Weekly update: Chloe

How upset does Chloe look in this picture? We took her on Wednesday, 12/10 to get "fixed". She was pretty good on the way down because I think she was happy to get out of the house. Once I took her out of the carrier bag (it's this really cute purse looking cat carrier), she did NOT like it. She crawled into my arms and hooked her claws into my jacket. She started shaking a little. Poor thing. :( I went to work and then was able to pick her up at 5 PM. The cone on her head is small, but go figure, she HATES it. When we were chilling at home, she kept trying to go under the counch, but the cone stopped her. She was not a happy kitty. Last night, we took off the cone to see if she would try to suckle her belly (she has done that for comfort ever since we "took" away Bertoli). She tried once, but it was too sore for her to do it. Hooray! So last night, she slept by my side of the bed without a cone!! One good thing (well, pertaining to getting up for work) about her is that when my alarm goes off, there is no way I can possibly press "snooze". When she knows I've woken up, she does her morning clawing on the bed spread and her cute little meows so that I will lift her up and give her a morning cuddle. I guess that's what I get for baby-ing her the first few months of her life. For Christmas, though, I think I'm going to buy her a kitty bed to sleep in.
Other than that, I saw twilight again yesterday and it was just as cheesy as the first time! Today, I am going shopping in SF with two of my girl friends. Nick and I get to go to my work's Christmas party tomorrow at the Westin in Fisherman's wharf. It should be fun, I hope. (Hey, a free dinner!) Other than that, we are enjoying our lives together!

On Saturday, Betsy treated me to a fun wreath making party in Montera (which is a little North of Half Moon Bay). It was a beautiful sunny day by the beach. There were all sorts of pine tree branches, and holly berries, and babies breath, etc. How to make a wreath? Well you grab all sorts of different tree branches, berries, etc and bunch them into 8 tiny bunches about an inch in diameter. After putting all 8 together, you clamped them onto a metal wreath frame using a metal clamper. I had such a good time. I was telling Betsy on the ride home (as I've told Rachel a month or so ago) I really want to find more friends that love doing artsy activities like these. I have fallen in love with homemaker activities. I also bought the Jane Austin collections book from Costco that has 7 of her books (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc). The great thing about it is that after I'm done, the book can be used as a decoration in the house.
I love the holidays!

Thanksgiving weekend!

What an exciting Thanksgiving weekend!!It started out with having Thanksgiving dinner (at 2) with Nick's family. Betsy and Bob made a fantastic Turkey dinner. I was able to use my kitchen-aid mixer for the first time ever to whip up some mashed potatoes. That mixer is AMAZING! After stuffing myself fully, I had to go back to the house to take a nap. That night, I drove down the hill to sleep at my parents house because Rachel and I were going to attempt BLACK FRIDAY!At 4:20 AM, Rachel and I were awake and ready to set off for our long day! We were outside of Walmart about 4:50 and decided to wait in the parking lot til we could at least see the end of the line. When we finally got in about 5:10, we ran straight for the toys. After fighting the crowds, we did not find much. All I bought was a $2 DVD! We then headed to Target to stand in line for the 6 AM opening. We were able to find a couple of things in there, then it was off to Stanford mall. We stayed there for 2 hours before we headed to Costco!! I bought one of Nick's presents there (which he's already found and looked at.. and loves!. Then we headed over to Toys R Us!! That was where the rush was. We stood in line for an hour to buy one item. Rachel and I were so tired that when something funny happened in front of us, we had unstoppable giggles! From there, we went to Marshall's, then it was back home to decorate the tree!! That was such a fun day that by the time I got home at 6, I wanted to pass out... but ended up going to a movie with Nick! :)On Saturday, we took Chloe to the vet for her shots... and ended up having to pay for all different stuff that cost us $270!! Animals sure are expensive. That night, Nick and I went to "Plaid Christmas" with my family. That was a great way to start off the Christmas season! Yesterday, Nick and I started building our coffee table for our living room. I love doing projects together. Overall, this was a great weekend, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the holiday season!! (as I am sitting here drinking my gingerbread latte)

