Tahoe: Sunday

On Sunday AM, the boys went back to Squaw to ski. The guy from the rental agency came over and......FIXED THE HOT TUB. Something about the pilot light had to be turned back on. We finally hopped in to the hot tub!!






After the hot tub, we showered and headed to Squaw to meet up with the boys. We went back to the same place we went last year. We got those yummy bloody mary's and lunch. It was nice to just chill at Squaw.





After the guys were done, we headed back to the house to load up the cars. We left Squaw around 6pm and can you believe....we did not hit any traffic!!?? That must have been our reward for all of the issues over the weekend.

Check out how high the snow was

Tahoe: Saturday

After the traumatic experience on Friday, we were all ready to chill on Saturday. Our goal was to eat, drink, and go into the hot tub! We hung out, went to the grocery store, and had lunch at the house. We tried to get the hot tub to warm up to go in after lunch.

Mimosas!!


It NEVER DID. Can you believe after all of that on Friday night, the damn hot tub would not work!?? Unreal. We called the Rental Agency again but they said no one could come out to look at it until Sunday.

After lunch, we all took a nap. It was wonderful. We all took a spot on the couch & watched The Sandlot. The boys came home from skiing around 5pm and we all woke up. After making dinner, we all played a couple of games which were really funny.



Separated at birth!

You know you are having fun when you make hats to pass around!

After playing some games, having some beers, and cracking up all night, we were tired. Of COURSE, I was the first one to go to bed. haha.

Tahoe: Friday

Getting to North Lake Tahoe was an all day affair on Friday. Here we go - I'll leave it up to you to see if these events are a made up story I created in my head or if it was real life last Friday.

We left the house by 9am to drop the dog off at camp & pick up the snowboard from Storage. We arrived to pick up Beth & Amy by 1030 and left the city. We made a stop in Oakland to pick up chains for our tires from my boss. Finally, we were on our way!


Then, Betsy text us to say that part of I-80 was closed. You take I-80 ALL THE WAY TO TAHOE. So, we marched on & called the highway hotline every half hour to check on the status. First, we stopped in Sacramento and ended up in "Old Town Sacramento" which looked like a land in DisneyWorld called "Old Gold Mining Town".

We thought we would find a place for lunch but did not. We tried another part of Sacramento and stopped in a place called "Bagel Time" which ironically hardly had any bagels available. Plus, they had rabbit on the menu. A bagel place that has rabbit? Ummm, no thanks! We got back in the car and stopped at Wendy's off the highway.

After we left Wendy's, the sky was darkening. We finally got to the spot on I-80 where it was closed & traffic was stopped. It wasn't raining or snowing but apparently as you headed into higher elevations, it was. So, we waited & we really were not stuck that long.


We headed up into the Sierra Mountains and it started to....hail. Yes, hail!




Eventually, we got to the spot on 80 where you have to put chains on the tires.

Erik & Amy handled it while I....supervised. haha




We began the long, slow trek at 30MPH to Truckee.

Finally, 7pm, we pull into Truckee. We stop at the grocery store and pick up food for dinner. We leave the grocery store and it is snowing, big time. We follow our map to the house. We cannot find the house.

We drive back to the grocery store to ask about how to get to the house. We drive back towards the house. No house. We call the rental agency & they give us some advice. We find this tiny street & bridge to the little area of our house. There is so much snow on the ground that when we pull into this little street, we get stuck.

Two feet of snow on the ground & the car is stuck in the snow. The Rental agency lady, Roxie, says we can't drive down the approx 1/4 mile to the house. We must walk. No, this is not a joke and no, we are not on Amazing Race TV show. So, we make one trip down to find the house & we can't. The piles of snow are SO high, we can't see house numbers.

Finally, we find the house. My fingers are so cold, I can hardly open the lock box to get the key. Finally, we get into the house. But, we must make multiple trips back to the car to get the stuff!

Back up hill. Down hill. To the car. To the house. Help Erik get the car unstuck. Fail. Go home & start dinner.

Me, drinking water straight from the faucet because I am so thirsty after that workout!

