Monthly Memories | January 2017

I decided on a new name for my monthly recaps, because “Best of” seems to indicate that everything I write about was the best of the month… And sometimes things happen and they really were not “the best” at all, but still worth remembering.  So for 2017 this series will be called “Monthly Memories”.

It rained A LOT in San Diego during January.  So much that we made HUGE progress on eliminating the draught we’re having.  But tons of rain also meant lots of hibernating at home.  I posted this status to Facebook some time in mid_January:

I feel SO cozy right now. I think I'm mastering hygge! I'm dressed in my soft fleece cardigan, pajama pants, and fuzzy slippers. Sitting under a soft blanket in my recliner. Having honey lavender tea with my piece of Dove dark chocolate. Reading free magazines through Kindle Prime on my iPad, while enjoying the scent of birthday cake in my Scentsy wax warmer. The little things ALL add up to make a wonderful warm Saturday evening on a winter's day.

In January the San Diego Chargers decided to move to Los Angeles after being in San Diego for 55 years.  That’s pretty sad.

Our Buckeyes lost badly to Clemson in the NCAA Football championship semi-final game.  Clemson went on to beat Alabama and won the title. 

I was so busy at work in January.  I was basically doing two people’s jobs.  At least my manager got budget approval to hire another financial planning analyst, and the job got posted.  I will be interviewing three people on Friday, after my manager did about 10 phone interviews and narrowed the field down.  So, should I ask the candidates, “Are you the droid we’re looking for?”  =))

At least I had this kind of view on a clear day from my desk.

Also, I can sit at my desk.

Or I can stand at my desk.  When they remodeled we got all new furniture and the desk has buttons to electronically rise and fall.  Oh and I also have a personal refrigerator.

On the weekends we went outside walking whenever it wasn’t raining.  We went to the beach twice.

And we went to the lake.

On one of those beach walks, we had lunch at Bongiornos afterwards.  Yummy.  We hadn’t gone in a while.

On the other beach walk day, we had lunch at En Fuego.  Todd gave me a “dining passport” type of book as one of my Christmas gifts, so that we could eat out and BOGO free.  And go on date nights.  The shrimp tacos at En Fuego were really good!

We also ate at Lourdes Mexican after another beach walk (we must have gone three times!).  I love their chicken soup.

And before the walk at the lake, we went to Chile Peppers for lunch.  Revisting an old fave!  Plus, we haven’t had a Todd Shot in a while, have we?

We had dinner with Dejah & Roby at Amaya at the Grand Del Mar.

Oh, the food!

I bought new wood hangers and put all the clothes that are a part of the Putting Me Together Winter Style Challenge (which I blogged about here) on the upper part of my closet. 

I’ll be blogging about my outfits that I wore for the 2nd half of January in a separate post.  I actually did not like the wood hangers, so I got some thin velvet hangers and used those for my lighter shirts.

We went out to dinner at Common Theory on a weeknight date night.  It was a rainy day but we went out anyways.  The mussels were delicious.

The company was even better.

We celebrated the Jan & Feb birthday girls at work.  I love celebrating with these beautiful, smart, and hardworking women!  They are engineers, product managers, financial analysts, event planners, product developers, computer programmers, salesperson, etc.  One of them even holds multiple technology patents!  So proud to call them friends. 

We celebrated Chinese New Year at work with some treats.

Todd and I discovered a new Indian restaurant called Curry And More.  They have really great lunch specials and the food is delicious.

We cooked at home a lot too! 

Pilaf with chicken, spinach, and walnuts.

Fast chicken chili with butternut squash.

Black-eyed pea cakes with corn salsa.

Tuscan-style potato soup.

Veggie quinoa soup.

Bean soup with sausage.

Coconut-curry chicken soup.

A ton of soups for a rainy and cold January!

Todd got periodontal surgery and was on a liquid diet for a couple of days.  He’s recovering nicely.

Noodle pretty much took naps in his beige bed all month, ha ha.

On those rare sunny days, he really enjoyed it.

Other cute photos.

Lastly… something I’m very sad about and still think a lot about… my friend Monika passed away from brain cancer in January. 

We found out she was hospitalized and Todd was able to go to the hospital to visit her and the family the next day, and then the day after that she was gone.  She was a good friend and so inspirational to so many people.  She did so much good with the 38 years that she was here on earth.  I will miss her and think of her often.  You can see her obituary here at Runner’s World.  Her conversation with Katie Couric on “Katie” is here on youtube.  And the interview with SELF magazine’s editor in chief is here.  An inspiring article about her at the San Diego Union Tribune.  I will always remember her and her indominable spirit.