I'd Rather be Blogging ...

Nope, I haven't taken another break from blogging. I've just been super busy with life and work. Here's a quick run down of my past 2 weeks:
* Future MIL & FIL came to visit for 4 days along with their grandson (Dave's nephew)
* Took MIL and Nephew to SeaWorld in San Diego. Got Burnt. Turned Brown. Dark Brown.
* Tried to survive 4 days with Nephew. Barely did so. That boy is a handful and almost convinced me that I am not cut out for reproduction.
* Celebrated Dave's 31st bday. Made him a chocolate peanut butter cake that ended up being an inch high (with both layers stacked on top of each other). Not sure what went wrong????
* Kitten got sick. (I think bcs of the nephew but I can't be sure of that). Nursed kitten back to health.
* Flew to Orlando, FL for a 5 day work conference.
* Spent LOTS of time with Tammers. I miss that girl so darn much ;-(
* Met the wonderful Renae. I wanted to pack Tammy and Renae in my suitcase and bring them back to to Cali.
* Got incredibly drunk at work conference 4 of 5 nights. Didn't make too much a fool of myself. Luckily.
* Flew home. Slept 16 hours.
* Realized that in my drunken stupor I forgot to take several days worth of birth control pills. Tried to catch up. Spent Sunday feeling nauseous and crummy. Damn pills.
* Bought portable air conditioner unit bcs Dave and I can't stand the 85 degree heat anymore. It wouldn't be so bad but the condo maintains a humid 83 all day long. When it's 83 I don't feel like cuddling (or anything else).
* Got laid. Thank the heavens for AC.
* Planned a VERY last minute 4 day trip to Las Vegas. We leave Wednesday morning.
* Returned to work to find a huge mountain worth of work on my desk. Hyperventilated then attempted to reduce pile. Still attempting.

15 Million Reasons

Just when I think that we've reached the stage where the romanticism has died in our relationship, my fiancee finds a new and creative way to let me know that I am wrong.



I found this waiting for me at my office. Dave found out today that he got a job as an account executive at a big corporation. He let me know by sending a dozen red roses with a note telling me the good news. ;-D

PS - Best of all is that the bastard is going to be working from home. ERRRR!!! I want to sit on the patio all day and work from my laptop!

He Who Grows Like a Weed

He's only 16 weeks old. He doesn't even look like a kitten anymore. What happened to my little baby????

Cori Needs ... (Friday Fun)

Google your "name needs" (ie "Cori needs") and list your top 10 needs!

Here are mine:
1. Cori needs to eat 1 banana for each mile she travels. (that's a whole lot of bananas)
2. Cori needs a forever home wth a loving and caring individual who will give her plenty of attention and an occasional treat. (I tell that to Dave everyday!)
3. CORI needs major reform (We all knew that!)
4. Cori Needs Help! (no comment)
5. CORI needs to strategize how to take advantage of recruiting and connecting members. (ummm ... ok)
6. Cori needs her babies . (I do need Fluff)
7. cori needs a vacation! (Yep)
8. Cori needs a mixture of talent, drive and more than a little luck.
9. CORI needs to improve adherence to legislation (I'm already a stickler for policy and rules)
10. Cori needs 2 majors to finish her title and there has been almost no majors in Florida since the SFLRC's specialty in May. (I wonder what my title will be?)

Today is PT Day!!!!!!!! YAY!!!

I had mentioned upon our return from Cabo that I had been in an ATV accident. I was a bad blogger and never shared pics of our time in Mexico nor did I explain how I ended up in the bottom of a rocked out flood control ravine. The pics of our vacation in Mexico will have to wait to another day when I'm bored but for now in honor of the fact that today I have a physical therapy session, I will post pics of the accident.

Here we are before riding the vehicles of death (aka ATVs). Dave really wanted to ride the ATVs while we were in Cabo and I was trying to be a good fiancee and go along with his idea.

This is what being a good fiancee got me. A 15,000 peso ride in an ambulance on a stretcher.

