Something to ponder as I board my plane...

A security systems tech was servicing our friend's home yesterday, and when asked about what he thought of his recent trip to Utah he immediately exclaimed his surprise at how dry it was there, how his lips were chapped and it was hard to breathe, and then added:

"You have all these crusty boogers and you're always picking them out!"

Which is not exactly the first thing I think of when I think of Utah. Actually, I don't think I've ever thought of that before, but everybody's different. We all have our hang ups, and apparently this man is very concerned about his boogers. As he should be, the man was 7 feet tall weighing it at about, oh, 120 lbs. His nose was the widest part of his body.

Utah: Crusty Booger Land. All hail.

Oh, hi.

Hello. My name is Kim. I......have been gone. I'd mentioned that. I just didn't know I was going to be gone for so long. I didn't know I'd go into a post-Lake Powell depression. You know, the vacation let down. This one was worse for some reason, demanding much worse than just no-pants. Something to the affect of an hour-long "ugly cry" in a molten lava bubble bath. It wasn't pretty.

Lake Powell itself was amazing, exactly what I'd needed, a week of lounging. We have a gajillion pictures, over 400 to be exact, and I've been working on fixing them up a bit to post, and hope to be doing that in the next few days.

On the bright side, because isn't this post just a peach, we've found a home to rent that we LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE. It's in the area that we want, it's a good size for us, (not too big, not too small, Goldilocks) it has a backyard for the mutt, it's on a GORGEOUS street, it's still close to work, it's super charming......I could go on. And this is me trying not to get too excited, we still don't have it yet. We saw it on Monday, fell head over heels in love, and immediately began, well, groveling. I swear in the course of the day we'd sent the guy four or five emails from each of us. We heard nothing until the end of the day Tuesday, and by that time we were heading over there to talk to the neighbors, try to get a phone number or something. The owner apologized (as well he should, I don't think my stomach could have handled another day...), said he'd been out of town on business and he'd have his "associate" get in touch with us. We were over the moon, until that is, we didn't hear anything that day, or today. This morning Caleb slipped a note in their front door, like a love sick teenager. We are not proud of this. But the housing market in the Bay Area is crazy. Like, insane. If you like something you have to jump on it like it's the last lifeboat. The last piece of chocolate. The last.....Mohican? I've never seen that show, but I'm sure that it applies here, right? Finally, FINALLY, Mr. Associate called us back today (I say us because he literally called both of us, separately, because of the heretofore mentioned badgering we did....) to inform us of the open house this Saturday. Which works perfect right, because I'll be in Utah for a friend's wedding.

Right.

On that note, I'm back on a plane tomorrow as I said, to see my friend get married. It's such a hard life, getting to go home so often. :) That, bytheway, is another story. Caleb? Thank you. You love me, you really love me.

Running on empty

I'm posting to acknowledge that I haven't been posting lately, and also to inform you all that I will not be posting until at LEAST next Saturday, as I am going on vacation to The Best Place On Earth, maybe you have heard of it, it's called Lake Powell. My family has a houseboat and we've been going every year since I was 7 or 8. I am not sick of it, couldn't possibly ever be. It's gorgeous for one, deep red rocks, red sand, cool water. It's impossibly cheap, around $150 per person for food, shelter and entertainment for a week. It's ridiculously relaxing, there is no cell phone service, no Internet, no television (we were actually in Lake Powell over 9/11 and didn't have any clue until the next day as we were driving home). Your biggest decision is whether or not to eat a blueberry muffin or a bagel for breakfast. And I promise to take a gazillion pictures to prove it. I Heart Lake Powell.

I am sooooooooo in need of this vacation - this past month has been insane at work for both Caleb and I. We've been so busy, so crazy. I haven't cleaned the apartment in a week and a half and people, THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING. The only time we're actually home is when we're either getting ready to get into bed, or getting ready to leave for work. The dog is in a permanent sulk. Hopefully a week of fellow-puppy-lovin' at the local Petsmart Hotel will cheer him up. It better, because I can't handle a sullen dog any longer, he is either staring at me with his woeful eyes, or has his cold nose pressed into my knee. I feel two clicks away from a "Snapped" episode.

In other news, the house-for-rent search is proving to be more difficult than we had hoped for. We saw a real piece of work the other day, a cesspool of liquor bottles, half eaten pizza, and piles of junk. I am hoping for a miracle, a nice charming two bedroom conveniently located near the Rose Garden. That allows mutts. I had no idea this was asking for too much.

I am rambling, and I realize this. But it's 1:23 in the morning. I am allowed.

Instead of staying home tonight and packing, or doing laundry, or paying the bills, or even catching up on "So You Think You Can Dance", I let Caleb talk me into going to see "Oceans 13". Not a smart move on our part since it didn't let out until midnight, but it was WORTH EVERY MINUTE. Better than the first in my opinion, and MY is that Brad Pitt lookin' hot these days, wouldn'tyasay? Seriously, go see that movie. It's lovely.

Ya'll enjoy the week, I've got to go dig for swimsuits, and maybe catch a few minutes of sleep before the alarm blares... While I am away, please do go click around on my Daily Dose and my list of Long Distance People Watching. They all have wonderful things to say.

Fixation and The Freak Eye

Last Friday one of the people I work with shoved 4 tickets to the San Jose Saber Cats Arena Football Game ("You sir, are a mouthful!") into my hands. To be honest, until that moment I had absolutely no idea that it even existed, but I played along that I did. "Arena Football eh? Hmm.....That's cool....Sure....." I took the tickets anyway and invited the only people we know here. :) Good thing they're our friends, right? Cause that would suck...

