Emuzines

Happiness is…

…spending a night playing games with Nik and some of our oldest friends, in the birthplace of our relationship (the Rhoades household).

…devouring a meal of some of the best Mexican food LA has to offer (Pachanga), balanced on my lap while cruising down PCH and rocking out to KLOS.

…spending a relaxing day knitting with Martha, chatting with Justine, Dad, Nana, and Nonno.

…spontaneously remembering favorite LA food and drink spots, then going to them right away.

…see above…drinking a Coffee Bean vanilla latte during said games.

…coming home to a happy and sleepy Logan greeting me at the door, and following me within an inch of my body around the house until bed.

…knowing that I get to spend the next week and a half with some of my best friends and my family.

…also knowing that I get to go home to Nik, JoJo, and some incredible people who have quickly become the most wonderful friends a girl could ask for.

My dad, Martha, Mandi, and Justine came up to visit us this weekend. It was a short visit, but we packed it in and it was really nice. It was their first visit up here since we moved–with the exception of Mandi–so it was fun to show them the house and neighborhood. Yesterday we went out to lunch in downtown Davis, then hung around at home, watched some Friends, talked, and relaxed until it was time to go to dinner in Sacramento–Lucca, yummmmm. Last night we stayed up baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, watching more Friends (pastey pants!), and talking. JoJo fell in love with Justine and slept with her part of the night–it’s rare that Jo will even leave my side, so that was big–and she face rubbed and cuddled all over her.

This morning Martha made us all a gigantic and delicious breakfast, and we lazied around in our PJs for most of the morning. We had the football game on in the background–a very Sunday type of morning. Then Mandi, Martha, and I ran over to the Pedrick Produce Stand and bought all kinds of snacks–chocolate toffee almonds, chilli pistacios, chocolate peanut brittle, dried apricots, etc. They just took off and it’s lazy and quiet.

Thanks for everything–the company, dinner, breakfast, and the beautiful gifts!!

I have spent most of the weekend studying for my statistics midterm on Tuesday. It is so different from what I normally do/study/think about, so it has taken some getting used to…but I am understanding it and think I will do well on Tuesday. Now I just need to incorporate this knowledge into my research project and actually use it for the analysis…

I have also been walking almost every day. Usually I take JoJo, but not if I am going at a peak dog-walking time. She just pulls too much and I spend more time tugging back at her than relaxing. But sometimes she can be great, and she sniffs all around and doesn’t pull. There are all kinds of trails around here, and creatures and windy paths. The fall leaves crunch under our feet and the trees are getting very orange. It’s easy to get turned around and lost in the neighborhoods here, because they wind all around and loop back on themselves. I like getting lost in the neighborhoods and checking out everybody’s Halloween decorations and gardening. I have been learning a lot more about the neighborhood, too, and we get lost less…

Nik and I had a “night out on the town” Friday and last night. This is in quotes because Davis is such a small little town, and the downtown consists of a grid with streets 1-4 and A-G. On Friday we went out to Pasta?, an Italian restaurant, for dinner, and last night we went to the movies and then to a late-night dinner at Pluto’s. Both nights we spent some time walking the grid, people-watching, looking in the bookstore and shop windows. Nice fall evenings.

Off I go to help finish making chicken parm for dinner…

Last night’s party was a huge success!! About 30-35 people showed up, and I think everybody had a really great time. It was a welcome party for the first year students in my department, traditionally hosted by us second year students. Traditionally there is some sort of scavenger hunt or activity–while we didn’t do it last year as the guests, we developed an elaborate activity this year as the hosts. After the first years completed their activity, they joined the party at our house. We had some really great appetizers, food, desserts, and drinks. The house was perfect for the party, and lots of people complemented our fall decorations and the adorable house. Lots of burning candles, lit fire pit, and smells of fall.

The beginning part of the night was pretty low-key with networking, eating, and chatting–a lot of the guests hadn’t yet met. After the first year students left, though, things got a little more interesting. There was a core group of about 10-12 of us who played all sorts of games late into the night. We’re all exhausted today…but we had such a good time that Nik and I are thinking of instituting a monthly dinner and movie at our house. We’ll cook for everyone–David, Abby, April, Natalie, Maciel, and Kyle (our core friend group)–maybe the first Saturday of each month and hang out, have some drinks, and watch a movie. There was a great response to the idea, so now for the arranging. I’ve found that I love to host. Nik was also great at decorating, cleaning, and hosting. Even JoJo was a good girl and gently and calmly accepted pets from everybody. (She did lick the pumpkin pie and steal a piece of cheese, but that’s all she did that was bad!)

Nik and I hadn’t any plans for today. So this morning after coffee we headed out to Vacaville for some lunch and shopping. Then we came home and I got a good chunk of statistics homework out of the way, and we took Jo for a walk. It is so fall-y here, moreso than it ever seems to be in LA. I’m not used to it and I LOVE IT. The sky is gray and the trees are orange, and it’s windy with leaves billowing all around. There are lots of meerkats and ground-burrowing owls on our trail, hunkered down and adorable. We have gone with the feel of the season and the house shows–pumpkins, mulled cider, etc. We finished the night at Pasta downtown, stuffing ourselves with gnocci and fettucini. Now WE are hunkered down in bed and about to watch some Friends episodes.

Mandi came to visit this weekend, and we had a BLAST as usual. Our weekend was full of our seeking out adventures.

She was in later than expected on Friday, so we went out to have some tapas in downtown Davis. We came home and got snuggly in PJs and watched Friends episodes of our choosing until we fell asleep on the couch (”I want to see the one where Ross says, ‘It tastes like feet!’”)

