Just Another Saturday...

"May 16th," Lagwagon

Friday, September 25, 2008, 12 Midnight: Lobster Season Begins.

Saturday, September 26, 3:30 AM: Tim wakes up to meet a few other crazy-obsessed friends and takes the first lobster dive of the season. (Nights before, he had already laid out his gear and retrieved a "Lobster Report Card," a new necessity required by the Department of Fish and Game to track how many people dive for lobster, where they go, what their success rate is, etc.)


Saturday, 7:30 AM: Tim comes home (after catching 4 lobster), and retires on the couch for a few hours.

Saturday, 9:30 AM: Tim wakes up and eats breakfast.

Saturday, 10:00 AM: Tim puts on his STILL-SOAKING wetsuit and heads back out.


Saturday, 1:00 PM: Tim returns and retires to the couch to "watch" the Michigan game. Go Blue!


Lobster season has hardly started, and our freezer already looks like this (seafood, anyone?):


Yesterday afternoon, we went to the Adams Street Fair with friends, and then to Chip and Amanda's house for (a delicious!) dinner. Chip and Amanda recently became the proud parents of a beautiful Boxer they named FlapJack Daniels (Jack for short). He's awesome and, (really, whether either of them likes it or not) is going to be a good friend of Bailey's in the near future.


Speaking of Bailey, he is doing well after being treated two weeks ago for skin infections due to flea bites. We are continuing the slow process of training him-- (it's slow due to our lack of effort, not his; he's actually really smart). We decided he's not allowed in the kitchen, since the space is very small and it's easy to trip over a 16-lb. dog underfoot. So, he sits at the edge of the tile and gives this look while we cook:


The other breakthrough was teaching him to sleep on the ground instead of in the bed (which he was used to living with my dad). Most of the time he's great about it, although he's been sneaking in unnoticed as of late. Sometimes, he forgets he's a dog altogether:

So Is That What You Call Tact?

"Seventy Times Seven," Brand New

Almost two weeks ago, Tim and I arrived in San Jose early Saturday morning, and drove straight to Seascape Resort to check in before meeting up with Krissy and Scott. The four of us stayed in a beautiful two-bedroom, three-bath villa overlooking the water. We had such a fun time hanging out in/at the pool, ordering room service, drinking cocktails, and catching up.

On Saturday, we headed over to Pebble Beach so Tim and Scott could fantasize about playing the course one day. Krissy and I enjoyed the view and gawked at the idea of spending $400 to play a few hours of golf. To each his own, I guess...


That night, Jody and John's families hosted bonfires and s'mores at the beach. It was a great way for people to meet one another, catch up, and hang out with John and Jody before the wedding. Of course, another priority (maybe this was just Krissy and me?) was to eat lots of s'mores.


The ceremony was on Sunday afternoon, and Jody and John were married on "Wedding Bluff" overlooking the Pacific. The weather was perfect and the bride and groom were beaming and beautiful!


Roommates!


The reception (where, as I sidenote, I drank my alcohol-quota to fulfill the next three weddings I attend) was awesome. There was a perfect mixture of touching moments, silly dancing, dance floor sing-a-longs (I hope that wasn't just me?), and love. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Merrick!

UCLA Athletes...


Cuttin' a rug...


Sunglasses on the dance floor...oh-so-tactful and appropriate...

-A heart that loves is always young-
Greek Proverb

It's Gonna Be Me, You, and the Dance Floor...

"Forever," Chris Brown

Tim and I spent last weekend at Jody and John's beautiful wedding in Aptos, CA. I promise to post about it, but right now I'm EXHAUSTED as I spent the entire day teaching The Crucible to 11th graders and Cry, the Beloved Country to 10th graders. I am spending the rest of the evening on the couch watching DVRed episodes of Friends and The Office. The only time I plan on leaving the couch is to answer the door to pay the delivery person for my and Tim's yet-to-be-ordered take-out. But I just wanted to post one picture to give an idea as to why tonight's wild and crazy activities will most likely not include wine. Or beer. Or champagne. Or tequila shots...