We walked into the arena and the ushers ushered us (ahahahaha.....) to our seats, which turned out to be on the third row at the touchdown line. We were pleasantly surprised.

Indoor Football. In all it's glory. And indoorness.

There's nothing surprising about it, there's a loudspeaker, the crazed fans, the jumbo-tron, the cowbells, the cannonthatgoesoffeverytimethehometeamscores.....Very enjoyable, Owen however, was a little unsure of all the NOISE. And the LIGHTS. And all those PEOPLE.

This is the face that he made the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME. Honestly. A little worried, a little apprehensive, a little....interested? We couldn't figure it out. I've never seen him so still, so quiet. He didn't want to be anywhere but molded into his mom. But what was he looking at, you ask?

Voila. Cheerleaders. Starting early, maybe?

Maybe you don't believe me, maybe you feel you need proof?

Oh, I have proof people.

Eh? Eh? Same open eyes, slightly open mouth, tongue resting on the lips....

This happened for .3 seconds after much poking, prodding, face-making, and tickling. It lasted another .5 seconds....

Here are a few fancy pics Cabe took:

This dude sat in front of us sporting a VERY large ring....Superbowl Ring? Anyone know who this is? I spent the evening wondering....and um, peaking over shoulders to get a better look...

And because you all were waiting for it, Freak Eye visits the Saber Cats.

Festivities

Now that our friends have moved down, you might start to see a theme. A gratuitous posting-of-the-baby. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, he happens to be highly adorable. So this is how we started the Memorial Day Weekend:

The Monkey, makes for expert crawling

Do you see this?! It's incredible. I need to get me one of these.

On Saturday we helped this little guy's parents paint two rooms in their new house. It was an urgent matter, a matter of extreme importance.

I'm not kidding. And sadly, it doesn't end there....

It was horrific. It looked like Flickr had puked all over the walls.

As hard as I tried, I could not stop talking about how BLUE and PINK these rooms were. It was like the burning of my retinas was triggering some chemical reaction between my brain and my mouth. I couldn't stop spewing incredulous exclamations. "Who in their RIGHT MIND?!", and all that. I'm sure you understand.

A boy, a ball, and his Bear Chair. For good measure.

On Memorial Day we celebrated those who died fighting for our country by grocery shopping, cooking, and barbecuing. The usual.

The spread

The scenery

And lots of fun.

God Bless America.

Mi Casa?

I didn't mean to disappear. It just sort of happened, it's been fairly crazy around here and I suppose I just sort of burnt out. One minute I was waking up for work, groggy-eyed and stumbling, and the next minute I was getting into bed, groggy-eyed and stumbling. Somewhere in between there I went to work and stuff. And a whole weekend ago was Memorial Day, which feels like ages really. I'll post some pictures of that, it was good times. We got up close and personal with the colors of Flickr.

But what really did me in this week all started on Sunday. I've spent the last month or so scouring craigslist for a little home to rent, somewhere to hang our hat and let the dog out with nothing more than a flick of the wrist. I found one on Sunday that we decided to check out, it was just down the street and it was a home. All by itself. No one living above or below, and at LEAST 10 feet on either side. It had a backyard. So we were pretty much sold. We called the woman and went to see it the next morning where I immediately fell in love. The home was built in 1939 and there is very little that has changed. It smelled like my grandmothers home, and I breathed deeply as we explored. The stove is an original and everything is white. White walls, white tile kitchen, white book shelves, white bathroom fixtures. There are so many closets and built in shelves we could store everything we own AND everything you own, and still have enough space for daily trips to Costco. There is an old fashioned storm cellar in the back, the kind with stairs leading down under the house for MORE storage. The side of the house has a lemon and orange tree. It had me at hello.

We deliberated at home for about 20 minutes before I started scrambling to fill out the application and turn it in. That was Monday.

Tuesday morning I woke up with an intense desire to restore it, visions of clawfoot tubs in my head. Old hardwood floors, those tiny square bathroom tiles. I began researching 1940's home decor. I found a clawfoot tub retailer online, the perfect white cutout curtains to hang.

By Wednesday I was imagining myself living there, where our furniture would go, which books to place where. "We're going to have to install an outdoor light on the side of the house," I told Caleb, "and I'm totally going to put an herb garden in the back."

On Thursday we were told that they were going to give it to someone else, someone who could move in immediately (our lease is up July 1st). I cried. Someone had stolen my dream home right out from under me.

This morning I cried. My house! It was gone! I will not be making homemade lemonade from the lemons I picked in my own yard. I would not be taking hot bubble baths in my own clawfoot tub. And this would have looked amazing on those white walls.

I realize that this is certainly not something I should be so upset about. It certainly had it's down sides, there was no dishwasher, no air conditioning. The washer and dryer was on it's last leg and was on my list of Things That Must Go. It's just that I've never fallen in love with something so quickly, have something root itself so strong. (Except for that huge crush I had once, but there were other reasons for that as well....) But it's hardly the end of the world. I will go on. There will be another home, another kitchen to bake ginger snaps in. I'm sure we can find another backyard with such a gorgeous deeply rooted tree.

Excuse me, I need a tissue.....

Ahem. No big deal. I'm over it. So it's back to the drawing board again. This time though, we've got less than a month to find a place, pack, and move in. This should get interesting.