goodbye 2008.

Happy New Year!

2008 will be missed...but I am excited to welcome in a new year and all that it brings:

• MCAT in March (scary!!)
• Med school applications (equally scary)
• Finishing 2 more semesters of my MPH
  
• (hopefully) moving someplace fun and new for my master's practicum
• Steve (officially) starting his new job (he'll be working in Dallas for the next few months, flying home for the weekends)
• Our second trip to Laguna Seca with friends in July...and hopefully some more fun vacations
• ...and much much more.
  

We'll be taking it easy tonight as we just attempted to make our way to the post office and an hour later weren't even close to our destination only 3 miles from our house due to icy roads. I hope you have something fun planned for this evening...have some fun for me too!! (I'll be nice and cozy on our couch watching some movies.)

Picture from here.

yay.

As I posted earlier, we had a small Christmas this year, however I did score a few awesome presents. Steve knows me well and got me the Starbucks Gold Card. Unfortunately (or fortunately for my bank account) there is only one (real) Starbucks in this small town so my options when running errands are limited. This Seattle girl is used to twenty Starbucks in a five mile radius! It is, however, by the health sciences center and across the street from my parking lot. yay!

Another awesome present from my dad was the old standby: cold hard cash. This went towards a lovely little item off of my wish list. Yes...I am the proud new owner of a Diana Camera. If anyone has valuable tips or tricks (especially for getting the film developed) I will happily listen. Any and all advice is wanted. Thanks in advance. My first roll of film was used up in D.C. and I have yet to figure out where to develop it. As soon as I get the much anticipated photos back they will be prompty posted.

Did you receive any cool gifts this year? (I hope so!)

I gave this years Christmas a B+ simply because my dad was a million miles away in Seattle, while we were stuck on the east coast. Now I am trying to decide if we should trek out in the snow tonight to go into Pittsburgh for New Years Eve.

picture from here.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours. I hope you have all made it to your holiday destination safely...I know my dad has been practically snowed in at home in Seattle this past week. Christmas will be small in our household this year as our trip to Vegas (Cats 31 BYU 21!!) was our main present to each other, and we're heading out of town again this weekend to D.C.

Tomorrow will be filled with:

• opening stockings and a few presents under the tree
• Christmas breakfast (waffles, baked gruyere and sausage omelet...substituting gruyere for whatever cheese I have in my kitchen, and fruit)
• a trip to the theater to watch a movie (we are currently undecided on which movie)
• (more) cheese and crackers...snacks are a must on Christmas
  
• Christmas dinner (ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and salad)
• watching A Christmas Story a million times on TBS
• hoping that it snows for one day and then clears up for our drive to D.C. on friday
• finishing off my half gallon of Horizon organic eggnog

Happy Holidays!!

picture from here.

fabulous 2009 calendars.

I love calendars, and in the search to find a great new calendar for 2009, I came across these little gems (two are unfortunately already sold out...I should have started my search much sooner):

1. Turtle Papers Wall Calendar, (unfortunately) sold out

2. TTV Desk Calendar, $15

3. Orange Beautiful Calendar, $28

4. Desktop Calendar, $12

5. Pull Out Calendar, $7.50 (sold 0ut, but may be special ordered).

6. Letterpress Trees in the 4 Seasons Calendar, $25

There are many many more great calendar finds on etsy.com so head over there if you want to find some more fabulous calendars.

me = nerd.

I. love. NIH. Also, I had no idea how big the campus is...even more reason to love it.

D.C. (or rather, Bethesda) was fun, and we had some excellent food. Although I had my camera with me the entire time, I forgot to take pictures!! I guess I'm just not used to carrying a camera. We did eat at Sila Thai Cuisine in Chantilly, VA and for a yellowpages.com find, it was delicious (I had the pad thai). Later that evening when we met up with the entire group, we went out to Tako Grill in Bethesda just down the road from our hotel. At Tako Grill, I just had some spicy tuna rolls and the Sake Navel (a delicious sake and orange juice(?) drink...I can't remember what else was in the drink) as we had only eaten Thai food just a few hours earlier.