RIP Bertoli

Today is a sad day for Nick, Chloe, and I. We had to put down Bertoli. On Friday, I took him to the vet to see what was wrong and I why he wasn't walking. It turns out that he had low bone density.. his pelvis was one third the normal size. Also, he had a slipped disk, most likely from play fighting with Chloe. Finally, he had a bad respiratory/sinus infection. The doctor put him on antibiotics and said that if he doesnt get better in a few months, he would never walk again. Yesterday, Chloe and Bert were messing around and he somehow got really hurt. We tried to pick him up but he let out the most painful yell I've ever heard him do. Today, he was having difficulty breathing and he couldnt move his lower body, so we made the decision to take him to the humane society today and put him down. It was painful to leave him there and I swear that he had tears in his eyes too. It's for the best and it would have been selfish to keep him alive and in pain simply because I loved cuddling with him. The positive side of this all is we still have Chloe. I wonder how long it will take her to realize that he is no longer around. :(

Happy Birthday Rachel!!

Happy Happy Birthday, you 29 yr old fool, I'm such a lucky girl, to have a sis like you!! P.S. Rachel doesn't smile in many pics with me (the goof ball) so this is the best I have... and yes, we are glowing!

Sick Bert

Unfortunately, Bertoli is still not well. He refuses to stand on his hind legs, although we have seen times where he'll try. We are definitely going to have to take them both in for shots, but we also have to take him in for X-rays. I hope we can find out what's wrong so we can get him fixed soon! He has been like this for two months now. The last time we went to the vet, she couldn't find anything. We can't afford to spend $275 for them to say "I don't know what's wrong with him..." So this must be what it's like to have children.

Anchors Away

Happy Birthday to me! Nick and I are headed to the Bahamas for a 5 night cruise!! We are doing the red eye flight on Friday, January 23, to Jacksonville, Florida so we can get there 4 hours before the ship leaves. Then we are headed to Nasseau, Half Moon Cay, then back up to Jacksonville to fly back on the night of the 29! I am so excited for at least 3 reasons: 1) Nick and I are going on a vacation, 2) I have never been east of Utah, so I'm even excited to fly to Florida, and 3) I was "forced" to get my passport yesterday because I'm going out of the country!! There's only one thing I dread about this trip..... I have to buy a swimsuit. Any ideas where I can get one for cheap?!

"Emmie bemmie pudding & pie. .. "

Happy Birthday to E.mily R.ebecca A.dams We all love you!

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Guess what I did?!

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Happy Halloween!!

Nick and I agree that Halloween is too over rated. I think it is fantastic for little kids to dress up and go trick or treating, but when it comes to the adult side of Halloween.. we don't like it. We both hate scary movies, gore, etc... plus, the costumes for adult women are either an ugly witch or some provocative (sp?) outfit. I decided to go halfway with my costume. I am wearing my tshirt from San Diego that says "keep it wild". This, worn with my khaki pants, labels me as an "animal activist". :)

Home Garden network strikes again!!

While taking the day off last Friday to "do my homework", I did the mistake of turning on the tv to watch my favorite channel. I should know better by now that I can not do homework while watching that channel because I end up continuing to decorate the house. Friday's project?? Somehow doing something with the large kitchen window area that we have. This window area was created in the original version of the house to be the sole window for that room. It is about 4.5-5 feet wide, and about 14 inches deep. Finally, we decided to hang a wine rack for our cheap costco glasses and put pictures and candles in the middle. I think it managed the space wisely without being overwhelming. Look at the the beautiful tile work Nick did with his dad when redecorating!! I will keep posting what else I do to the house. :)