Sit down to eat dinner around 10pm. A cop arrives at the door to tell us that if we don't move our car, it will get towed. Erik trudges back to the car with the cop. He digs a new spot to park the car. The cop pulls him out of his stuck spot & drives away. Erik goes to move the car and it won't start, thanks to leaving the lights on to help dig out the new spot.


The amount of snow outside the house!!

Erik waits and waits and waves down a new cop for help. The new cop jumps the car and finally, Erik pulls it into the new spot. Trudges back down to the house. Midnight - Betsy, Greg, & Jun say they are almost to Tahoe. 2am. They arrive. 230. Greg has to go back up the hill to move his car. 3am. We finally go to bed.

Pretty much sums up our trip!! We hoped that the rest of the weekend was better!!

We survived Tahoe

We are back from Tahoe. We survived the trip & had quite the adventure getting to Tahoe on Friday thanks to snow, road closures, map issues, and more snow. However, the rest of the weekend was clear and sunny so we had a good time. Here are some pictures to give you an insight into our weekend. I will give the full update when I get more time.


This sums up our drive there. This sign says 'Chains Required'


Check out the view from the house windows. The snow was SO high.


Scary Isicles


There was a hot tub...but, more on that later.


But, Tahoe was beautiful....

Snow in SF

Everyone here is going crazy because the news said we might get SNOW in SF. Apparently the last time that happened was in the 70's. Now, snow out here is not like real snow. I think if we got anything, it would be light flurries. It is "cold" here though because it is around 40 out and rainy. Keep in mind, we don't all have seal tight windows and heat pumping through our apartments to deal with the weather.

Anyway, here is the weather forecast-


Evie does not like the weather. She doesn't have a lot of fur and is cold!

We are leaving this "cold" weather for even colder & snowier weather because we are going to Lake Tahoe this weekend! Here is the forecast --


We are going to have to put chains on our tires of the car once we get closer to the mountains. It has been snowing like craaaaazy up there and chains are required on certain roads. It's so crazy!

There are 7 of us going to Tahoe and only 2 are skiing. haha. The rest of us plan on relaxing at the house, sitting in the hot tub, eating & drinking! Sounds like a good ski weekend to me.

Evie is not going this year. She is going to go to camp where she will have tons of fun.

Wish us luck in the snow!!

Shopping Buddies & Cinny Rolls

Yesterday, we were both off for President's Day! How wonderful to have a 3 day weekend. We got to sleep in which was nice.


First up, Evie and I walked to the Vet to get some more food. She looooves new bag of food day. She is so happy to go home, watches and stands near me as I open the bag, and then waits for me to pour it in the container. She eats it AS IT COMES OUT OF THE BAG and of course, I always spill some on the floor because she is in the way. Then, she eats it off the floor and sticks her face in the container. It's actually pretty funny.

Waiting for the food to be poured...


Gobble Gobble

After a workout and lunch, Evie & I went to do some errands. We used to drive down to the stores on our monthly Sunday trip together and she would accompany me while I did the shopping. That was when Erik used to work on Sundays & we had the day to ourselves. So, it was nice to just let her come in the car and do the errands. We went to Target & Bed/Bath& Beyond. The stores were a little crazy - I think everyone was off yesterday.

I came home to Erik brewing beer AND making cinnamon rolls. Erik Stewart was at it again.


Vanilla Porter in the works


Cinny rolls in the oven

Yummmm....they were delish!

It was a great day off with the family! This week is only a 3 day work week because we are off to Tahoe on Friday!

CELINE

I just found out that Celine Dion is going back to Vegas for another three year run of her show. I HAVE TO GO! I have never been to Vegas nor do I really care to go. But, I would go to lay by the pool, have a nice dinner or two and see Celine!! Maybe later this year we will go....

Wedding Inspiration

I have found some cute wedding blogs and sites. I found a few things that are inspiring for our wedding...next year. We really are not doing too much planning right now. I just ordered the save the date cards, which are super cute!


Cute, rustic sign to direct people to the wedding....



I love this 'Just Married' sign...I think it would look cute hanging in front of a CANDY TABLE!

I love this idea - all of the candy can be the colors of the wedding. Plus, you can do it all yourself. Just buy the glass containers at a craft shop and the candy at a candy warehouse online!


The colors at the wedding will be navy & lime green - I can already think of so much candy to buy around those colors!

Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin goes on the same shelf as Milk and King's Speech, as being a very inspirational film. Temple Grandin is an actual person - she is a woman with Autism who has a PhD in Animal Science. Temple is a well-known author and a designer of a system that cattle slaughterhouses use that is more humane for the animals.

Temple was born in the 60's when Autism was not understood very well. A doctor initially told her Mother that she should be institutionalized because Temple did not speak until she was 4 yrs old. Despite the odds, Temple went onto a boarding school for gifted children, college, grad school and received her PhD. She is known as DR. Temple Grandin and was a key contributor to this film.

Claire Danes played the role of Temple and authentically captured Temple's voice and mannerisms. She has won a couple of awards for this film and I definitely feel they were well deserved.

Temple has been a voice in the autism community & to everyone - she was one of the first people to be able to explain WHAT it feels like to be autistic. There are different levels of autism & asperger's on the spectrum and Temple is known as a highly functioning Autistic. She is a true inspiration for anyone as someone who found her voice and used it to help others.

I highly recommend this film. One thing I want to point out is that you will see how slaughterhouses are set up & work. I am pretty passionate about people knowing where their food came from & how it ends up on your plate. I know that some people would rather not know this information, so I just want to warn you.

If you ever do want to understand the food industry better, I recommend the following:

• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• Food Inc, a Film
• Oprah's Vegan Episode
• Modern Meat - a PBS article(graphic descriptions)
  

I totally understand there is an up and down to every situation. If no one ate meat, think of all of the cattle farmers and those in the industry who would be out of work. However, Temple was onto something when she said, "Nature is cruel. We don't have to be."

Weekend Update

On Saturday, we were rained in again. I got my hair highlighted in the AM, we had to get a smog test for the car, did some laundry...usual Saturday stuff. Then, we went to the mall to hit up the Borders Closing Sale. Borders declared bankruptcy and they are closing 200+ stores. The store in our mall is closing and everything was on sale. I have to say though, the sale wasn't that great. It just brought everything down to Amazon regular prices. I got a few books though:


We ended up eating dinner at the mall at a Korean BBQ place. We made it home and stayed in for the night. We tried to watch Prince of Persia but it was boring!

On Sunday, we woke up to....SUN. Yippeeee! Evie was thrilled to be able to go on a normal walk outside and not be rushed to get back into the warm house. I went food shopping and got a manicure and Erik went surfing in the afternoon. Sunday was the last week of Beer Week so we went to Toronado so he could try some BrandyWine Beer. We hit up Metro Caffe for those yummy cheesesteaks again and then went home. We watched Temple Grandin last night - what an inspirational film.

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the second book by Kite Runner author, Khaled Hosseini. This book focuses on two women whose lives intertwine in Afghanistan.

The first woman, Mariam, lives with her single mother and has a father who refuses to accept her as a daughter since she was born out of wedlock. After trying so hard to get her father to accept her & trying to live with him, she is married off at the age of 14.

Laila is a young woman who has a loving family and access to an education. Her family is ripped apart due to war in Afghanistan. After Mariam & her husband take Laila in, they must survive the man they live with and the war that is raging in their own country. They must face the Taliban, hunger, and abuse.

This story started out slow for me and I was bored by Mariam's side of the story. The book definitely picks up in the second half of the book. The women endure a LOT in this book and some parts were hard for me to read - specifically, if they were getting physically abused/beat up. The violence shouldn't seem that crazy to me since I have been reading books about Concentration Camp but I think this book gave too much detail.

While I thought The Kite Runner was an awesome book, this one was a clear 2nd place. What I love about both books is how this is a historical fiction book and puts the political unrest in Afghanistan in perspective.

Beer Week

It's Beer Week here in SF. Despite the pouring down rain, we headed out to Zeitgeist on Friday night for a Sierra Nevada event. I don't really like Sierra so I had a Franziskaner Hefe and a Great White Wheat beer. Erik tried a few different Sierra beers including the BarleyWine, Hoptimum, and Glissade.

It was fun to hang out & say goodbye to the work week!

Gooooood Bye!

I just paid off one of my student loans (1 out of 2). YIPPEEEEEE!!! I am so excited. Only one more to go & I am free of college loans!!!

Very exciting!