So last time I promised you a vacation recap. If you haven't seen my photos on either facebook or flickr, I highly suggest you check it out! So, vacation was an absolute blast. We started our vacation in Tucson, where we stayed with my sister and her husband. We flew in on Monday afternoon and stayed until Friday morning. We walked around downtown, visited the desert museum and a Spanish mission. We spent one night out to celebrate my sister and my birthdays, hitting up Plush and The Shanty on Fourth Ave. And of course, I got to meet Frida, my sister's dog, and although she may not be photogenic, she is super cute and extremely lovable.

Friday morning Paul-John and I rented a car and drove to California. After about six hours, we stopped in San Diego and walked around Balboa park. We thought about doing the zoo, or walking around downtown, but decided we didn't have a lot of time and would rather do one thing really well than try to squeeze in too much. It was really just a long pit stop so we would miss traffic heading towards L.A. After we left, we only had about 2 hours left before we got to our friend Mike's! He is getting his PhD at UC Irvine and lives on campus in the graduate housing. That night, we drove to a beach and drank some Trader Joe's beer, and I got to touch the Pacific for the first time. Saturday we went to L.A. We first headed towards Hollywood, and when we got there, we realized it was the day before the Oscars, which was neat. We walked around the Chinese Theater and Kodak Theater and got to see all the stars on the ground and the footprints and handprints. We also went to Griffith Observatory, drove around Beverly Hills, went to Ameoba Records, and went to a cemetery. We were going to walk around Venice Beach, but when we got there it was raining pretty hard so we just stayed in the car. Sunday we walked around Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach. Sunday and Monday were more relaxed, and we left Tuesday morning to head back for home!

I think when I was originally writing the list, the reason I added "take a real vacation" in addition to going to AZ and CA was probably just because I hadn't taken a real vacation in quite some time. (to me, a real vacation is a week. You may remember that we went to Newport last November, but that was a weekend. Doesn't count.) Our last vacation was our honeymoon in June '08! I took some time off when we bought the house, but less than a week, and it was spent painting and packing, etc. This vacation was well overdue and we had a great time!

One month!

I knew I had been sort of neglecting this blog, but when I logged in I was stunned to find it had been a whole month. I suppose it is good that time has been going faster these days - those two months of unemployment and following months of working 15 hours a week were not good for my soul. If I were independently wealthy it would be a different story, but unfortunately, its not.

I just did a quick rundown on my list, and I have six things to cross off! To be fair, one was blogged but just never crossed off. Here are two of them:

#10: Cook lobster. Paul-John and I did a homemade surf-n-turf for Valentine's Day this year. I realized I underestimated my squeamishness. It was probably the first time in my entire life I was glad we (also) had steak for dinner.

#49: Knit a lace kerchief. kerchief is just not a word I like, so I've been saying scarf. I knit a beautiful small triangle with a feather and fan pattern using 2 skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn. I love it and wear it all the time! I am feeling kind of lazy, so if you aren't on Ravelry and would like to see it, its on my flickr page.

For next time, it will be 87, 96, and 97, which was one big trip. (Again, feel free to check out flickr or facebook for photos!) After going through the list I am unsure of why I thought "take a real vacation" needed to be something separate from those two trips, but whatever. Stay tuned!