3 day weekend

This weekend was a 3 day weekend for Nick and I. We both took Friday off because we were planning on going to Calistoga on Friday night then drive to Jenner to stay over there Saturday night (Saturday night was Nick's birthday present from me). As it turned out, we did not go to Calistoga on Friday night because those funds went towards the emergency vet appointment for Bertoli. I ended up having a girl's dinner in Palo Alto and Nick went to Pacifica for a friend's birthday to see a band. On Saturday, I woke up really early to do one of my final essays for school. I worked on it from 7 AM until noon. After that, we ventured to bed, bath, and beyond and Costco to do some shopping for house supplies. We finally left for Jenner about 3 PM. We took a few detours (one pretty detour was to Petaluma because I did not know that the golden gate bridge is considered part of 101.. I thought I had missed the exit so I turned off into Petaluma)but finally arrived in Jenner about 6 PM. We watched a beautiful sunset then we had a nice dinner. I ordered lobster for the first time in my life (over rated in my opinion)and Nick had steak. After that, we went for a nice romantic stroll on the beach. It was so dark, though, that we ended up taking careful steps to avoid hurting ourselves. The room was really small but had a cabin style feel to it. Timber Lake Inn was a definite go to again. The next morning, we had breakfast in the same restaurant then started our drive back. It was really nice to get away. I wish we could do it more often.

Update on the kitties

After spending more time with the kitties, we came to realize that perhaps the reason Bertoli is not getting up is because he somehow strained his rear right leg. When I tried to extend it, I got a painful "meow". We are guessing he was jumping down the stairs or playing with his sister and he hurt his leg. The past two days were spent cuddling with the kitties, carrying them to the bathroom (they are very good about letting us know when they have to go by letting out a loud meow), and bringing the food bowl to them. I hope they will be okay by themselves today. If not, we put them on towels! :)

Sick Kitties

While house sitting this weekend, we got a call from Nick's mom (who was helping us with feeding our kitties)to let us know that something was wrong with Bertoli. When she put the food bowl down, she noticed that he wasn't able to stand up. She brought him over to the food, which he ate, but then instantly laid back down. We quickly rushed home to find out that he was not able to get to the bathroom in time and....I'll spare you the details... he was definitely ill. We put both him and Chloe in a box to take them down the hill. At the bottom of the hill, something spooked Chloe and she jumped out of the box (5 feet up). We caught her, brushed her off, then put her back in the box for the ride. We went to the Vet emergency room (since it's Saturday)to get Bertoli looked at. The vet revealed that he didn't have a temp and his blood level was fine, but he might have liver problems (because he shakes after eating), but we won't find out the results until Monday. Throughout the whole exam, Chloe was whining A LOT and just wanted to cuddle. We thought it was due to her being scared. When we got home, we realized that she hurt her left leg from jumping out of the box. We're not sure if it's broken or just strained, but we can't get it checked out until Monday. So now we have two kitties who are not able to stand up (one out of weakness, the other due to a hurt leg)and we must go back down to feed the other cat soon. Ah the turmoils of having animals. I hope they both get better soon.

House design

So I finally found my camera charger and was able to take a couple pictures. The below pictures are the following: The living room, the bathroom, and the kitchen (sort of). In the living room, we painted the wall an espresso brown then Nick painted a jasmine tree branch on the wall. Nick's mom was nice enough to let us borrow a beautiful lamp that warms up the living room. If you can see in the far left corner, there is some fake branch floral thing (from Cost Plus). It just adds a contemporary twist to the room.

Next up.. The bathroom. We painted the walls brown, hung a new mirror (another loaner from Betsy) and then I painted the door pane today. I think it looks really good. What do you thinkg?

Finally, the pot rack. The kitched didn't change, but I hung a new "window balance". It was originally the table cloth that I converted into seat covers, pillow covers (if you can tell from the pic of the living room) and the balance.

It's only my favorite animal

Liger's rock!

The Birthday Boy

Happy 28th birthday, Nick!! I love you!

My sister is my best friend!

My sister is fantastic! I have to say that she is my best friend. Not only is she a lending ear, she also gives such great advice and makes me laugh! She also designed my blog!! This is why she most likely why she will delete this picture!! :) I love my sister

Where's my battery charger?!

