We're Home!

They lifted the evacuation in our area today and we came home around noon. We're so happy to be home! Thanks for all your prayers and concern. The sky is blue right above us and the air quality isn't too bad. We are running a room air filter to try to clear up the rest of the smell.

We're OK!

In case anyone is checking my blog for our status, we're OK! Todd and I had to evacuate our home yesterday morning due to the fires in San Diego. We're staying with our friends in San Marcos. We think so far our neighborhood is okay... no news is good news. But several neighborhoods in Rancho Bernardo, where I work and close to where we live, have burned. However, we're definitely ok and waiting to see when we can go back to our house.

Fire Season

If you live in Southern CA you know that October is fire season. The Santa Ana winds blow and it is warm and dry here. In 2003, the big fires that swept through what seemed like all of San Diego was during the Santa Ana winds in October as well. And again, today it is happening. Todd and I were just hanging out at our house with our windows open, watching football, when he smelled fire. We looked outside the window and a big cloud of smoke was billowing towards our backyard. We checked around and there were no fires near our house. Turned out that the two fires were down south by the border, and east of us near Ramona. Regardless, because of the strong winds, the smoke and the smell engulfed our whole area. It was gross! We went to Costco to buy some things, and we regretted stepping out of the house because of the smoke. The Indians are losing Game 7 of the ALCS right now to the Red Sox, 3-1. I can't believe they lost the last two games and are on the verge of ending their season. They should have won game 5 at home! Yesterday (Sat.) Todd and I went running on the coast of Encinitas. We hadn't done that in a few weeks and it was very fun. We ran, then we went to Beach City Cafe and I had the Huevos Rancheros with seasoned fried potatoes, and Todd had grilled mahi mahi taco and carne asada taco. Then we tried to go to a bakery that Todd had discovered on Chowhound, but there was a traffic light malfunction and it was going to take WAY too long to get through the traffic to get there, so we opted to go home in time for the Buckeye game instead. The Buckeyes beat Michigan State 27-17. I thought there was going to be a bigger margin of victory. But at least they won and we were excited. Later in the afternoon, Sally came over and we looked at our newly framed and hung pictures on the walls, and she looked at my Shutterfly album of my digital scrapbooking pages, and our new album of photos shot by Tara Whitney. Then Todd made yummy homemade pumpkin spice bread, which is our fall favorite. It was SO good! Todd also made a sausage & mushroom barley dish that was delicious. Then the three of us watched "Love Actually". It's a fun movie, and Sally had never seen it. Friday night Todd and I went to the local Indian eatery by Trader Joe's, and then some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. In the fall, they have a flavor called "Quarterback Crunch", which is vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate crunch balls. It's really good and we always go get it in the fall! Well, the weekend is almost over, so I'm getting ready to chill out and rest so I can gear up for another week of work.

Frames N Things

All kinds of goody-ness

Yet another great weekend! All kinds of goody-ness to share. :)
On Friday night we ate dinner at Pho Hoacali, the local Vietnamese restaurant. We love eating there because it's so good and so cheap! We usually get a large chicken rice noodle soup to share, then an order of 2 fresh spring rolls. That usually rounds out to less than $10!

Saturday morning we got up and got ready to watch the OSU Buckeyes play Kent State. We turned to the appropriate channel on AT&T U-verse at the game time and.... NOTHING. Todd called U-verse customer service and they said the game is blacked-out in California. Todd told them somebody made a mistake, because how could a game between two Ohio teams be blacked out in CA? We couldn't get anywhere with their customer service. By this time the first quarter was over, and we were stark raving mad at AT&T U-verse. So I asked Todd, "Can you just climb into the attic and re-attach the Dish Network wires?" We hadn't canceled our Dish yet. So Todd got a ladder and climbed into the attic. A few minutes later... we got the Buckeye game on! Triple arm-pump to me for suggesting it! The game was great as we beat Kent State 48-3. Then, two things happened. LSU lost to Kentucky in overtime. And Cal lost to Oregon State. We were ranked #3 prior to Saturday's games, with LSU ranked #1 and Cal ranked #2. So guess who is #1 in the BCS standings now??? THE Ohio State Buckeyes! After the game, we went to In-N-Out Burger to celebrate the win.

