Why I made up my "No Surfing in the Winter" Rule...

That's Ryan there, in the middle of a pretty brutal impact zone. I tagged along to take some pics. They came out so drab and dreary (because it was so drab and dreary), so I had to jazz them up in photoshop a bit. I put that, because you'll notice the complete contrast differences in the below pics.



Ryan and Rollins were pretty worked. Ryan said it was probably one of the best workouts he's gotten while surfing in a long time. Every time they came out of the water they were panting.



There wasn't much to catch. Unless you went all the way out, if you could get there. Then you'd have to battle overhead waves that were actually tubing and pounding.

Caught one of Rollins' best rides. Yup, this was one of the better ones!

Ryan pushing himself up

Probably Ryan's best ride of the day...

hence his complete frustration

I then tried to get artistic

And just for Christy...

Birds

It's a Small World

Talk about a small world.

18 months ago, my dad first started having periodic episodes of pain and throwing up. On our first trip to the ER for this, we spent about 11 hours there. 3.5 hours in the waiting room, then another 6 or so in the ER. Given my dad's history, they wanted to do a catscan of his abdomen. Long story short, we had a pretty cool nurse the whole time. When we were all done and waiting for the discharge papers to be signed by the doc, we begged the nurse to get us the heck out of there. He pulled through for us, so the next day my mom dropped off cookies for him.

Anyways, in the subsequent trips back to the ER since then (way too many of them), we started recognizing a lot of the staff members. Sometimes it would be like - that's the nurse that helped us this time. That's the nurse we made cookies for. Even one of the doctors recognizes us. "Hi Dr. Noone, nice to see you again. Yes, that was us a couple months ago. You have a great memory!"

Fast forward to last May, when my dad had another episode. We ran into a childhood friend that my family has known since kindergarden, but that we hadn't seen or talked to since high school. She was now working at Good Sam, working toward becoming a RN. We then became friends on Facebook. She's been dating her soul mate and for a few months I've been looking at his picture, thinking "this dude looks so familiar!" It dawned on me this morning. He's the male nurse from 18 months ago, who got us out of ER hell and was rewarded with cookies. It was like a freaking Claritan Clear commercial. And more hilarious - our childhood friend asked, and he remembers us and the cookies!

Weirdness! And cool. It's a small world afterall...

Hard Work Pays Off!

How much do I love my boss right now?!

This is part of the email that I got tonight:

This year since only two LO’s officially made the presidents club, we recognized the top 10% producers, and we are going to treat them to a nice weekend at one of those uppity spas in Calistoga.

"You three are working so hard, and are such a critical piece of Princeton, that I would like to invite you (and a guest if you choose) to join us for the weekend. It will be the weekend of April 24th and 25th at Solage in Calistoga. Check it out www.solagecalistoga.com. Thanks for all you are doing to keep Princeton going day in and day out."

AHHHH!!! OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so stoked. And so grateful.

Hooray!

Mental Health Weekend

I'm calling this my mental health weekend! Although I probably have to do some work tomorrow, I brought some projects home with me, so I don't think I have to go into the office. So baby steps, I guess, LOL!

Mental health weekend started off with our official 10 year anniversary! Once it gets to September, I start rounding up to the next year. So I've been saying 10 years for a bit, but Jan 30 was official. We glammed it up with dinner at the Olive Garden. To say I've been stressed lately is the understatement of the century, so the first thing I did was order alcohol. Strawberry Limoncello Martini! Yum yum! Super sour but right up my alley. And oh crap! Was it strong! I was buzzing by the time we got our salad and breadsticks!

Forward to coming home at 8 pm with me saying things like "Ohhh! Why'd you turn off the car?! I LOVE this song!" and "I never noticed how heavy my feet feel , walking up these stairs." Topped off with accidntally breaking Ryan's glasses (hysterical laughing ensuing) smack on the bridge of them and passing out at 8:45 in bed. Happy Anniversary honey!

Today I took my parents up to Brentwood to see my nonni. I think she was excited for us to come up! She made a feast! Cream puffs, her famous coffee cake, eggplant parmesean, veal parmesean (I know, I know, but it's sooo yummy), ravioli, tri-tip, potatoes, green beans and bread. We did our Brentwood standard and went shopping. They have a new Santana Row-ish type of place called "The Streets of Brentwood." It's definitely still young but on it's way! I think Brentwood officially has almost every store known to man in that one town now. Most exciting for me was seeing a "Massage Envy" place there, which I now know of because of Liv! I've got to sign my little butt up this week!

It was a wonderful, laid back visit. Always good to see nonni. She's so spunky. I'm pretty sure I will be EXACTLY like her in 60 years. I can see it already.

Ryan's super lucky because I almost came home with a rescue pug who is 11 years old, has a cough, snores when he's awake, is blind and deaf. But I wanted him really bad. I'm such a sucker for an underdog :) I think i just realized where the frame came from...anyways, I digress. I actually think our cat Kistune is bigger than him. Actually, Kitsu is what kept me from even entertaining the idea. I seriously think that cat would slit my throat in the middle of the night if I brought another animal home! So we still only have two cats...for now...

Serious Chill Pill Needed

I've been working a lot. I mean, A LOT. In the last two weeks, I've left work before 7 pm once. And that was leaving at 6:20. AND I've worked the last three weekends. Ok, pitty party aside, I need a major chill pill. I'm thinking a massage? But then Ryan is jobless, so maybe that's not so smart. Yoga is helping a bunch, but not quite enough. I'm still pretty crabby. Sigh. Any low cost suggestions? :)

Another reason to love Yong Studio

As if the pictures weren't beautiful enough, and the husband/wife team weren't nice enough, and the prices weren't affordable enough, comes another reason why everyone needs to use Yong Studio as their wedding photographer - as of tonight, our album, standout mount and high res DVD are ready for pick-up!! Just 10 weeks after the wedding! And that includes little ole' Christmas smack in the middle of it! I cannot wait to pick up our stuff!!

Time to start planning! Girls Weekend!!!

Ok! I'm gonna start planning the girls weekend soon! For those of you new to it, we have a tradition - sometime in late summer we girls rent a beach house in Cayucos (SLO county) and we have a completely AWESOME weekend! Anyone interested?! I'm going for the bee house again.

I'm excited just thinking about it! Anyways - the more the merrier! Let me know if you are interested, and I'll hook you into the private blog :)

Beach Fix

I was needing a major beach fix.

Ryan and I went over the hill today to Capitola. We went to a Mexican restaurant that we'd been to once before. It was good then, but it was also post-surf. And everything tastes amazing post-surf. Everything. Like a wedge of salami is a bit of heaven, and turkey jerky followed by fruit snacks hit the spot. So, needless to say, we were wondering how it would be without the pre-surf session. It didn't disappoint! Yummy down home Mexican food.

Then on to Pleasure Point, where we walked the coastline until we hit Live Oak Beach (at bit past 31st) and watched the sunset. Good thing I brought my camera. I would have been kicking myself if I hadn't! The hook and 38th's had been way flat as far as surf, but this beach was a different story! The surf looked awesome. There were not that many people out (maybe because the water temp has been hovering around 51 - 54 degrees) and with the angle of the beach, you could catch a ride for probably 75 yards. Seriously, I have to get my butt out there to surf sometime. Maybe when I'm better...some of the waves were overhead and way fast. But it looked like such a fun spot. So maybe on a calmer day there.

Below are some of the pics of the sunset from tonight. Pre-Photoshop, but on some I used the PowerShot's awesome color accent and color swap features. I can't wait to mess around with these in Photoshop! I love them already...I could probably do some way cool things with them. Anways. To say the least, it was an awesome afternoon.