We were about 45 minutes into the ride when we began going down a medium size mountain/hill. The soil was a bit sandy and my bike was starting to loose traction and get squirrly but I was still managing fairly well. Our guide stopped in the middle of the hill. I was having a hard time stopping (I couldn't get good traction) and was about to hit the lady on the atv in front of me. Instead I decided to try and stop along side her so it would give me more time to slow down. My bike still wasn't stopping and I hit a rock that sent me sailing into the ravine on the side of the mountain. Down I tumbled with the bike tumbling right after me. As you can see I was lucky that the bike got wedged behind a rock and didn't tumble over me. The guide thought my back was broken (and I thought my back was broken too since I landed hard on several jagged rocks. They called an ambulance which came 30 long minutes later. They put me on a stretcher then carried me all the way up the mountain you see in the pic. Not an easy feet since I'm no light feather!

Once I got to the Cabo ER they did tons of xrays to make sure my back wasn't broken. No broken bits but lots of bruising and swelling all over my body.

This is my back 24 hours after the accident. As you'll notice I have a gorgeous eggplant color on my entire lower back. You'll also notice the lovely stretch marks. Those are from my back swelling up so much so quickly after the accident. I looked like a hump back. Seriously, the swelling easily added 8-10 inches around my waist. I couldn't believe that it was possible for a body part to swell and bruise as much as my back did. It took 2 months for most of the swelling and bruising to go away. 4 months later I still have some swelling but not to the extent that you see in the pic.

Which leads to today's physical therapy session. To treat the swelling that still exists and to get rid of the blood clots that feel like gumballs in my back (due to the intense brusing) they have been giving me 30 minute messages during eash PT session. After that they rub gooey stuff all over my back and run the wand of an ultrasound machine over my back repeatedly to break up the clots. *sigh* I never knew physical therapy could feel SO good!

More Pictures

Our 56" plasma TV.

The Kitchen. Lots of counter space and cabinets!

The best part is that I can watch TV while I cook!!!

The balcony. Small but relaxing.

The master bedroom. The last room that needs to be decorated. I plan on registering for new bedding when we get married. I want to an asian zen type theme. Think simple design and nature colors. Like you walked into an asian designed day spa.

Pretty Picture Post

I love our new apartment. If I could I would buy this place.







The view from our living room windows. The canyon/nature preserve/lagoon.














As you can imagine, I love sitting on the couch and looking at the window. Very relaxing after a hard days work.












The 2nd bedroom & office. Very spacious. Except do you notice that the bedskirt is missing off the bed? It was the only thing lost in the move. The only thing! How did the movers lose a bedskirt (and only a bedskirt)???












A bad shot of the 2nd bath
















A better shot of the living room

Grunions Galore

I'm going grunion hunting tonight. Only in Southern California ...

Can fish run? The famous grunions do on San Diego Beaches.
A summer evening is a perfect time to have a SoCal experience. If there is anything that is uniquely Southern Californian, then this phenomenon just might personify it. Picture yourself on one of San Diego's beaches - at night - with a few dozen other people. The tide is high and the waves are rolling pretty far up the sand line. Suddenlly, as a wave recedes, you spot hundreds of silvery things, wiggling on the sand. Then, just as quickly, the next wave rolls in, then out, and with it the silvery spectres. Yep, you are witnessing a famous California grunion run.
Grunion? you say? What are grunions? Well, California grunion (Leuresthes tenuis) are small silvery fish about 5 to 6 inches long found only along the coast of southern California and northern Baja California. Most of us would be unaware of their existence were it not for the unique spawning behavior of these fish.

Unlike other fish, grunion come out of the water completely to lay their eggs in the wet sand of the beach. And that, my friends, makes us privy to the California grunion run, or more sprecifically, the grunion's sex life.

Along San Diego's sandy beaches, from March through September, one of the most remarkable life cycles in the sea is completed when the California grunion comes ashore to spawn.

According to the California Department of Fish and Game, as if this behavior were not strange enough, grunion make these excursions only on particular nights, and with such regularity that the time of their arrival on the beach can be predicted a year in advance. This phenomenon can be seen on many beaches in southern California. Shortly after high tide, on certain nights, sections of these beaches sometimes are covered with thousands of grunion depositing their eggs in the sand. Hence, the popularity of both grunion watching and grunion hunting.

Yep, you read it right: grunion hunting. Because, even though they are fish, you don't exactly catch them with a pole and line. Nope. Since the grunion basically wash up to your feet, you have to chase them down and grab them barehanded if you want to catch them. That's what makes grunion hunting so uniquely SoCal!