Saturday night we dressed up in 80's duds and headed on over to our friends Dean & Shona's place. It was a party for Dean's 40th birthday. We haven't seen them in ages, and it was so great to see them. Their backyard was transformed into an 80's extravaganza with old record covers and vinyl discs as decorations. They had catered Mexican dinner and it was yummy. Here are a few pics of the festivities.




After dinner and two kinds of cakes (chocolate ala-mode and carrot cake), Dean started the karaoke machine off by singing "Super Freak". Check out the mullet!


Then, Todd got up and sang Billy Ocean's "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going". Check out the 80's prom dress in the back!
We had so much fun with everyone at the party. Most of all it was just fun to spend time with friends. We left the party around 10:30 PM and was shocked to turn on the radio and find out that the Indians were STILL playing the Red Sox in the ALCS game 2, five hours later! It was the 11th inning and the Indians bats suddenly woke up! They scored 7 runs in the inning and beat the Red Sox 13-6! We got home in time to watch the end of the game, and Todd was super-excited!

On Sunday, our next door neighbors Annie & Fred invited us and their friend Andy over for lunch. Look at all the stuff Annie made!




We were excited to eat 2 types of dessert again! Can you believe it?

We hung out at Annie & Fred's for a while, playing with their cats, discussing coffee, and watch the Eagles Farewell I tour in Australia. Then we came home, and watched the Chargers beat the Raiders 28-14. LaDainian Tomlinson scored all four of the Chargers touchdowns! The Chargers are finally back on track! Then Todd got even more excited when his Cleveland Browns beat the Miami Dolphins 41-31. This was the GREATEST sports weekend ever!

Today I had lots of things to do for work, which I did. Then I went to the mailbox to get the mail... and guess what all I got??? Happy mail!

I got this photo necklace from Tara Whitney, as a gift! I love it and I told her so. It's so adorable!

AND, I got my print order from Shutterfly back! All the photos that Tara took of us are now printed out and ready for framing etc.

Yes, happy mail today!

And I ran, I ran so far away

Well, not really that far, just 3.8 miles. After work we went to Miramar Lake to run. The weather was nice, perfect for running (not too cold, not too hot). The sun was on its way down the horizon. I ran well, but I felt funny and my limbs felt tingly, which alarmed me. It felt like a panic attack might happen. But it didn't happen, so I'm thankful. Ever since the rollercoasters at Knott's Berry Farm on 9/29, I feel like my brain's wires got re-tripped and I've been more on -edge than I had been. I think I took a step backwards in this brain-rewiring process. So the lesson learned is that I need to be careful about some adrenaline pumping activities, like rollercoasters, and skydiving. And who knows what else. I'm already a very defensive driver as it is. But when my brain is hyper-alert, I jump when someone pulls out in front of me, or if someone backs out of a space in the parking lot too fast while I'm in the lane. I jump. This heightened sense of alertness is also not as fun for sleeping. This too, shall pass. I know that. I have faith that with some self-cognitive behavioral therapy, and my medication, that I will be just fine.

This man

This picture describes exactly how I feel about this man. I look up to him. He protects me. He makes me laugh. I adore him. He makes me happy. Not just today. All the time.

Photo by Tara Whitney
Upper photo cropped by me

Random Ramblings

I thought I'd post this digital scrapbook page I did last night about our girls' get-together from Sunday. I had bought some $1 fonts at Lettering Delights and was excited to use them. I thought the page turned out pretty cute. :)

I forgot to mention that last Tuesday (10/2), Todd made his 10th speech at his local chapter of Toastermasters International. This makes him a real Toastmaster! What an achievement! I'm so proud of him for joining Toastmasters and making his ten speeches so far. It's something he did on his own, just to better himself. He sure is motivated! So Tuesday night last week, to celebrate his Toastmaster-ness, I took him to dinner at Outback Steakhouse, where I ate the Drover's Platter with ribs and chicken and garlic mashed potatoes and green beans (wow this sentence was run-on!). Todd had the 9 oz steak. Everything was so yummy! :) Did I already say how proud I am??

Tomorrow AT&T U-verse comes to the house to install HD stuff so we get HDTV. I can't wait to watch the baseball playoffs, college football, and NFL in high definition!

Once More With Feeling... backwards!

Ahhh. We had a great weekend! The weather was perfect. It was sunny, blue-skies, and 75-80 degrees. Perfect San Diego fall! Can't ask for better than that. :)

So, let's recap the weekend in reverse order, shall we?