I went to take some more pictures of the beautiful paint job Nick and I did on the house (we have now done the bathroom. Nick has also done his own artwork on the living room wall!!), but my camera battery died! I looked for a good fifteen minutes for the battery charger, but with no luck. I may know where it is right now, but I won't know until I get home at 6 PM. I do have one photo, though, that I took with my phone! It is, of course, of the kitties. I am so glad we got both of them. You can tell they really love each other. Every morning I wake up, I find them somehow cuddling. This is how I they were napping on my lap last night after dinner .. TOO CUTE!

As soon as I get my battery charged, I will post more pictures!!

Dangers of the TLC network

Watching the TLC channel on cable TV is one of the most dangerous networks to watch.. especially if you don't have a lot of artistic abilities, like me. I watched a show yesterday (not sure what it was called) in which they redecorated a room. This room went from a floral theme to a woods-y theme. Once Nick and I saw this idea, we knew that would work perfectly for our house. So we chugged on down to Home Depot to buy some paint. I originally wanted a khaki greenish color for our living room wall to match the brown leather couches, but after comparing about 100 paint samples (I did not know there was that many color variations of green!!), we decided on an espresso brown. We then trucked up the hill and started taping off the framing of the wall. Nick and I spent some quality time painting our living room and kitchen wall (just one wall in each room). It looks fantastic! Our house is a whole lot warmer looking now, which will be great for the winter time. The next step that we are doing tonight comes from the idea of the TLC show: Put a bright light behind a tree branch, then trace the shadow outline (of the branch)on the wall, then color in the stenciling with paint. When we complete this task, I will post another picture! I am so happy with our "remodeling", but I'm afraid to watch the TLC channel again in fear that I might want to decorate something else....... Nick has already expressed his drive to paint our bedroom a dark cranberry color (which will look good with our new bed spread... Hooray for Overstock.com!)

New

So once again, I haven't posted in awhile. So I'll do a quick summary... I got a new hair cut and hair color! I love the dark colors! I personally like it when my hair is darker. This is right after the hair cut, but not a very good angle.
New Today: We got two new kitties!! We named them Dosia Bertoli and Chloe Filoli. They are the cutest kitties alive. They are only about 6 weeks old. So far, Dosia loves my computer. He has been all over it. He is the brother. He is such a mellow cat. He would prefer to sleep all day than to play around. Chloe is the sister. She is shorter haired but absolutely loves to cuddle. You can tell they are having separation anxiety from their mother, because they keep sucking on the fur rug... They were saved by a lady up here in the mountains. She rescues cats from the animal shelter before they get put to sleep. We got our kitties for free. I am sure they will be the highlight of our lives! Look how small they are. Although I have big feet, they still are really small. They depend on each other and don't stray too far away from one another. Now if only we could find what food they like.... fresh chicken does not seem to be what they like.

Harry Potter

I just heard the bad news... Harry Potter is not coming out until July of 2009... That is 8 months later than originally planned. The directors said it is due to the Writer's Strike.... many other movies that were in production around the time the writer's strike happened were greatly delayed. Harry Potter directors said by releasing Harry Potter next summer, it will help the movie industry. I think that's lame. I've been waiting over a year for the movie!!! Entertainment weekly said not many people are as excited for the movie because they already know what happens to Harry and Voldemort (since the 7th and final book has been read by all). I don't think that changes anything. I will never turn down the option of watching a Harry Potter movie.

Really behind

Hello all. I am about a month behind on postings. Here's a summary of the past month: It was really fun having Rachel and the kids in town. I'm so lucky to have my sister as one of my best friends, too. On July 19, my gma celebrated her birthday. We went to Chef Chu's for dinner. It was really fun.

Nick and I have been working Mon-Fri, but in our spare time, we do two different things. We either play the Wii together (Nick bought it for us for our 1 1/2 year anniversary) or else he paints while I do school work. I'm doing really well in school (I have a 3.95 GPA), but Nick does better with his paintings. The art show that Nick will sell his paintings at is only 2.5 weeks away! The stress is definitely on! I will post pictures later regarding that. I hope this post ties you over until I am able to blog again.

Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival

Nick has a buddy. Lexi-bug is glued to Nick when we are around. The art, food, atmosphere and company couldn't have been better.

