The One With My Morning Drive

I guess heat waves and blackouts are followed by incredible clouds? I couldn't help myself from snapping photos of the sky during my drive this morning. Seriously awesome.

{That pole on the far left of this photo- that's "Brad's Pole". He designed the foundation and the pole itself and if you're ever in the car with him when you drive past it- he'll point out, "That's my pole".}

{Seriously- this looks like a painting that people would pay good money for!}

The One With In-N-Out by Candlelight

This might sound like a cheap, romantic dinner except that Brad had to ask what we were suppose to do during dinner without the TV on (like we’ve never enjoyed a single meal in our 9 years without the TV to entertain us). Did I mention that the candlelight wasn’t optional- it was necessary due to our blackout the other night?

After complaining about the end of a not-so-much summer, we were blasted with a heat wave on Monday that broke all utility usage records for San Diego. Therefore, at 5pm, our power went out.

At first I thought, ‘this will be okay’. No TV or internet means we’ll be able to get other things done, like Brad can study and I can clean and organize the house. Then I realized it would be getting dark soon and doing those things by candlelight won’t really work. So I figured I should get dinner going (on the gas stove top of course), but then remembered that it’s bad to open and close the fridge a lot during a power outage. Plus it’s about 80 degrees in the house- do I really need to make it hotter by cooking? Clearly, this is a sign to give me/Brad a break from my attempts at cooking.

So, just like in the old days - Brad went in search/hunt of food, while I created fire.

The One With Another Kobey Find

Along with our coffee table and guest room dresser, we also found these random barstools at Kobey Swap Meet way back in October of last year.

For the most part, they've been taking up space in our garage and occasionally get used as a last resort when we need a little more seating around our counter-height table. Last week, however, Brad was in charge of hosting poker night for his co-workers, so we figured it was about time to sand down and paint those barstools to avoid any random splinters in the rear-end.

With this project, there were definitely some lessons learned- the first one being to buy a face mask when taking on any sanding projects. After sanding (with a power sander) for about 2 hours, Brad insisted that I wear something to cover my mouth and the best solution he came up with was a dish towel wrapped around my face and secured with a hair clip. Also, it should be mentioned that I'm wearing dark sunglasses while I sand (since we don't own any clear goggles/glasses) and that I must look like some crazy bandit sanding away in our garage with the doors wide open for all the neighbors to see.

Second lesson learned- always buy the small, tester samples of paint and/or stain before splurging on the full gallon of paint. Our first idea was to stain the barstools with a cream/white colored stain, which was immediately vetoed as soon as we applied a thin layer of stain to one of the barstools. Unfortunately, we had purchased an entire gallon of this colored stain and really have no other use for it. Maybe Home Depot with take it back- anyone know?

Next idea- gray paint. This time we bought a small sample size of Martha Stewart's 'Zinc' gray and loved it. Back to Home Depot for a full gallon of Zinc (which would actually be a great second pet's name to go along with our Copper) and after two full coats on four barstools the gallon of paint is still about three-fourth's full. I guess our next painting project will have to include some gray?

Oh well- we learned our lesson and now we have 4 'new' gray barstools.

The One With The End Of Summer

Not sure we experienced summer this year with all the gloomy, overcast weather, but onto the next season either way. So with the start of fall, here’s one last look back at some summer photos that never earned their own post...

{Copper with new collar & birthday cupcake}

{Morgan's Bachelorette Party}

{Carlsbad Flower Fields}

{Playing with the hose/Trying to revive the grass}
{My birthday at the horse races}

{Better photo of Meg with Joe at the races}

{Vance's Birthday}

{Dinner with Stacy}

{Meg's Birthday}

Did we celebrate enough birthdays this summer? I'm even missing photos from my mom's birthday (June), Brad's mom's birthday (July) and Alex's birthday (August)!

The One In Rochester

Or as my dad pronounces it: Raw-Chester. He also pronounces 'chili' as Chi-Lie. At least the street name he does, not necessarily the food. Confused yet? ;)

So, after talking about it all year, Brad and I finally made a visit to my paternal grandparents in Rochester, New York for the Labor Day Weekend. My dad and brother, Scott, even tagged along with us!

We left Thursday night - on a red eye flight from LAX - and spent Friday afternoon/evening catching up at my grandparents house, then headed out to dinner and ended the evening with all of us falling asleep on the couch as we tried to watch a movie.

Then on Saturday, the 4 of us took a road trip to Canada to see Niagara Falls and do some wine tasting at the local Canadian wineries. Their speciality is ice wine - which is more of a dessert wine that's made from frozen grapes. Very tasty!

Sunday, we visited Lake Ontario in Charlotte (pronounced Char-Lot, not Char-Let) where we attempted family photos as the wind blew our hair of our style. After the lake, we drove back and forth between an ice cream parlor and burger restaurant (because someone couldn't make up their mind....dad), but this merry-go-round trip let us scope out the beautiful lake front homes twice and also gave Brad a chance to decide for sure which one he was going to buy. (As a second home, of course...)

Spaghetti dinner was on the menu for that evening, followed by a somewhat early ending to the night since we had a 4:15am wake-up call for our 6:15am flight.

