Our new home

This is the outside of our new place in Dublin, CA. We're about 40 miles from San Francisco but just 10 minutes or so from Steve's new office. These are townhome style condos. Ours is the one in the middle that has the covered 2nd floor balcony and uncovered 3rd floor balcony. It's actually 4 stories since the garage is on the bottom level. We're getting our exercise, but even better, Blackjack is getting his exercise running up and down the stairs all day every time he hears a noise.


This is the view looking down the stairs. It's a much more menacing view looking up the stairs from the front door. Especially for the movers. Sorry movers! You did a great job! And sorry about the one mover that started having a burning sensation in his chest while his arm went numb. Yeah, scary. I guess moving a treadmill and queen-sized bedroom set up to the 4th floor can do that to you.


We got the keys to our new place a few days before the movers came with our things. The place was FREEZING! I mean, it's one thing for the outside high to only get in the high 70's but it's unacceptable for the inside to be in the 60's! I'm used to the thermostat set between 78 and 82. This was my attempt at staying warm on a lovely June day in California. What did I get myself into?!

Moving Day

Moving, moving. Moves are always such fun. Although it's so much better when someone else comes and does your packing and moving for you. Thank you Chevron!


The move has been especially hard on Blackjack. All the unfamiliar boxes stress him out. In fact, we had a fun little visit to the pet ER when he couldn't keep his food down all day and we thought he had some rawhide blocking his intestines. He was just fine. The move has just got him a little stressed out and turned him into a very needy puppy. He has to be ON TOP of one of us at all times. And seeing as he's slightly larger than a lap dog this can make things interesting.

Officially an MBA!

Steve is officially an MBA! Two years of late nights and short weekends but such a fun time for us both as well.

I have no pictures of my own of Steve from graduation day since he took the camera with him so this is my attempt at recording that day using pictures I found on facebook.


Steve is in the middle of the last row below.

Obama

ASU commencement last night . . . wow. It was amazing! Sure we had to arrive at the outdoor stadium at 3pm in the 102 degree Arizona sun, go through security and then commencement didn't begin until 7. But the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES was there. How cool. By the time commencement started the stadium was pretty much filled,especially if you counted all the students sitting ON the field. That's 70,000 people! Steve's MBA group was right in the middle of the field in the sun most of the afternoon but my group had seats way up in the stands just on the president's left and they were SHADED the entire time! Awesome. Doesn't get better than that.

Here's our group sitting up in the stands way up there. Me, Meredith, Jenna, and JT. Can you find us?

A view of the crowd. Thank goodness for casual dress!






We had a great time hanging out and people watching and just chatting through the afternoon. Alice Cooper came and performed which was neat. Especially since JT is friends with Alice Cooper's sons that were in the band and he was calling their cell phones just before they came on stage. Too funny.



We were sitting just above where the snipers set up watch, which was way cool. And we had binoculars. Air Force One flew just overhead above the stadium to Sky Harbor about an hour before the ceremony. Then we had the perfect seats to see the president walk in. Awesome.

His speech was great. One of hope and encouragement. And of course he joked throughout about not receiving an honorary degree from ASU, which was cool. Then he stayed for the entire commencement and shook all the doctorate recipients' hands and others. Poor guy was sweating in that heat and wearing his robe.

All in all it was a great night and I'm so glad we went! A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. I still can't believe so many chickened out because of the heat. Wussies!

















(Thanks to Sabrina and Mer for these pictures!)

Who Let the Dog Out

Blackjack is a good dog. Most of the time. However he is not 100% trustworthy alone in the house so we crate him when we're at school/work. Here's how it goes:

Whoever is the last to leave in the morning puts the dog in his crate (he runs to get in when we say "crate it!" and waits for his treat, too funny). We give him a treat and lock the crate up, lock the house up and leave. I was the last one out the door yesterday.