Today consisted of a short trip to Starbucks, continental breakfast and a tour of the NIH Clinical Center. We had full intentions of going to the National Museum of Health and Medicine but thanks to my trusty iPhone, decided to head back early as it was snowing the majority of the way home. The drive back was crap...and with my luck I was the one driving. Somehow we successfully made it home, and a few others of our group who left later ended up at hotels along the freeway (good luck driving back tomorrow guys!!).

I am now cozy on my couch in sweats and drinking hot chocolate...I never thought I'd be so thankful to return to this small college town.

To sum up: I soooo want to work at NIH in the future.

P.S. The countdown has started for vegas...GO CATS!!

Find picture here.

delightful.

This is a fabulous site that allows people from around the world to upload photos of their homes. There are some very cool homes and it is a great source for inspiration when needed. I especially love seeing how people from all over the world live.

Found via apartment therapy chicago.

P.S. Unless I get incredibly bored in D.C. and find enough patience to post from my iPhone, I will see you all again Tuesday evening (or Wednesday depending on how tired I am). Hopefully you have some vacation time coming up and work is winding down for the holidays!

Happy Holidays!

caught red-handed.

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I thought I'd let you all know that Maize has attacked our tree. Luckily she hasn't yet climbed it, as our little artificial tree most likely wouldn't be able to handle it. However, she has decided that Christmas lights make pretty tasty treats.

Making sure Mr. Snowman won't rat her out.

Yum...tastes just like chicken.

Just one more reason Christmas lights should be turned off when you are not around...

Also, and completely unrelated, I had the most delicious dessert tonight:


Fortunately for me, Steve does not like mint and chocolate together.

Steve only has 3 days left of training for work (this week he is in Atlanta)...after 3 months it feels like he would never be done! Also, tomorrow I am off to DC for a school trip (NIH and National Museum of Health and Medicine...YES!!) and the science geek in me is soooo excited. (If you're confused about my usage of geek, see this and this for correct definitions of geek, nerd and dork.)

...and then Vegas on Friday!!!!

cats + Christmas trees = disaster.

This is one of the best posts Apartment Therapy Boston has ever done. Maize has climbed our tree and has managed to knock down a few ornaments in the past, but this year she has restrained herself (so far...a couple more weeks till Christmas so we'll see what happens). She has however been keeping her favorite toy under the tree (I think she's telling us she wants more of them for Christmas). Do your cats think your Christmas tree is their new toy?

P.S. Panera wi-fi is s-l-o-w.

picture found here.

Update.

The weather finally decided what it wanted to do....snow. I woke up to a lovely surprise this morning, especially since last night was the one time I didn't park my car in the garage.

In other news, a faculty member in the department I work in as a GA has this outside his office:

So jealous...MD, MPH and PhD. Hopefully in 6 years I will be EK, MD, MPH (I'm not sure I'm willing to put myself through the torture to obtain all three...two will do me just fine).

Finals are over, and now I begin the torture of the dreaded MCAT. So much for winter break....

huh?

Today's weather, via weather.com, calls for a 'light wintery mix.'

1. How unscientific does that sound?
2. What is a light wintery mix?

The east coast (and weather.com) is just ridiculous...and if the weather could make up its mind (snow or rain...not both please) it would be much appreciated.

P.S. I feel the above outfit is suitable for a 'light wintery mix.'

Picture from The Sartorialist.

so very cool.

Check out these totally awesome pictures that totally made my day.

Found via beachbungalow8.

a small celebration.

In celebration of finishing my health policy final, I enjoyed a slice of the most fabulous (pink frosted) raspberry double chocolate cake with a delicious cup of coffee (I love a good cup of coffee).