Yesterday we had our girls get-together to welcome AJ & Meera's baby, Andon. It's a little shower from us home fellowship girls. We had desserts/treats at Market Street Cafe & French Bakery in San Marcos. It had been a LONG time since the five of us were able to get together. It was SO good to see them, and reminded me of how much I've missed all of us getting together. Of course, there was LOTS of girl-talk about pregnancy, birth, babies, nursing, potty-training, etc. Stuff that everyone else but me has had experience with. But that's okay! I like hearing about them, even if I don't have those experiences. Especially since when I see the girls talk about it, their faces light up and they're so full of joy and love talking about their kids.

Here's Denice & Barbara - looking good!

Meera looking radiant!

Some new toys for Andon!

Cute new pajamas for mama!


All five of us: Denice, Barbara, Meera, me, Jen

We had such a fun time chatting. Before we knew it, three hours had passed and it was time to go home. I look forward to getting together with them again!

The Chargers finally won BIG yesterday, beating the Denver Broncos at Denver 41-3! Finally they're playing like they should be, with the talent that they have.

Sunday night Todd & I watched "The Bourne Identity". It was okay. I don't understand what the hoopla was about. The movie had virtually no plot. There was no character development for the main characters Jason Bourne and Maria, so I didn't know why I'd care about them as individual characters or together. I couldn't understand why they liked each other to begin with. It was mystifying.

On Saturday, we got up and watched ESPN College Gameday. Then went to get breakfast at Brueggers Bagels in Carmel Mountain. I got a sausage egg & cheese bagel sandwich. Todd got a cinnamon sugar bagel. Then we went home and watch some college football, all the while taking naps. It was so relaxing and fun. I just love lazy fall Saturdays with football. Then we headed out to the Clairemont Mesa area and had lunch at 168 Restaurant, inside the 99 Ranch Market. It was pretty yummy. We ordered a sauteed spinach and a deluxe pan fried noodles. Afterwards, Todd got some red bean cakes (the whole purpose of the trip!) and some boba tea.

We did some laundry, Todd did some music arranging, cleaned the house some, etc. Then at 5 PM it was the Buckeyes versus Purdue. Coming into the game, Purdue was averaging like 45 pts per game and had the #1 offense in the Big Ten. Don't tell that to the Buckeyes! We were playing at night at Purdue, and we still beat them 23-7. Then, the shocker of the season happened. Stanford, a 40 point underdog, beat USC 24-23! How could this have happened??? This put the Buckeyes at #3 ranking. Hip hip hooray!

Okay, the reason for the naps on Saturday was because we were up until 3 AM on Friday night! Why, you ask? Because the Buffy Musical Sing-a-long came to the Ken Cinema at midnight!


Todd, Sally, and I went and met at Lestat's beforehand. Then we headed to the Ken Cinema, where we were shocked to find the line to get in formed around the block! We got in, got our goodie bags, and waited for the show to start. It was pretty much sold out! The organizers did a terrific job with the pre-show fun. Then they put the subtitles on the song numbers and everyone sang along. It was like "Rocky Horror Picture Show", as we were given instructions and prompts where we used the props they gave us in our goodie bag at different times during the show, and where we yelled things out. It was fun, but I was so tired! We didn't get home until almost 3:00 AM!

So that was my fun weekend. Our halloween costumes arrived late last week, but I'm not telling what we're gonna be until you see our pictures later!

All your robots are belong to us

While in Seattle, we visited the Science Fiction Museum at the Seattle Center. We saw many costumes from science fiction movies and television. It was very cool!

This is the first digital layout I've done in a long time! I'm very happy to be creating again! :)

I kicked Miramar Lake's butt

I went running today at Miramar Lake. After my not-so-awesome run last time, I thought I'd just go for 4 miles. But I felt so good at 2 miles out that I didn't want to turn around. So I ran the whole 5 miles in good time! I'm so excited because I thought I was really out of shape. Turns out maybe last time I just wasn't feeling well physically, either because of something I ate or maybe hormones. This time I did so well! I'm back in running groove. In other news, I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today regarding my progress on my panic attacks and my medication. I'm doing well. The rollercoasters last Sat. probably wasn't a good idea, as it left me jittery and pumped with adrenaline. I had trouble sleeping for a few days after that. So I've cut out all caffeine for now, again. The doc told me that my brain is re-wiring after my panic attacks. He wants to keep me on the medication for 6 more months, until April.