Last night Steve got back from class, opened the front door and . . . no dog to be seen. The crate was wide open. Of course Steve thought I must have come home early. Nope. So he looks around and finds the dog . . . in our bedroom, laying on our bed, with socks, underwear, and bits of tissue scattered all around him. I remember giving him a treat this morning, but apparently I skipped that next step of LOCKING HIS CRATE!

This morning's poop provided evidence of just how much tissue he scarfed while enjoying his independence a little TOO much. Oops.

Pros and Cons

As I drove to work this morning, I started thinking about all the things I'm going to miss about Phoenix. And it made me really depressed, even though I'm very excited about moving to San Francisco. Phoenix is the only place we've lived that I feel like we could truly call home for a long time. I mean, how could I not love:

1. The actual tan my skin gets here! No laughing, it IS tanner than it's ever been in my life.

2. The wonderful DRY heat that is so nice to lay out in. A lazy river in Phoenix is as good as it gets people. I never knew the sun could be so relaxing. Apartment pools are everywhere and they're open year round with no lifeguards.

3. All the outdoor things to do around here (albeit they are much more fun to do October thru April).

4. Not having to highlight my hair so much, the sun is a more natural way to go. Going without highlights is not even an option. I would highlight my hair over eating. As my mom once said, my natural hair color is "dirty dishwater blonde." YUCK.

5. Phoenix is driving distance to lots of cool places: Vegas, Grand Canyon, Mexico, Flagstaff, Sedona, Las Vegas . . . Vegas is my second favorite city, for many of the same reasons Phoenix is. DRY HEAT = perfection!

6. We can leave the door open for the dog October through April and not worry about the heat or a/c going out the door. No bugs here either, but that may just be our complex.

7. I don't have to stress about big spiders, cicadas, and bugs falling from the trees overhead or off the underside of the backyard deck. Yes, this was an issue back in the DC humidity! It was TERRIFYING.

8. Burning more calories in less time due to an increased amount of sweat.

9. My box of winter clothes stays in storage. The coldest weather here is at the office when the a/c is blasted too high.

10. I'm going to need a whole new wardrobe for San Francisco weather. We Phoenicians wear just enough clothing to cover the bare essentials. Such freedom, I love it!

To make myself feel a little better, I made a list of all the DOWNFALLS of living in Phoenix.

1. Triple digits are expected tomorrow and it's still April!

2. My electric bill will go way down.

3. I won't have to fight Steve on whether to keep the a/c at 82 degrees or 84.

4. I'll no longer get in my car only to find my water bottle that was sitting there all day is not just hot, it's literally at boiling temperature.

5. I won't dehydrate after 5 minutes of hiking.

6. I can wear my hair down for more than 6 months out of the year.

7. I can go outside for more than 10 minutes without sunscreen.

8. I can walk barefoot by the pool, and flip-flops won't be a necessity at all times. Even at the waterpark in Phoenix, one must wear shoes all the way to the slide and hold them over your head as you slide down.

9. I will no longer come home from a day in the sun to wash my hands in the sink only to find that the water temperature gets no cooler than lightly scalding hot between the months of April and October. How refreshing!

10. All this sun = more freckles = me no happy!

I suppose I could give San Francisco a try . . .

California here we come

It's official. I've put in my notice at work so I can officially announce we are moving to the San Francisco bay area next month. Yeah for Steve for his job offer and yeah for it being in San Francisco and not Houston! Boo for the high cost of living. Ah well, there's a reason people are willing to pay so much to live there right?

Steve and I both grew up in the bay area but moved away right after high school and have not lived there since. My family has all moved away as well except one brother and Steve's parents are the only ones left there on his side. From California we moved to Utah for school, then to DC for our first jobs, then to Arizona for grad school, and now we're headed back to California. There were short stints in Houston, Florida, Argentina, and Russia along the way as well. We'll see how long California will take us for :)

We've already started making a list of all the fun weekend trips we'll be taking. Tahoe, Napa, Route 1, Monterey Bay, Yosemite, Santa Cruz. . . there is no shortage of places to visit that's for sure.

