Best of July 2016

It’s hard to believe that another month has gone by already!  Summer is flying by!  Time for another “Best Of” monthly post!

Todd’s parents came to visit and we took them to Coasterra for dinner. 

On the same day, we went to the San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights “Star Spangled Pops” concert on July 1st.  Lots of patriotic music and fireworks afterwards!

Todd’s parents got to hear Todd speak at the annual American Mensa conference, which happened to be in San Diego this year.  Todd gave a talk about how to make friends as adults (because we all know how hard that is!)  They were so proud of him!

We also walked at Miramar Lake.

Wore these heels to work.  I don’t normally wear heels at all because I hate being uncomfortable, but these 3” heels are actually quite comfortable. 

Went running at the coast.  Oh San Diego, how we love you.

Todd participated in the “Cake Off” contest at work with his chocolate caramel cake.  Sadly he did not win.  I’m pretty sure it was rigged.

We tried out a new-to-us restaurant called “Brothers Provision”. 

We had a weeknight movie date to see “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, because we love Miyazaki’s animated movies.

We got a new refrigerator.  Our old one came with the house when we bought it in 2001.  It was time.  Todd was very excited!

You might be wondering, why are they buying and upgrading and re-doing all these things around their house?  Well, we’ve saved up some money, and we believe that things around the house should enhance our everyday experiences rather than annoy us.  So, as much as we’re able to make our house a place of comfort, that’s what we’re doing.  New windows?  We’re enjoying them so much.  Opening them every morning and every night is a great everyday experience and huge upgrade from our old windows.  New office?  LOVE the experience of being in it now that it’s open, airy, organized, and bright.  New fridge?  It’s big and all the food is organized and it’s energy-efficient.

We donated the old fridge (still works), two bookshelves, and a big filing cabinet.  Todd had to take the doors off the fridge and got help from our neighbors Tyler and Fred in order to get the fridge out our front door.

Todd officially joined the San Diego Triathlon Club.  He went on two bike rides with them, plus a couple of ocean swims (but I don’t have pics). 

I took a Friday off and spent the 3-day weekend painting my craft room and hauling all my boxed up stuff back into the craft room and organizing it.  Here’s a peek, but I’ll blog the craft room makeover later in August.

We tried a new Hawaiian poke place called “Poke Go”, not too far from us.  I deemed it pretty good.  Nice to have poke not too far away.  It’s a decent closer-by choice for sure. 

We went to a concert at Open Air Theater and we saw Howard Jones…

OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark)

And Barenaked Ladies (our 5th or 6th time!)

It was like re-living high school and grad school all over again!

Todd went salsa dancing with some co-workers.  He’s in the Swing Dance Club at work, but this was different type of dance.  They got lessons too!  Next time I’ll be joining him.

I printed out photos for the first time since last September (10 months ago!).  I’ll be scrapbooking again soon, now that I’ve made over my craft room.  For various reasons I haven’t scrapbooked since 10 months ago.  I feel like doing it again.

Dad & Shelly came to visit and we celebrated their combined birthdays with lunch at Duke’s La Jolla.

Followed by a walk around the Cove.

Went to the Padres game downtown at Petco Park with AJ & Meera.  They ended up beating the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 in 10 innings.  Love hanging out with AJ & Meera!

Cooked a bunch of great meals at home.

We helped Noodle celebrate his 6th birthday by letting him lick some Cheetos.

Some more Noodle antics in July:

I didn’t take any photos, but I got to have lunch with my scrapbooking friend Pearl and also visit her new house.  I loved it, and loved spending time with her!

I’ll blog my craft room makeover in a couple of weeks.  We are SO looking forward to August because we’re taking a week off work and just staycationing here in San Diego.  It’s our favorite thing to do! We love San Diego and living here is a dream.  And also, Peppermint will be coming to visit!