You Have Stolen My Heart

We watch the season pull up its own stakes
And catch the last weekend of the last week
Before the gold and glimmer have been replaced,
Another sun-soaked season fades away...
-"Stolen," Dashboard Confessional

"...the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
-Kerouac

Lights Will Guide You Home

"Fix You," Coldplay

Bailey got lost yesterday. It was awful-- Tim called my classroom phone at about 4:30 to tell me that A) Bailey had knocked the screen out of the window and escaped, and B) I had left the refrigerator ajar all day and, consequently, all of the food inside had gone bad. My friend Amanda was in my classroom with me, and we rushed to my apartment to survey the scene. I was a crying mess of confusion and hardly could make it home, stopping at the train tracks on my way to aimlessly search, terrified at what I could potentially find. When we got to the house, Tim was already looking up various information about local shelters, all of which were inconveniently closed yesterday. In a flurry of genius, Amanda had printed out a stack of "Lost Dog" posters from my classroom, so we set out to start posting. We eventually went back to school to print more (complete with bigger fonts and Bailey's color photo) and proceeded to paste posters in the greater Carlsbad area (or, perhaps more specifically, within about a half-mile radius of our apartment). We spoke with neighbors, two of whom had seen Bailey lounging on the grass earlier in the day, but he was nowhere to be found. Once it was completely dark, Amanda (who, ironically enough, adopted her first dog today) headed home, and Tim and I resorted to the waiting game.

I woke up in the middle of the night, at 12:30, to find Tim standing in the doorway and Bailey jumping onto the bed. Apparently (and thank God for Tim's auditory abilities), Bailey had showed up on the doorstep and had proceeded to bark until someone let him in. He was dirty and covered in burrs, but otherwise seemed totally fine. We were relieved to say the least, and I've spent a good portion of today wondering where he WENT for 12+ hours. Could he hear us desperately calling his name as we posted the signs? Was he ever in someone's house? How far away from home did he go? I can't help but relate Bailey's situation to a teenager getting home late (probably after curfew) after a night filled with (probably illegal) adventure and mayhem. Of course, now he's sleeping peacefully and doesn't have a clue that, just hours ago, he put us through hell and I was seriously questioning my ability to forgive myself had he not returned. He also doesn't have a clue that, come tomorrow, he's going into the vet for a full check-up. AND microchip insertion--(which, contrary to popular belief, is not akin to a car's GPS tracking device system).

We Were Livin' for the Minute We Were Spinnin' In

"We Weren't Crazy," Josh Gracin

Tim and I went to Catalina for Labor Day Weekend. We left work on Friday and drove to Dana Point, where we caught the Catalina Express and made it to the island by 6:30. We stayed at the Pavilion Lodge, the same hotel we stayed at 4 years ago during our last dive trip to Catalina.


The weather was perfect, and we took our first dive on Saturday morning. The surface water temperature was about 70 degrees, and our bottom depth was only about 45 feet. The thermocline (at least, to 45 feet) was probably only a couple degrees. We stayed down for about 45 minutes, and the dive was awesome. The visibility was probably 60 feet or so, with only a small current.


We dove again on Sunday, and at first decided to go down to 70-80 feet to see some of the wrecks at the edge of the dive park. However, as we descended, at about 50 feet the water got much colder, and the visibility was significantly worse. We decided to head back up to 30-40 feet and cruise around in the warmer water. In addition to diving, we snorkeled, shopped, went out to a few nice lunches and dinners, and laid out in the sun. The weekend was absolutely perfect...


On Monday, we played 18 holes of miniature golf. I beat Tim by 18 strokes, and since miniature golf is practically the exact same thing as regular golf, it is now clear I am the better golfer. Understandably, this is a difficult fact for Tim to swallow, so please give him processing time to come to terms...

every star in the night

promises the dawn
i will be there if you fall
to ever so heavily rest upon

all that i can give you
is forever yours to keep
wake up every day with a dream
and happy everafter in your eyes

-Ben Harper