Atlantic City

Black Friday in AC

I didn't do much buying on Black Friday, but did spend plenty of time in the outlet mall in Atlantic City. 

We hit some stores, a buffet, and some casinos. Making the best of our time together away from the city.

We were playing in the holiday section of one store and got this gem...

Happy Thanksgiving!

After cooking since Tuesday it finally came time to enjoy the meal. Everything was delicious. 

Jonathan, Christine, Shawn and Aaron joined me for a small and mellow thanksgiving celebration.

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving Eve was productive! Worked a bit more than a half day, cleaned Coeus's fish bowl and overfed him a bit since he'll be alone for 4 days. I debated taking him home, but people agreed that it'd be disruptive to him.

I got the nod of approval from Shawn on the progress if the rutabaga roasting. 

Christine came by to help & made mini apple pies with my new kitchen toys. And I showed restraint by only making one, not 2 pumpkin pies.

I also roasted rutabaga. Roasted Brussels sprouts. Roasted butternut squash and made it into two batches of vegan and non-vegan soup. Made mashed potatoes with sour cream, cheddar and chives. Made sweet potatoes with maple syrup, butter and cinnamon (tomorrow they will get roasted with mini marshmallows on top). Made compound butter with herbs and garlic for the turkey, who has been in his brine since yesterday. Now he's in the bathtub coming up to room temperature. See, productive!

Turkey Tuesday

Preparing for thanksgiving has become a favorite activity. No big trip to the fairway this year, fresh direct delivered most of it.

I forgot to order sweet potatoes and will likely need to grab some other things, but a fresh turkey and many boxes of veggies and other fixings arrived today. I spent several hours prepping the veggies that could be peeled and cut ahead of time. Including the rutabaga. Shawn requested it. I ordered 4 thinking they'd be the size of an union but got ginormous things. I had to text Shawn to ask what to do with it. It's now peeled cubed and ready for roasting.

Jonathan and I made the brine and rearranged the fridge to fit the brining bucket inside.

It's been a fun Turkey Tuesday. 

Return to the Cold

I returned this morning on the red eye. I walked into my super cold apartment and immediately cranked the heaters that hadn't been turned on in 10 days.

39 degrees! So cold!!

Beautiful Beach

Beak and I took a walk along the boardwalk. I was super touristy, taking photos, embarrassing poor Beak, but my Instagram followers enjoyed them. Plenty of likes.

Winter Fantasy

It had been so long since I had been to the Sawdust Festival. I was so fixated on chit chatting, catching up, and looking around, I totally forgot to take a bunch of photos. So unlike me.

It was fun to visit everyone.

LACMA & Lakers

I had a bit of an LA touristy day. Went to brunch at the Grove, walked over to LACMA, saw the sculptures & installations. 

This evening we had tickets for the lakers/warriors game. The game was fun, we had an excellent view. There was a lot of sloppy basketball, but I had a great time soaking it all in... Plus, the Lakers won & I loved being a part of it.  

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

The conference is finished. It rained on and off today. Pretty rare for CA, but there was a double rainbow. It was so vivid, this picture hardly does it justice.

We checked out of the hotel around noon, took the airport shuttle to the rental

car shuttle, rented a car & headed for In N Out. Then dropped Scott off at the zoo, Mohammad at the Gaslamp district, them headed north. Between San Diego and Claremont, where we dropped Dan, we saw the bright rainbow.

Jac and I continued to LAX to return the rental & meet up with Lauren. Lauren drove Jac to her friend's place, then she and I met Courtney for another Mexican dinner!

Long, but fun rainbow day!

Last Night in SD

The Chair Push

Since many of us were doing testing for the DNS cutover, Scott has scooted his chair over to my room from his. 

After dinner, he came to my room to get his chair and Jac came to get her laptop. She asked Scott to drive her home. So down the hallway, into the elevator and down to her room...

Fun times. 

San Diego Views

When I woke up, I pulled the curtains and saw the Marina. When I sat down at dinner, I saw the whole San Diego skyline. Beautiful

The Baked Bear

We took a detour on the trek from dinner to the hotel to stop in Pacific Beach for ice cream cookie sandwiches. Scott was taking huge bites, like the bear. The rest of us at them with spoons.

Wild Animal Park & Beers

Scott and Autumn suggested the Wild Animal Park. I could not remember being there since I was a young kid. They have apparently renamed it the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and renovated a ton of the grounds.

It was a ton of fun. We fed birds, watched animals, took a tram tour of the animals of Africa. I took around 230 photos between my iPhone and iPad so it was rough picking just a few for my collage. 

Then we headed out to the Mother Earth Brew Co. a friend of Autumn's was on a a beer bus tour and we attempted to meet up with her. I had a Cali Cream ale, my first of 3 beers for the evening.

Later, after we picked up Jac and got dinner, we went to the Coaster Saloon to visit Tom. I had two Angry Orchard Ciders. We hung out chatting with some of Scott's high school buddies that ice known since they visited us in Santa Barbara 11-12 years ago. 

We had a great day followed by a fun night!

San Diego!

I arrived in San Deigo today. Couldn't find a "Welcome to San Diego" sign, so I took a photo of the installation and palm trees at the airport, plus my check in and my tiny overpacked suitcase.

Yay for the beginning of vacation & business trip week.

