19 December 2010

Public Apology

February 2010: Oceanside, CA


December 2010: Malibu, CA
On many occasions I declared a strong dislike for LA and swore I'd never, ever travel north of there. In my head it was crowed, and cold and lame. In my head, it was just as bad as Kansas. Not this Kansas:

This Kansas:


But I digress. The good news is, I was wrong. LA is awesome. Places north of LA, like Santa Barbara, are beautiful. So California, I apologize, I was wrong for judging places I have never gone. You were right, you (no matter who you are), can find yourself in California. I look forward to more visits to more places I've never been. Thanks for being way better than Kansas.

11 December 2010

California Love

I woke up in Santa Monica, CA today and although the sound of my phone ringing was my alarm clock, I did't care all that much. The sun is shining through my window and its the legit warm kind. Not the tricky midwest kind that lures you outside with false pretenses of warmth.

What adds even more to the experience is that as me and the hubs venture to Santa Barbara for the first time, our trusting tour guides will be our great friends Jenny and Aaron. Mostly, I'm excited about all the food. All the eating. All the consupmtion. It'll be difficult to top In N Out Burger yesterday but Aaron assures me that a local wonder called Amandine will deliver a solid effort by way of breakfast and most importantly, coffee.

Getting up, moving out.

05 December 2010

Christmas at 801

I'm a fool for Christmas decorations.  The tiny twinkle lights. The glittery baubles, even the fake snow flocked on trees and padded around vignettes. The rule in our house is firm, no leanings toward Christmas decorations, music or otherwise until Thanksgiving has been fully celebrated.  

This year we returned from visiting my mom in Seattle and almost immediately went out and purchased the largest Christmas tree I've ever owned. lovingly called, "The Whale."


Hubs rigged up the star to kind of balance in front of the top branches on The Whale since there was no room between the top branch and the ceiling. The Whale holds 600 mini multi-color lights, which seems like an obscene amount but it's just right. And we did learn that the generic version of the "magic eraser" will in fact clean the skid marks from a tree that is too tall off the ceiling. Its like nothing happened.