One of the funniest moments of the weekend - besides my Papa cheering (jokingly...I think) the fact that we were finally leaving - was the 51-year-old receptionist at our hotel calling our early morning cab. Right after busting out Sugarland's 'Stuck Like Glue' to prove she had a good early-morning-wake-up-call voice, she proceeded to joke over the phone with the cab company with lines like:

"Hey, this is Sugarland calling and I need a cab"

"What do I look like? Honey, I'm 51-years-old!"

"Well, what are you wearing?"

Thanks to Papa & Gramma Billie for a wonderful holiday weekend!

The One With Only 2 Pieces of Luggage

When we went to Europe last year for our honeymoon, our biggest complaint was the amount of luggage we brought. (ie: 3 rolling suitcases, 1 duffel bag and 1 garment bag).

I’m happy to report that we learned our lesson and we successfully managed a 2 week vacation in Europe with only 2 rolling suitcases- and both were under the 50lb limit! We still had a backpack and purse that we carried during the day and on the flights, but everything went so much more smoothly with getting on and off the trains.

The trip was also exciting for us because we were traveling with our good friends, Jason and Michelle. (At least I think they’re still our good friends after this trip…) Below are the highlights and photos of each city we visited.

Madrid
For Brad and I, this was our first time visiting the country of Spain. And we loved it! I wasn’t sure I would get used to the idea of eating dinner at 10/11pm at night, but it was incredibly fun to go from one tapas bar to the next, trying various drinks and dishes all in one night. (I’m sure our jetlag and lost sense of time also assisted us in staying up until 2am to eat a bowl of paella!)
Our apartment was super close to Plaza del Sol- which had our favorite bar- Vinotecca. The steak, brie and caramelized onion appetizer was delicious- we ate this both nights we were in Madrid!

{Street Performer}
{Outside the Palace}

This market, Mercardo de San Miguel, was also very cool. You could walk up to any counter and order some meat, cheese, olives, wine- whatever- and then eat it right there at the counter or one of the few barstool tables.

Venice
I know most people think Venice is just too touristy (and it is- just look at all the advertisements covering the historic buildings), however, it’s an incredible cool city to see and experience- even if you only go for a day. We spent one night here and thought that was perfect. We were able to walk around the main piazza- San Marco, take a sunset gondola ride, shop for Murano glass souvenirs and enjoy a bottle of wine on the rooftop of our hotel. Points to Brad for picking an awesome hotel for our stay in Venice.

{Our Hotel}

{Paparazzi}

{hotel's rooftop patio}

{view from hotel room}

{night view - that orange thing is the moon!}

{gondola ride}

Florence
Always my favorite. So much to see, eat and drink! We saw all the usual tourist points- Duomo, San Lorenzo Markets, Piazza Repubblica, Ponte Vecchio, David, etc. Brad even snuck in a photo (or 2) of the David before getting yelled at.

The highlight of this city (at least for me) was a Chianti wine tasting tour. The first winery (Carravaggio) was small, but they gave us such a detailed, behind-the-scenes tour of the wine making business. The second winery was also small and intimate, so they served us an amazing lunch of cold pasta, chicken and dessert while sampling their various wines. The last winery had good wines (we bought 2), but not as friendly as the other wineries. Our tour guide, Rebecca, was the best and we ended up in a group of 8 American tourists- all from California! So, of course, we had a great time!

Our favorite restaurant of the trip was also in Florence- Trattoria Sostanza – more of a local place but with incredible food!

{Ponte Vecchio}

{Duomo}
{Wishing Boar}

{wine tasting}

{BEST cold pasta ever!}

{toasting with grappa- not so tasty}

Positano
It’s always fun to visit small seaside towns in Italy, however, Cinque Terra is still our favorite for that type of location. Positano was beautiful and a nice change of pace for us, yet getting there was no easy feat. It started with a 2 hour train ride (half of it spent sitting on the ground) to Naples, then a rude taxi driver who wouldn’t take us to the docks, followed by a ferry to the Island of Capri. We had an hour and a half layover til our next ferry, so we dragged our luggage to the nearest restaurant for lunch. Then we were back on a boat on our way to Positano. Once there, we then had to climb a million stairs (okay, more like 50 steps) straight up to our hotel. Keep in mind, it’s hot (90 degrees), humid and we’re each carrying 50lb+ in luggage. Michelle’s luggage handle snapped, which actually cut her hand; we had no idea how far up the hotel was and our clothes were soaked with sweat. So far- not so happy with Positano. But eventually we made it to the hotel- with beautiful mountain/ocean views- and spent the next two days lying out at the beach. (FYI- Not a lot of exciting photos due to lying in the sun all day)

{first half of the train ride}

{it's all about presentation...}

Rome
Our final destination was the ancient city of Rome. Our apartment was located near Campo de Fiori- which is a very young and less touristy spot to hang out at night. Brad and I had one of our favorite pastas at the restaurant, Magnolia located in this piazza. We also were very close to Piazza Novona, so we spent a lot of time passing through this area and checking out all the street performers and artists.

More tourist stuff followed- walked through the Colosseum and Roman Forum, took a tour of the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica and visited the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and Castle St. Angelo.

Overall, there was a ton of walking, picture taking, gelato and wine consuming done in Rome! A great way to end our trip! Thanks to the Browns for putting up with us for 10 days straight!

{Trevi Fountain}

{total tourists}

{we're an archway - duh}

{Roman Forum}

{St. Peter's Basilica}

{doesn't this statue look like Bill Clinton?!}

{matching}

{also matching}