On Saturday we headed out to the outlets in Vacaville, and did some Banana Republic, Fossil, Coach, etc. shopping and browsing. We both determined we don’t like most sweaters, but we ended up coming away with some good stuff. We justified short sleeves very well. Not surprising given we had given ourselves an out in  our rule (”Don’t let me buy any short sleeves UNLESS it’s a need”). On the way back, we stopped at a produce stand we had seen advertising pumpkin ice cream. We ended up with tons of snacks, including that ice cream. It has flecks of pumpkin in it. It’s delicious. Also on Saturday, we embarked upon our autumn meal extravaganza. We made corn chowder with buttermilk mashed potatoes (served in the same bowl with the chowder), bacon, and scallops. It was yummy. Then we took JoJo on a walk around the neighborhood and it rained on us a little. Again, into PJs and more Friends episodes until we fell asleep on the couch.

On Sunday we had a San Francisco adventure. Several, actually. We started off with brunch at Lime. Lime has a very nightclub atmosphere for 10:30 am, and the place was hopping. It serves unlimited mimosas which made for a very, very fun brunch. I ate a BAKED pancake with blueberries and powdered sugar, and Mandi had steak and eggs. They served the best biscuits in the world. And the best mimosas in the world–did I mention that?

After that, Mandi drove us to Union Square for some shopping. I came away with much more than I expected, sweaters included. Mandi bought some things, too, including a necklace from the street vendors. We then decided to check out Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. At the last minute I decided to drive it, rather than just look at it, and I turned onto it. It was fun and Mandi was a good photographer. After pulling over at the bottom for more pictures, we were pretty much out of time. We had to fight 49s traffic to get Mandi all the way to the Sacramento airport.

It was a fantastic weekend!

I love living in the house!  Spring has definitely arrived in Davis, and the neighborhood literally smells like flowers.  I got out of the car after work today and it smelled delicious.  My backyard also smells especially nice.  There’s a tree that we thought was some sort of fruit tree…but is suddenly blooming thousands of white flowers.  I’m pretty sure that’s what’s perfuming the backyard (and maybe the neighborhood…), but I also stuck my nose to all our other flowers and they smelled nice, too.  I can’t wait to have a BBQ and patio set back there.  I do spend as much time as I can out there, gardening or playing ball with Jo.  She LOVES being out there, although the other day is was very windy and she thought a rose was attacking her, and she was scared.  The rose now lays on the ground, bit in half.

Everything here is great.  We have purchased everything for the guest bedroom, and actually are having our first guest here Sunday night, just for the night.  Nik’s friend Liz from college.  But I don’t know if the bedroom stuff will be ready on time…  But then Mandi and my mom (and Logan) come on Friday!!  Yay!!!  It’ll definitely be ready by then!

Nik hung our pictures yesterday and it’s looking very homey.  Not much more to do to set up, except figure out where all of my smaller decorations go and do the guest stuff. 

I had a long day of many meetings at work and am pretty tired.  But I have to prepare for a presentation on Monday, so I better go get working on that…

Today Nik and I went house shopping!  We were both so excited and also a little nervous, I think.  We have a great Realtor who showed us 5 or 6 houses around Davis.  We fell in love with the first house we saw, which is a 5 bedroom home pretty close to where we live now.  We didn’t like any of the rest (except one that I thought was the cutest thing ever, but the “master bedroom” wouldn’t even fit our bed).  One house was SO bad, SO WEIRD…just the strangest thing that’s ever been built…it made the Realtor use antibacterial gel when we left.

We got our hopes set all high for this first house…just a gorgeous place.  Nik called George who said, “5 bedroom?” and we realized…we don’t need a 5 bedroom home for 2 people.  We were disappointed in our crash back down to reality, but it’s true.  It would be pretty foolish (although…imagine the possibilities–a scrapbook room, a bedroom, a room for JoJo, an office, and a guest bedroom…1, 2, 3, 4, 5!  That’s 5!). 

We’re going to start looking in other areas, including Sacramento.  Hopefully we can see some of those next week.  Also, hopefully something else opens up in Davis, because we didn’t like what we were left with!  It was a fun day, ended with pigging out on pizza and bruscetta downtown.  Now we’re relaxing in our robes, getting set to find some more houses to tour…

Nik and I have realized in the past week, that neither my mom or Mike D. live with us…so…who is going to kill the spiders that are apparently quite rampant in Davis???

I’ve refused on the two and only occurrences in the past few days.  Nik stepped up.  Anxiety all around.

I’ve got to admit, I’m surprised that Nik’s got me beat 3:1 in amount of posts, as I usually grab onto new fun things a tad obsessively.  I am really excited about this new space, and will love it even moreso after we move and are updating everyone about our new home, how JoJo does without a backyard, working through a Ph.D. program, living near cows, etc., etc.  Hopefully we’ll also be able to post a lot of pictures of our new place and the area, which is really a very cute, quiant little town very close to the pretty darn cool downtown Sacramento.  I want to thank Nik for all of the great work he’s done on this site and, especially, for surprising me with a Scrapbook section (check it out, it’s fun)!

We leave in 6 days and I have been pretty productive in getting ready.  I’ve packed a lot and have arranged PG&E, furniture delivery, etc.  Nik and I are very different in that I want it all done BEFORE we get there, while he wants to do it WHEN we get there.  I’m not sure if we compromised or if he gave in, but I feel very satisfied in how we arranged it all.  Many things are done…but once we get up there, there will still be just enough to do to keep us busy but not overly stressed out.  I’m excited to get our new place set up, so that we can cuddle with supersoft blankets on the (not yet found) couch and watch (found) Sex and the City, make fondue in our new fondue pot (thanks to Melissa and Jason), take Jo to the dog park, sleep on fancy and soft sheets, and…oh yeah…start working on that Ph.D…