Only a paper and presentation left...I will be done with my first semester of grad school at 9:00 PM EST tomorrow. I'm thinking tomorrow's celebration will include a large mug of hot chocolate and an early bedtime (as I am seriously sleep-deprived).

its finally Christmas.

As I mentioned earlier, the Christmas decorations are finally up, and I was (and still am) disappointed because I was unable to find some of our decorations. Either they are still packed in a box in the garage (meaning Steve will have to fish them out this weekend when he is back in town) or they were lost during our cross-country move.

(My apologies for the terrible photos. Our only digital camera is still with Steve in San Diego and these were taken from my iPhone. I'll post some better pictures after I have our real camera and I find some more decorations.)

(can you find maize?)

I imagine Maize will be spending the rest of December under our tree.

I am now off to (for real this time) work on my finals at a cafe. Hopefully I will be able focus and umm...ignore blogs for the remainder of the day.

ideal.

I love this house.




This home is the Palm Springs getaway for David Jimenez. Originally posted by Habitually Chic, this house, with its warm and welcoming atmosphere, is the perfect example of my ideal west coast abode. Its just the motivation I needed to get me to focus on school work so I can move back to the west coast for med school.

motivation.

I have no motivation. none. at all. I still have a take-home final, paper, and presentation left to do before Thursday.

However, I have booked hotel rooms for our upcoming trip to Vegas (Go Cats!!), looked for some decently priced flights to Vegas, and decorated our house for Christmas. Procrastination at its best.

P.S. Check out wordle (originally posted on How About Orange) to turn your blog or any text into a cool "word cloud"....again, procrastination, I'm great at it.

yes please.

I have absolutely no idea why I've been loving the color green lately, but these two pieces from Tiffany & Co. fit the bill perfectly. At $350,000 for the necklace and $240,000 for the ring a girl can only dream...

sanity regained.

I heart pandora, jack, dave, and skitn. They keep me sane through all of the studying, reading, writing...everything that's involved with grad school.

And this bedroom (do you think Steve would let me paint our bedroom pink? I don't think so either):

(from domino)

That is all.

see you in vegas.

A job well-done by the Arizona football team. We are headed to the vegas bowl...and left ASU with no chance for a bowl (an added bonus).

....and I'll be seeing you all in vegas.

Find picture here.

the girl effect.

Awesome video.

Visit The Girl Effect here (and the video was shamelessly stolen from here...)

love at first sight.

Joanna added another gift guide to her blog, A Cup of Jo, today...and these little beauties were included:

Today it was 25 degrees (it is currently 17 degrees...please someone get me back to Arizona...now) and while walking to my car after work I had to call a friend on my iPhone. I almost froze my hand off (I am a wimp in this weather) and these gloves are going to be a lifesaver (or hand saver!!). Thanks Joanna!!

You may now consider the gloves officially added to my Christmas List.

P.S. If you haven't checked out Joanna's blog, you should...it's way cool. Trust me.

cute print.

I absolutely love this print from dazeychic on Etsy. It reminds me of the UofA student union when Steve and I would have lunch outside and he would give the little birds french fries.

wish list.

My Christmas list for this year:

Op Art Travel Sabrina (Coach), Lomo Diana Dreamer Camera (Urban Outfitters), Jura-Capresso Automatic Espresso Coffeemaker (Williams-Sonoma), Floe & Current Coat (Anthropologie), Daily Color Planner (Fred Flare), Le Creuset Oval Dutch Oven (Williams-Sonoma), Ugg 'Coquette' Slipper (Nordstrom), Classic Signature Small Watch (Coach), Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi (Best Buy)

Really, I couldn't have made it any easier. Thanks in advance!

What's on your Christmas list?

I left my heart in...seattle.

Seattle. is. amazing. If you have not been, you should book your flight today. I am slightly biased as I grew up in the 'burbs, but it really is great...really great. Seriously.