"Resume"

You may already know this, but I work with a staffing company. One of the Account Managers, Phil, is moving on to another company (Oracle, I think). Everyone at the office likes to tease him because he's such a goof ball. A mass email went out showing his "resume" (if you think this is real, I hope you don't own a company):
Resume of Phil Bonin:

Objective

To get back to work

Edgeookashun

St. Mary’s Presbyterian School – Pre-Kindergarten

Certificate with smiley face


History of Employment

Bill’s Tattoo Parlor, Turlock, CA (1913 – 1917)
Blood Wiper

-Wiped blood off customer when tattoo artist drilled too hard
-Threw out trash when wadded up balls of blood-soaked paper towels made trash can full
-Occasionally played a record
-Generally just sat around looking disinterested in life

The Meat Pit, Reno, NV (1898 – 1905)
Sweeper

-Swept meat off the floor after customers finished eating
-Swept everything else off the floor too


Dead-End Saloon, Tumbleweed, TX (1894 – 1897)
Spittoon Cleaner
-Cleaned the spittoons
-Dodged bullets
-Avoided death

Skeelz
Staring
Coughing
Shifting from one foot to the other
Living for a really long time

Do you know anyone who is hiring? :)

Appreciated

In my job, I oversee over 65 contractors. I make sure they get paid correctly and on time, and also answer any HR questions that they may have. There are some contractors that I only talk to if there is an issue (i.e. their timecard is late or written incorrectly)but then there are others that I consider my friends. There is one contractor that has worked here under a few different assignments. She is such a sweetheart and is hilarious to talk to. I bring her paycheck to her every Thursday. Sometimes, though, I do not have time to take it to her. Today was one of those days. I told her I was going to lunch at 11:30 and would leave her paycheck in a certain spot. When I returned from lunch, roses and some candy were sitting on my chair. There wasn't a note, but I asked Kellie if it was her who brouhgt those to me. She said she did. She also said "Thank you for all that you do. You are a complete asset to this organization and I'm so happy to have met you." It is sure nice to be appreciated by contractors (simply because I have never gotten any presents from the contractors). Today is a good day.

Weekend with the family

This weekend was my cousin Brittany's wedding. What a perfect time to pamper ourselves. On Thursday, my mom and I went to get pedicures together. It was really relaxing. The lady who did my pedicure must have been really scared because I haven't gotten a pedicure in 5 years!! The end result was beautiful. I'll spare you pictures of the pre-pedicure... Here is the after results...

On Friday, Rachel and I went to go get body wraps. Basically, they wrap us up REALLY tightly in a gigantic ace bandage lookin-thing then squirt ("baste") us with detoxing minerals. Then, we proceed to work out on either an elliptical machine or a small trampoline. After 45 minutes, they unwrap us. Overall, I lost 13 3/8 of an inch. Rachel lost more than me, but I shan't conceal that personal number. Rachel and I could not stop laughing. Good times!

On Saturday, Nick and I took care of Rachel's kids. It was really fun having them up at our house. Nick and Brenden played Madden 2007 on the XBOX360. Izzie, Lexi, Betsy, and I walked Bailey. We also made cookies. As the day went on, the kids noticed that Nick had done all the paintings in the house. The kids wanted to do some paintings on their own. Nick and the kids painted some pictures. Brenden painted a rainbow and leprechauns. Izzie painted Mulan. Lexi painted... abstract art.
Overall, this weekend was a blast! I sure love spending time with my favoritest sister and all the rest of the family!

Camping at Big Basin

Nick and I went camping last weekend with some friends. We went to Big Basin and stayed at an RV site (with no RV). It was really fun. We got there Friday afternoon around 3. After setting up the tents and exploring around a bit, we had some dinner. We had excellent BBQ. After eating, we sat around and talked while playing some instruments. Not quite sure how the time passed, but it was so nice sitting around having nothing to do! The weather was beautiful and warm. We chose an excellent weekend to go camping because it was 100 degrees in the city. After having a night of interrupted sleep (due to the hard ground), we all got up and made some breakfast. Shannon made some eggs and sausage while Kelly made a vegetarian egg dish (with tofurky)!! The above video is Nick trying to open a can of black beans with pliers!!! After we were all full from breakfast, we went walking in the river.
It was a perfect way to stay cool during the hot day. We all splashed around and had fun trying not to fall. After a few hours, we all had bruises on our tailbones from falling in the water. I went through a few pairs of pants. Here is the result of one fall...
For the rest of the day, we sat around and ate a fantastic dinner and had s'mores. YUMMY! When we left on Sunday, we were all dirty but happy to have had such a great weekend with great friends!