Since these fish leave the water to deposit their eggs, they may be picked up while they are briefly stranded. Often there are more people than fish, but at other times everyone catches fish. So, no expensive fishing gear is needed (just your bare hands and a bucket or sack to hold your prizes. Oh yeah, and a valid State fishing license and a willingness to get a little wet.

More Information About Grunions

Tale of 2 Cities

I was just reading Rosalie's blog post about moving to Providence from Florida. She talked about how her move has felt like she moved to another country. Her post made me start thinking about my recent 435 mile move from the Bay Area to San Diego. I know that Rosalie moved several states away while my move was only from NorCal to SoCal but I've been quite surprised to find how similiar the 2 cities are.
* Both have the same stores with the minor exception Safeway is called VONS here (but both look exactly alike on the inside).
* Everyone has the same accents and similiar vocabularies (dude, hella, etc).
* There isn't a major change in the weather. SD is usually a more constant 80 year round while the Bay Area gets more rain in Jan/Feb and a little hotter in July/August. Other then that it's the same seasons (summer, summer, spring & spring).
* Bay Area people are a little more laid back and liberal but SD people aren't too far off that mark either.
* The buildings and the landmarks are very similiar too. My apartment building looks just like something that I would find in the Bay Area.

So what are the differences????
* It seems like 75% of the people here surf or do some other ocean centered activity. I guess thats bound to happen with 117 miles of coast in the county.
* There are tons of military bases in the county. TV and newspapers tend to focus WAY more on the military life and american pride then I ever expected.
* There's tons of hills in SD (and I thought the Bay Area was hilly). The bad part is that some of the roads get pretty windy. The good part is that finding a house with a view is fairly damn easy. I've fallen in love with looking out my huge windows at the canyon below my apartment.

A Few of My Random Thoughts:

My Kitten
When did my tiny little kitten get so big??? Fluff has put on 2 pounds in the past 2 weeks and now resembles a small full grown cat. ;-( I loved my tiny little baby. He's only 16 weeks old and I really didn't expect him to grow up so quickly. Lucky for my heart, he still acts like the cutest, most playful little furball. This morning I held Fluff and we ran after Dave while he swatted and tried to catch Dave.

Wedding Plans
Dave and I along with his parents made a 2nd trip to Tenaya Lodge a few weeks ago. The lodge has been booked, wedding website created, photographer and baker selected, and dj and floral are coming from close friends. I can't believe all that's been done! All that remains is invitations (3 months before), wedding registry (Septemberish), save the date cards (Octoberish), and some other little details. Oh yeah and I still need to go wedding dress shopping. Ughhhh ... I really wanted to lose a few pounds before that happened. I suck and so does wedding dress shopping when you feel like a whale.

4th of July
It was nice having a 4 day weekend even though I felt like we were constantly on the go and didn't have much time to stop and relax. On Saturday we flew to Sacramento to spend the weekend with Dave's parents and extended family. Monday we flew back. On Tuesday we decided to do some chores around the apartment and relax at home with a caprihina (me) and beer (Dave). Nothing wild but I've kinda grown out of my wild days. A relaxing evening at home with my kitten and my fiancée seem to be what I enjoy most these days. The only disappointment to the weekend was that I had thought we'd be able to see the fireworks from our balcony (we have an amazing view of a wildlife preserve). Unfortunately, we could see the fireworks but the marine layer made it a bit hazy and a hill blocked a portion of the fireworks.

Vacation Part Deux
Dave and I got it into our wild little heads that we're going to do a last minute summer vacation in 3-4 weeks. I love that boy and how spontaneous he can be! So we're still doing frantic research but I think we'll shoot for 4 nights at an all inclusive in Mexico again. WOOO!!! So far we've found decent resorts with air fare for $800 per person. Not bad!

I Feel Old (and Boring)
I've stayed away from blogging for the past few months and I really want to get back into the habit. I love exercising the creative part of my brain (I'm much too analytical) and I love having a journal of my thoughts. My only problem is that sometimes blogging makes me feel SO old. Gone are the days when I talked about school or my sorority. Gone are the days when my crushes on boys changed from day to day. No more exciting tales of dates and sex. My neurotic thoughts towards getting engaged are now settled and passed. Oye Vey. Do I have anything interesting to say??? I have no kids to talk about, no pre-marital problems to stress over, no big life changing decisions to loom over. Even wedding planning is nothing to get all tizzied about unless people enjoy my writing about the various shades of sage I saw at the linen store yesterday?