorite amusement park visit EVER. The very next week we headed to Georgia to visit our family there. Jay's cousin Robert was married, and it was a fun wedding. The rest of the visit was not so fun - my Aunt Faye and Jay's mom have both been very ill. Jay's mom has gotten much worse rapidly, and my aunt had been told her cancer was terminal. We found both of them to be declining much more quickly than we had anticipated.
June: Our friend Helen received her PhD, and she and her husband Alias, along with their lovely sons, came into town for her hooding ceremony. It was a lot of fun to get to see them, though Jay was in Chicago for business. I visited the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA with my friend Gil, and then was called back to Alabama. My Aunt Faye passed away 6 hours after I reached her.
July: Sid and Joyce came out for a visit! They drove cross-country, and we spent the weekend touring the central coast. We visited Hearst Castle, saw elephant seals, and spent an entire day at Solvang. Jay spent the next weekend in TyTy with his brother, visiting his mom. She is decidedly worse, which has been a hard thing for all of us to accept. The next weekend we headed to Great Falls, MT for our niece Ashly's wedding. Jay was the official photographer, and we so enjoyed visiting our family there.
So you can see our lives have been a bit of a roller coaster these past few months. Up then down, back up again. Just maintaining our work schedules and keeping the household in some sort of order has been about all we can handle lately. It's been a busy and difficult season, but visits from our friends and family has really helped us keep our spirits up. Thank you to all who have made the trip out and shared time with us - it means so much, and has been so needed. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!
But onto the title of this post. Early this morning (sometime around 5 am) the fire alarm in our apartment building went off. These fire alarms are LOUD, obviously for a reason. Jay and I practically catapulted out of bed, and began scrambling madly for shoes, and of course Meow. She was panicked, and that panic increased when I pulled out her hated carrier. That carrier means vet visits and kennel stays, and she associates it with trouble. She sprinted behind the couch, I tried to corral her, and she dashed beneath our bed. She wedged herself between a suitcase and a box of stored clothing, refusing to come out. Jay declared that she would be fine, and that we had to leave. If needed, we would send a fireman after her. He had scouted the building quickly while I chased the cat, and could find no smoke nor flames. We headed outside to the lawn with all our neighbors, and waited for the fire department to arrive. And waited. Jay finally called emergency services himself. At one point, he looked down at me and realized I was wearing my rain boots. "Why do you have your rain boots on?" he queried... just as the sprinklers turned on. Somehow in the back of my mind, I remembered that the lawns get watered around 5:30 or so, and grabbed my boots to keep myself dry. Jay however got soaked. Combined with a very rude and early awakening, he was in a foul mood. The fire department finally arrived around 5:40, turned off the alarm, and let us back inside. The alarm was apparently a fluke, and I'm happy to report that Meow does not appear to be deaf after her long exposure to the loud siren. At least she can still hear her food bowl being filled from two rooms away.
May: The McArthur-Wilson clan comes for a visit! We had so much fun with our favorite Canadian family. I wish they were back already- Galen and Raynham at Disneyland is my favorite amusement park visit EVER. The very next week we headed to Georgia to visit our family there. Jay's cousin Robert was married, and it was a fun wedding. The rest of the visit was not so fun - my Aunt Faye and Jay's mom have both been very ill. Jay's mom has gotten much worse rapidly, and my aunt had been told her cancer was terminal. We found both of them to be declining much more quickly than we had anticipated.
June: Our friend Helen received her PhD, and she and her husband Alias, along with their lovely sons, came into town for her hooding ceremony. It was a lot of fun to get to see them, though Jay was in Chicago for business. I visited the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA with my friend Gil, and then was called back to Alabama. My Aunt Faye passed away 6 hours after I reached her.
July: Sid and Joyce came out for a visit! They drove cross-country, and we spent the weekend touring the central coast. We visited Hearst Castle, saw elephant seals, and spent an entire day at Solvang. Jay spent the next weekend in TyTy with his brother, visiting his mom. She is decidedly worse, which has been a hard thing for all of us to accept. The next weekend we headed to Great Falls, MT for our niece Ashly's wedding. Jay was the official photographer, and we so enjoyed visiting our family there.
So you can see our lives have been a bit of a roller coaster these past few months. Up then down, back up again. Just maintaining our work schedules and keeping the household in some sort of order has been about all we can handle lately. It's been a busy and difficult season, but visits from our friends and family has really helped us keep our spirits up. Thank you to all who have made the trip out and shared time with us - it means so much, and has been so needed. I'll try to get some pictures up soon!
