Sunday, January 22, 2012

Three weeks into the year....



February is almost here.... That means Valentine's Day AND more importantly my three-year-anniversary of being a permanent resident of the United States of America. I read today that I can send in my application for citizenship after having lived here for four years and nine months, so that will be in 2013..... Um, maybe not then...Anyway, my birthday week came and went and the actual day was nothing special. I congratulated my Jassel at 3pm California time on the previous day and we put Rocky to bed together after. Jassele called me at 9am her time (a lil more humane compared to the Texas midnight 7am in Germany on her special day), and then went back to sleep. On my actual birthday I usually refuse to do anything I do not want to do. So, I did not do anything I did not want to do - like go to work. I never go to work on my birthday. I do not think anyone should! I made myself some birthday pancakes and ate those while on skype with my birthday partner in crime while she was eating cake. It felt weird, because last year was so awesome, I knew though it would be tough to make this year awesome.... Anyway, Aaron came home from work a tad earlier than usual and, oh fun, the electricity went off a couple of times. The first time right before I was about to make my daily afternoon coffee. Sure did not turn out to be a happy birthday girl. And no afternoon-coffee-cake-with-a-candle-to-blow-out-and-make-a-wish either. Cupcakes would have been great, too. I did get a candle to blow out after some complaining though. It was an awesome candle and I made an awesome wish after great dindin at one of my favorite restaurants with one of my favorite people. OK, so that was that. 28, we will talk in two years....... boooo. Today, my fur-child had to get his shots and he took it like a Champ, hehe he. He got three - one in the nose, one in the mouth and one between his scapulas. Poor baby. The one in his nose was the worst. My parents will be here in ELEVEN(!) weeks and I cannot wait!!!!! Too bad my Jassele is not though. I plan on going to Dallas soon or after my parents leave. I need to see my godchild!! And her mommy of course too!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Trip #1 in 2012

2012 is one week old. It started out great. Last Sunday, on January 1st, we went to the beach with Champy. It was awesome! We had about 24°C and there was sooooo many people out and about at Venice Beach, less than a mile from our condo. There even were people laying out in their bathing suits. Since that particular beach is not a doggy beach we only went on the pier all the way down and Champy sure did not like all those people. Wednesday night we went to New York City, NY on the red-eye flight through San Francisco. We stayed till Saturday morning and went back to Los Angeles around 12noon. It was a great trip. It was colder than at home in L.A., but that was fine for three days. Thursday after we landed we went to check in at the hotel and then grabbed some breakfast around the corner, since the place Aaron really wanted to take me to across shut down. The other place was fine too though. After that was nap time. Though we had a really comfortable flight from SanFran to NYC travelling is tiring. Later on that afternoon, we met with Eileen, a co-worker from Dallas, and went to Katz's Deli for a sandwich! It was good, plenty of meat on there. Aaron and I checked out PURE Yoga and the Equinox around the corner from the hotel and I grabbed a delicious cupcake at "Crumb's" for later on for dessert. Around 7pm I made myself comfortable at the hotel with my red velvet cupcake and the remote control and snuggled up in bed. All my shows started back up and since Aaron had a social meeting with co-workers I enjoyed my shows in NYC, instead of on the Tivo at home. Friday I wanted to take a yoga class at a club, but I woke up too late and kinda had to hurry to still get breakfast somewhere. My plan was to go to Niketown from the hotel and grab some breakfast halfway, but since I did not leave the hotel till about 10.40am, I decided to go back to the place from the previous day to make sure I would still get some breakfast food. After I had fed myself I did go to Niketown because I was on the quest for some new unique sneakers. Disappointment. Booo. It is ok though. I got some new workout pants and then went to H&M to check out their new stuff. Grabbed some coffee and another cupcake (hehe he) on my way back to the hotel and met with Aaron around 3.30pm in the lobby. We switched hotels for that night and went to the "W" downtown, right by Ground Zero. That sight was very memorable, very amazing. We had a view of Ground Zero exactly from the hotel room. Had dindin at the restaurant downstairs after we met with an old high school friend of Aaron's and went to digest our delicious food in the hotel room. Saturday morning it was time to get to JFK to see if we could change our flight, but the direct flight was full. Off to SanFran then it was. Lucky us, we had a mother with three girls in the row next to us, whereas one of the kids (assumed around 2 years old) was being breast-fed while everybody boarded the plane on an AISLE (!) seat and then afterwards would not shut up screaming for even five minutes. The other girls were maybe four and six or so. We had a free seat on our row, so I went to the window seat and Aaron was on the aisle seat. That mother had some nerves! She woke up Aaron to ask if she could put her child down on the middle seat, half on me and the legs were on Aaron's lap, waking me up as well in process, and I had slept so good, and then waking up Aaron multiple times afterwards as well. It had been funny, because during boarding there were some guys who were making fun of the whole situation and so on and they had wished us good luck. Well, that had probably jinxed it. Six hours later we were in SanFran and hurried to get off that plane. Fortunately we were able to catch an earlier flight to LAX and this time there were no screaming kids in our immediate area. Phew. Champy peed on himself as we got home, he was so happy to see us!!!