Slackers

I am bummed that we haven't posted anything since 2011 began, I will try to give the "Readers Digest" version of what we have been up to the first month of the new year.

Sickness -

Paul got sick before 2010 ended and it has lasted weeks and weeks! He even had antibiotics but it didn't get rid of it. I was able to defend against it for about 2 1/2 weeks before I came down with ick. We are feeling much better although there is a lingering cough.

Family -

My mom continues to mend from her fall and has been cleared to go back to work in a week. She still has to do physical therapy to help the healing process along but so far looks like no surgery!

My grandma took a downward turn and got an infection in her leg, normally the Drs would do surgery to remove the hardware she has but they said she wouldn't survive the surgery. They put her on antibiotics and hoped for the best, she will probably have to be on antibiotics for the rest of her life.

A cousin of mine announced she is having a baby, the first in our part of the family in 20+ years

Family bday dinner for Christie

Friends -

Had dinner out with KJ, Tif and Erin

Hung with BZ a few times

Multiple friends have gotten pregnant

Celebrated Morgans 31st bday with dinner and a movie

Fundraising -

Picked up cans at 2 Monster Jam events

Gathered many, many items for the upcoming Yard Sale (thanks so so much family and friends!)

Outtings -

Saw the Cold War Kids at Jimmy Kimmel

Competed in Trivia Night at Stadium Tavern with the Prices

We went to Dave & Busters just to hang out and play some games together

Certainly we saw a few movies

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I am sure there was much more that we did but this is all I can think of right now. Hopefully we will get back to blogging regularly. Hope the new year is treating all of you wonderfully.

Cookies-a-plenty

For the 2nd year in a row - Gingerbread men, missing an arm or leg, some even lost their head.

 New this year - Peppermint candy canes

 Sugar balls - basically a sugar cookie with a powdered sugar glaze and "sprinkles"

 Also new - Rum Balls, but with imitation Rum instead of the real stuff.

 Oldie but a goodie - Sinckerdoodles

 Traditional cookies added to the mix - Peanut butter, Choc. Chip and Funfetti with green food coloring



O Christmas Tree

Rain! Rain and Rain!

We braved the rain to go get our beautiful Christmas tree. It almost didn't happen as it began pouring. Paul and I figured we would just get in and out as quick as possible, open up no more than a few trees and just pick one! We walked two feet inside the Home Depot lot and found ourselves ankle deep in puddles. Hummmm, well there was no going back now, we were already soaked.

Quickly as possible we found ourselves a tree to take home, and made a stop at Albertsons for some groceries. Paul hauled the tree inside while I went to find the stand (we were planning on just having the tree lot do it for us but they didn't have any stands).

  Gizmo being part of the family decided he needed to check out the tree so he found himself alone, locked in our room. There was a Christmas miracle when Paul was able to get the tree into its stand and it wasn't leaning or anything. Finally Gizmo was allowed to come out and fully inspect his first full sized Christmas tree.

Musically Talented

 In mid-December we enjoyed an evening at Starbucks listening to 4 Stories. It was great to see "old" friends again and to enjoy some traditional Christmas songs along with their original works.



Go Doyers

Paul maxed out his vacation time, so he took an extra day off this week. The boy found some awesome tickets on the Internet for the Dodgers game so off we went. It was USC night so we got these lovely hats in their colors.
The evening was sooooo WINDY and cold!
We thought the wind would give us an interesting game. We. were. wrong! In the first inning the Dodgers walked two and then allowed a triple scoring 2 runs. That was it! The end.
This guy was pretty entertaining singing "Don't stop believing"
With one out left in the game. The dude below decided to jump onto and run across the field. I was quite amused, the security guards were not.

I said "Science is Good"

Hutch, TK, Donkey and I took a trip up to the CA Science Center. They are having a special exibit where you can pretend to be a CSI. We were assigned a crime scene and had to examine the evidence and come to a conclusion as to what happened. Being a HUGE fan of CSI: I could hardly contain myself!
After we solved the case we walked around all the rest of the rooms, and the boys found some toys to play with. Paul decided to see what hurricane winds felt like.


After the Science Center closed for the day we headed out to the rose gardens to walk around and enjoy the beautiful sights. Tons of flowers were in bloom!

As it was getting close to rush hour we decided it was time to leave and head back to the apartment to come up with a dinner plan and take naps (well some of us took naps...).

Take 2

Since we had so much fun at the first premiere we decided that we would do it all over again the following Tuesday. I don't much care for scary/horror type movies but TK and D were excited so Paul and I decided to go along for the outing.

This was at a different location than the Watchmen so we scoped out the area... was pretty small and easy to find places we could stand to try and get photos. It was way early and we were all just hanging out talking when we saw "Jason" from Friday the 13th. He was so sweet, asking our names and shaking our hands.

While we were still just milling around before the Red Carpet opened up I saw a guy come out of the parking structure with his hoodie on. I caught his eye and thought "huh, that guy looks so familiar" I elbow TK and demand that TIMDB tell me who it is. She took a moment and then freaked saying OTH! Took us a few minutes to remember his characters name. It was the bartender Owen. He ducked into the smoothie shop and I said we cannot pass this up! So, after he ordered and headed towards the door a little TK in her oh so sweet voice asked if we could pretty please get a quick photo and we would be quiet about it so no one else around us would notice. He said sure, chatted for a moment, and then headed back into the parking garage to go upstairs to the 24-hour fitness.
Finally it was time for the Red Carpet...

At this location we weren't allowed to line up along the perimeter, they shoved everyone into a small little area surrounded with ropes like a pigpen! The men there are mostly trying to get autographs so they can sell them and make money, we just wanted them for ourselves. I couldn't take it after a few minutes so I left and went upstairs into the parking garage so I wouldn't be shoved around. TK and D endured the pushing down on ground level. Paul split his time between the two. TK got marked up by the crazy stalkarazzi!

During the movie we went across the street to Borders to get some coffee and sit for awhile.
After the movie let out we were able to get a few photos with some celebs as they were coming out of the theatre.
Then TK, D and I dropped Paul off to pick up his car and jetted back to the apartment. We watched The BL while Paul talked to his bro and drove home. Another very LATE night but was fun times once again.

DCA

As it turns out my dear friend had also never been to California Adventure so we made that our first stop to kick off the weekend.

We made it on almost every ride execpt for Tower of Terror (line was LONG) and Roaring Rapids (didn't want to get wet).

Of course I "dragged" TK into the animation center.

Next was a lesson on drawing from one of Disney's animators. Paul and I had never done this before and it was quite a treat!

Before leaving DCA we paused to take some photos with characters from The Incredibles.

Star Struck

When we found out that TK had never been to the Walk of Stars in Hollywood we knew what our mission after work on Wednesday was. Everyone piled into the car and off we went... to sit in traffic. Once we got there it was time to seek out food, a brief stop for sandwiches and we were off to explore. The three of us walked for a short while before finding that the area in front of Groman's was blocked off. TK asked the security guard what was going on and would the area be opened up before the end of the night. It was explained to us that a movie preview was going on for Nothing Like the Holidays and if we had made it there just an hour prior they were still handing out tickets to see the movie! Down but not out we decided to wait around to see if we could catch any of the actors on their way out of the theatre. We were successful!Once all the actors left the area we were allowed back in front of the theatre so we commenced with the checking out of the hand and footprints. Down the block a little ways we found Santa's village (I KNOW HIM!) so we had to stop and grab a few photos.

At this point it was REALLY late so it was back to the car and to bed with us.