But onto the title of this post. Early this morning (sometime around 5 am) the fire alarm in our apartment building went off. These fire alarms are LOUD, obviously for a reason. Jay and I practically catapulted out of bed, and began scrambling madly for shoes, and of course Meow. She was panicked, and that panic increased when I pulled out her hated carrier. That carrier means vet visits and kennel stays, and she associates it with trouble. She sprinted behind the couch, I tried to corral her, and she dashed beneath our bed. She wedged herself between a suitcase and a box of stored clothing, refusing to come out. Jay declared that she would be fine, and that we had to leave. If needed, we would send a fireman after her. He had scouted the building quickly while I chased the cat, and could find no smoke nor flames. We headed outside to the lawn with all our neighbors, and waited for the fire department to arrive. And waited. Jay finally called emergency services himself. At one point, he looked down at me and realized I was wearing my rain boots. "Why do you have your rain boots on?" he queried... just as the sprinklers turned on. Somehow in the back of my mind, I remembered that the lawns get watered around 5:30 or so, and grabbed my boots to keep myself dry. Jay however got soaked. Combined with a very rude and early awakening, he was in a foul mood. The fire department finally arrived around 5:40, turned off the alarm, and let us back inside. The alarm was apparently a fluke, and I'm happy to report that Meow does not appear to be deaf after her long exposure to the loud siren. At least she can still hear her food bowl being filled from two rooms away.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
El Matador Beach
(Click on the photo- the picture will look better in a new window!)With that said, the beaches here are absolutely some of the most beautiful in the world, and El Matador, in Malibu, is no exception, though it is actually quite exceptional. I couldn't stop myself. Sorry.
April and I found ourselves in Malibu this past Saturday, and after attending a quick hike to Solstice Canyon with April's AWIS chapter, we grabbed lunch at Dukes, and then spent the afternoon at El Matador, just hanging out and enjoying the view.
See the starfish above? He was just hanging out, too. The rock this dude(ette?) is so attached to was about 100ft out in the water, and the size of a cow. That makes this animal close to 8 inches across!
And the Brown Pelicans were up to something. This is just one of the flocks that were migrating north. We saw no less than another 10 groups as large as the one above, and another dozen that were smaller. I guess they are heading north for sex and/or food.
Anemones are pretty easy to find. Just locate a large rock near the water, preferrably one that always has water pooling around it. Now look at the side of the rock, just at the base. See? Anemones! Get it? "See" anemones? Yeah.
California Rock Crab
Playful waterThe photo above is of the same rock that the star fish is hanging onto. As you can see the tide level changes pretty quickly here. We were there for an hour or so, and were able to enjoy the tide at its highest point, and watch it recede.
Cormorants, probably, watching the mercury surfI took this photo as we were walking back towards the stairs that lead to the parking lot on the bluffs over the beach. Sunset makes for a great time to be at the beach!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Where has the time gone?
October 5th will be both our 9th wedding anniversary, and also the 4th anniversary of the day we moved into our apartment in Mar Vista. We have lived in this apartment longer than any other place we have lived since we moved in together. It's really strange. We honestly never expected to come to California, until a few months before April came out here to meet with PJ. Now it's been home longer than anywhere else...
Friday, March 18, 2011
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
My St. Patrick's Day started off without much luck, I have to say. My bus was 45 minutes late, and I had a lot I had to finish up. But when I arrived, I found that a leprechaun had visited me, leaving behind his little hat and some "gold" chocolate. That perked me right up!
After a great seminar on job hunting with a PhD (it's getting time for me to move on from my post-doctoral training) and a good Pilates workout, I was ready to head home.
Jay had more Irish goodness waiting for me in the form of Smithwick's Ale and homemade corned beef with cabbage. As an appetizer he'd picked up some Dubliner cheese, and boy did Meow and I enjoy that! Meow is a very particular eater of cheese (she likes feta, strong cheddars, and gouda, but dislikes swiss, goat, american, and brie). Afterwards we walked down the street to McDonald's. Neither Jay nor myself had ever tried a Shamrock shake, so we shared a large one. I'd say my luck mostly comes from marrying Jay!
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Ice House
Jay and I have been extremely restful (lazy) the past two weekends. With teaching, travel, and Jay being very sick, keeping on top of just regular life has been exhausting. We're behind on pretty much everything! But we had made plans for this Sunday, and so we actually ventured out of the house.
Jay and I have been taking Pilates reformer classes for the past few months. We both enjoy them a lot, and it keeps us from being completely out of shape. One of the other regulars at our studio, Shannon White, was doing a stand-up comedy routine at the Ice House in Pasadena. We headed out on Sunday to Pasadena to visit the famous Ice House, and watch an evening of 12 comedians doing 10 minute routines. The Ice House is located in downtown Pasadena, which is a charming area north of Los Angeles. We have only visited a few times, and usually not for very long. On one memorable visit, we were there to decorate a float for the Rose Bowl parade (Jenny, I'm looking at you!). On this trip, we just relaxed and had a nice evening of laughter. If you ever get an opportunity to visit the Ice House, we highly recommend it!
Jay and I have been taking Pilates reformer classes for the past few months. We both enjoy them a lot, and it keeps us from being completely out of shape. One of the other regulars at our studio, Shannon White, was doing a stand-up comedy routine at the Ice House in Pasadena. We headed out on Sunday to Pasadena to visit the famous Ice House, and watch an evening of 12 comedians doing 10 minute routines. The Ice House is located in downtown Pasadena, which is a charming area north of Los Angeles. We have only visited a few times, and usually not for very long. On one memorable visit, we were there to decorate a float for the Rose Bowl parade (Jenny, I'm looking at you!). On this trip, we just relaxed and had a nice evening of laughter. If you ever get an opportunity to visit the Ice House, we highly recommend it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)