Purple Cases

I kept getting comments about my having a case on my new fancy iPhone, so I ordered purple cases for my phone and iPad.  Looking royal, all dressed up in purple!

New 'do

I went for a haircut in the middle of the day today. I felt like I really wanted a haircut and the salon didn't have an after work opening until mid-December, so I booked it during some open afternoon hours. I work early and late all the time, I deserve it. :)

It turned out nicely. Washed, deep conditioned--I had to sit under the dryer in a shower cap, crazy, then cut and blown out. It's not my typical style, but it looks nice!

Failure to Document

Today was the first snow of the season... I failed to take a photo of the falling snow.

Today some of the team had lunch with our former intern who came to visit from medical school... I failed to take a photo of her visit. 

Today I went out in the freezing weather, in wool pants, a sweeter, a winter coat, a scarf and *flip flops*, to get a pedicure in preparation to go to CA... I failed to take a photo of my awesome ensemble. 

I did, however, clean Coeus's fish bowl. Then faux coral has been growing some pretty gross brown and green algae/mildew. It makes the bowl dirty in a few days rather than a week to 10 days. I decided to run down to Duane Reade for a cheap tooth brush to brush away the problem algae. I had to solicit Delaney to help me brush the insides while I pried it open. Quite a classic example of my idiocy.

Un-serenity Prayer

An old friend of mine posted this on Instagram today. I thought it was too funny ... Immediately took a screen capture to send to my sister & her bestie.

Apple Craisin Bread

I did some baking today. I started the day with some over ripened bananas and made mini loaves of apple craisin bread with the last of my apple picking apples. I haven't tried the apple bread yet, but they looked cute enough to Instagram!

Chores and Movies

Sorting laundry, pulling clothes for donation, changing over to the winter wardrobe... Fortunate I watched movies all day while doing the work. 

Pretty productive for being sick this weekend.

Marshmallow Overload

I had about 7 cups of tea during my sick day so I decided I would have hot cocoa at one point. I opened the bag of marshmallows and ended up with 18 instead of the 6 I meant to pour in... Oops! It was delicious though!

Candy Corn Vampire Teeth

David stopped by my office to proudly tell me about his first adult purchase of trying on jeans and buying ones that fit at an actual brand store. Apparently feeling like too much of an adult he ate 3 Reese's peanut butter pumpkins and sugar highed to the point of creating vampire teeth from candy corn and asking me to take a photo.

Quality photo of the day, if I do say so myself!

Fall Dentist Anniversary

Today is the 2nd anniversary of meeting Tom. My dentist appointments always remind me of the day my boss told me to schedule a meeting with a researcher who wanted to explore working in IT. I went on the way to my November dentist appointment, so visiting the dentist will forever signify that fateful day... The start to our relationship with one TC2.

Plus, I love clean teeth, no cavities & my dental goodie bag, thanks Dr. Rosenberg!

Campaign Signs

It's Election Day... Walking home from the polling station, I saw my first campaign signs. They haven't been here prior to today, they haven't campaigned around me.

I remember growing up, going around town with my dad and his friends staking everyone's lawns, plastering fences and overpasses. What funny memories!

Fall Foliage

I actually took this photo yesterday, during my walk through the park to go see Oli & Michael at the finish line. But it was so beautiful that I decided to Instagram it today.

NYC Marathon 2013

The clocks fell back this morning. I woke up at 5am instantly nervous for my friends running in the NYC Marathon, today. 

My childhood friend Olivia, her fiancé, Michael, and a former colleague and friend, Josh were all up against 26.2 miles through the 5 boroughs. I sent text messages passing on well wishes and downloaded the app to track their progress. 

Josh got to 13.1 miles first and I ran out to 1st Ave to watch him pass the 17 mile mark. Sadly, I missed him. I couldn't find him amongst the crowds of runners and spectators, and was devastated when the app tracked his progress to 30K without having laid eyes on him. 

Fortunately, by the time Michael and Olivia came by our spot, I found Laura and we were able to get up against the fence and made a ruckus. 

Both of them looked amazing for already having run 17 miles! We took some photos and left them to finish 9 miles up into the Bronx and back into Central Park. 

Josh finished in about 3 hours 49 mins & was back in Brooklyn before I heard from him. 

We had brunch and crossed town to celebrate with Oli and Michael in a wine bar at the end of the race. 

I couldn't be more proud of my friends and everyone else who accomplished this today. What an emotional experience!

A Fun Fall Day

I worked hard in the soup kitchen today. I only took one photo, a candid of Chef David carrying food out to the line.

After the kitchen I rushed home to shower. And met up with Christine. We went to Target to find discount Halloween Candy & do some normal household shopping. I saw adult sized footy pajamas and took photos to send to my sister. Seems like good Christmas photos could come of them! 

I hit the jackpot on Halloween Candy. So much good stuff left for November 2nd... Plus, I got Mr. & Mrs. Potatohead pumpkin kits for next year. 

Then we went off to Queens for Filipino food. We had way too much food for two of us, but still saved room to split a Halo halo!

Yay for fall!

Lauren in the Mail

I stayed home sick, today. Wasn't able to breathe with the weird weather change. So I took the day to rest up & did some sporadic work. I also opened personal mail & saw a thank you card containing this photo. 

It's a photo of a photo, of Lauren and me, from Lisa and Eben's wedding in 2012. It was a fun find in a stack.