San Diego

Greetings from San Diego. On April 17-19, Nick and I ventured down to San Diego, CA. It was great to get away from every day routine. On Thursday, we flew via Southwest Airlines to Sunny San Diego. It was gorgeous weather when we got there. We got a rental car that was a dinky little car. It was a Chevy Aveo. It literally went 0-60 in 45 seconds. It was a great commuter car, though. Being the penny pincher that I am, I got us reservations at the cheapest budget motel. We stayed at the Travelodge in La Mesa, CA. It was kind of ghetto! Ha ha. It was a good place to sleep, though. We took a trip out to Coronado. The hotel and beach were gorgeous. We took lots of pictures.

On Friday, we went to the San Diego Zoo. It was a gorgeous 80 something degrees. We both got a little sunburnt, but it was awesome to see all the different animals. I took pictures of both the sign and the animals. We saw hippos, camels, elephants, jaguars, etc. A lot of zoo's are only somewhat interesting, but this zoo had everything we could ever want in a zoo! The new/main exhibit was the panda exhibit. There was actually a line to go into the exhibit. There were signs everywhere telling everyone to be quiet. It was interesting to watch it eat bamboo, though.
When we got back on Saturday, we were ready to be home. As fun as San Deigo was, it is always good to be home.

Spring has Sprung

This weekend, it has been in the 80's. Down the hill, the heat has almost been unbearable. At our house, we have the heat, but the shade of the trees. The flowers have been BLOOMING! The lilacs have fully bloomed. Their smell is intoxicating. Betsy has done an amazing job with planting all over the property! We were joking today about charging people $5 to take a tour of the property. They all laughed, but if you looked at the property, you would start taking out your wallet immediately. We had two BBQ's today because the weather was amazing. I am so lucky to live up here.

Another day at the office

Monday through Friday from 7:15 AM until 5 PM, I am in my cubicle at Gilead Sciences. When my boss went on vacation a few weeks ago for a week, he left me in charge. His job is so complicated. It isn't the exact duties, but rather the manager's demands. They act like if something isn't approved automatically, it is life and death. Long story short, I made it through the week!! My manager took me to an appreciation lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. I thought that was a good way to show that he appreciated me. The real surprise came today. My manager's manager, the Director of Business Operations, forwarded me an email that my manager (Kevin) had written him. In it, Kevin said "Emily is the one who impacted me last week. Emily continues to impress me with her motivation to learn. The thing that impressed me most about her work while I was out was that she knew when to take control of the situation and make a decision but she also knew when to ask for help. She went to the right people and kept things moving right along. Good help is hard to find and I am so happy to have her by my side." I cried when I read it. I am so thankful for a manager like him. He is so great to work with/for. He is one of the main reason's I love my job. Well, he is out of town again for the next 3 days. I started the day with my "dirty Chai" so that I would have energy for the busy tasks ahead....

My New hair cut

This morning at 9 AM, I drove to Santa Clara to get my hair cut by a woman named Lindsey Harman. She has cut my hair once before, back in October. I loved it so much, that it is worth the hour drive to get my hair done. She does it in the privacy of her own home. I am so glad my sister-in-law, Wendy, referred me to her. The haircut she did is an "A" line cut. The back, bottom layer is a deep chocolate brown. The highlights are an auburn color. She left in the blonde highlights that I had from my past hair cut. It took about 3 hours, but with the end results, it was well worth it. I will definitely recommend her to everyone. I feel sassy yet older with my haircut! Let me know what you think.