I was there for a week, and a week was just not long enough to do everything we wanted to do. We did not make it to pike place market, vivace, and a multitude of other places we wanted to visit. Tragedy I know...but we'll be back soon.

We did make it to some wonderful restaurants and saw the sights. As I made it up to Seattle before Steve, I spent some quality time with my dad and we hit up a local favorite, Pizza Bank. Amazing Italian...amazing. I had the baked penne and as always it did not disappoint.


The next morning Steve flew in and we spent most of the day in Seattle. Before venturing over to the city I was hungry and in need of some breakfast so we went to Urban Coffee Lounge in Juanita Village right down the road from our house. Great coffee, great pastries, no seating. We had to sit outside in the rain until a seat opened up inside. If the owners ever read this...more seats please! (We never made it over to Vivace in Seattle so the latte at Urban Coffee kinda made up for it)


Once in Seattle we escaped the rain by visiting the Seattle Art Museum. To the best of my memory I had never visited SAM before and it was a blast, especially on a (typical Seattle) rainy day.


Pictures found here and here.

After SAM, we attempted to find some lunch and because of our hunger and unwillingness to walk up hills in rain any longer ended up eating this crap:


It was not good, and I can't even remember where we got it...Columbia Center?

That evening we made up for our lunch at Than Brothers in Redmond (11 locations in the Greater Seattle area) and it was great. Two thumbs up for Than Bros Pho. Simple menu, cheap...and cream puffs for appetizers (forgot to get picture of them...I was too hungry). I had veggie pho with tofu and both Steve and my dad had chicken. Both the tofu and chicken were great. So good.


The following day (Wednesday...Thanksgiving eve) we went back to Seattle and did the Ride the Ducks tour. As we are not morning people, we missed the earlier tours we originally wanted to make, so we bought tickets for the 2:00 pm tour and took some time to enjoy Seattle Center. To summarize, I rock skee-ball and Steve rocks air hockey. I even won a way cool safari tiger (?) stuffed animal. Seattle Center also rocks (and we were so thankful for blue skies...yay!).





The Ride the Ducks tour was awesome...just go in summer. We were freezing!!! The tour is 90 minutes long with 60 minutes on land and 30 minutes on the water. Sights from the tour:

(yum)

(cutest boat ever.)

(love this. and evidently a UW med student lives here. my dream: UW med school and an awesome boat. so jealous of him. so jealous.)

After the tour we had the first of two dinners of the day: Dick's Drive-In. wonderful. We hit up the Queen Anne location and I had a cheeseburger, fries and vanilla shake while Steve had a deluxe burger, cheeseburger, and fries.

We later went to dinner with my dad at La Corona close to home in Kirkland and I attempted to eat the chile verde (pork, chile verde, rice, beans, tortillas, yum). It was excellent, however my eyes were bigger than my stomach and it went home with me in a to-go box. Love La Corona.


The following day was Thanksgiving. Forgot my camera at home (across the street. I'm lazy, get over it) but the food was delicious. Great company, great food...wonderful.

Friday Steve and I headed over to Uwajimaya in Bellevue for lunch and had some ramen. It was good, as I expected it would be.


Later that day we took another trip back to Seattle, this time with my dad, for the Christmas Tree lighting at Westlake Center. Fun and busy as always. I love Christmas and I love Seattle. Put the two together....love it even more.

(love)

(santa was there!)

After the lighting of the tree we rushed over to Daily Grill for dinner before everyone else decided they too were hungry. I had the jumbo lump crab cakes and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was delicious. (sorry for the horrible pics...bad lighting)



Saturday we hung low at the house and Steve peaced out in the early evening to catch his 7:00 pm flight to San Diego (lucky duck...who wouldn't love to do training for work in SD?). My dad and I headed over to Ginger Teriyaki in Juanita and I had the (2nd) most amazing chicken katsu. (The most amazing is made by Steve's lovely kasan...aka mom.)


And then I had to head to Sea-Tac for a red-eye back to the east coast...I miss Seattle.