We're hoping to take a few weeks off between jobs to get settled in, do some exploring, and take a trip down to Cancun for a few days to relax and unwind before starting this next journey. We're very excited!

Springtime has arrived!

For some reason I feel like I can't post on the blog unless I have pictures. This is why a month might go by without a post. Not because we haven't been taking pictures to talk about. But because I'm too lazy to load the pictures onto the computer. The very simple task finally made it to my to-do list for today and what do you know, I'm actually going to be able to mark it off.

So let's see, what's been going on here . . . The weather is starting to warm up. Although it's been going back and forth between 90 degrees and back to the low 70's(which is quite cold for us here in Phoenix). So we've been getting outdoors a lot more lately, that's always fun. I'm beginning to understand why my skin never got anything past pasty white in DC. When it's not winter, it's too stinking humid to go outside for more than a minute or two! Since moving here, my skin color has gone from pasty white to a slightly more golden version of pale. I'll take it! We love Phoenix. We're retiring here, it's official.

Last night we went to the Greyhound dog racing park, something we've been meaning to check out since we realized it was just around the corner from our place. It was very . . . interesting. I had a hard time finding the line between having fun and feeling bad for these dogs chasing the "bunny" around the track. Don't they eventually realize it's NOT REAL?! My favorite was a male named "Late Night Luvah." He came in first in his race.

Steve is on an ASU co-ed softball team made up of the MBA students. Here's the team during their first game.

Steve after a nice swing.

Off and running.

Steve playing outfield.


Now for the Blackjack pictures, of course:

Dogpark dog wrestling. Round 13 or so. These two couldn't get enough of each other.

And apparently this little guy couldn't get enough of Blackjack. Now would this be considered "nurture" or "nature?" :)

This morning we hiked South Mountain again, only this time with the dog, and we managed to stay on the "real" trail and didn't get lost. No rattlesnakes this time either. I love this picture, check out Blackjack's very white underbite. We'll have to think about headgear when he gets a little older . . .


Playdate with my co-worker Mer's chocolate lab Muley, her parents' beagle Snoops, and Blackjack. Muley spent most of the time jumping in and out of the pool retrieving her toy that just "happened" to keep falling in, while Snoops spent most of the time hiding from Blackjack. Eventually Blackjack convinced Muley to play with him and they raced each other around the backyard. Too funny.

And finally, Blackjack really thinks he's a human. Lately he's taken a liking to sleeping up on my pillow with my head. But he's so cute it's hard to make him move.

I'm eligible!

I received my annual Social Security Statement in the mail and it's official! I've earned my 40 credits! I now qualify for retirement/disability/medicare benefits. And it only took a short 13 years in the workforce.

But then of course came the kicker:

"Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2041, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 78 percent of scheduled benefits."

I'm not planning on receiving any type of government sponsored retirement benefits, so it's interesting that their numbers still show a 78% payout prediction. We shall see.

Oops, I just went out and pulled out last year's statement to compare and apparently I was eligible last year and didn't know it. You mean I worked all of 2008 for nothing?! ;)

Happy 1st Birthday Blackjack!

Blackjack turned one last week, time has really flown by! Since we brought him home 6 months ago he's managed to grow a little taller and maybe a little longer and he's put on 4 pounds. According to the vet he's in perfect shape at exactly 25 pounds. Hopefully his growth spurt is over, he's already starting to crowd us out of bed!

For his birthday we took him to the dog park to play with some friends. He and one of the beagles had a really good time rolling around in the dirt, as always.


Later that night he had his own little peanut butter "chocolate" birthday pie, complete with a candle (which he of course tried to eat while lit).

We fed him all night (since that's his favorite thing to do) and sure enough he threw up the next day. Ah well, he enjoyed himself while he stuffed his face :) That's what birthdays are all about, right? You only turn one once, live it up!