Making Me Happy This Week–3/25/2018 Spring Break Edition

I took three days off this past week to relax and recharge.  Todd took two days off with me and we had a mini-staycation in San Diego.  The weather cooperated and we really had a sunny & warmer nice couple of days! 

Here’s what’s making me happy this week, Spring Break Edition!

• My day off alone, where I made myself a nice breakfast, stayed in pajamas all day, and chatted on the phone with Peppermint for over two hours!  We don’t usually talk on the phone (we IM and text almost every day though), so it was a lunch phone date!  I loved it.  I had to ask her if we were doing Facetime or just phone, because I told her I just wanted to wear pajamas and not put on makeup, ha ha.
• Our Tuesday staycation where we went to lunch at Carnitas Snack Shack to celebrate Todd’s raise at work.  Everything was so good, including the chips & guac not shown!
• We drove over the bridge to Coronado.  Even living in San Diego, it feels like a vacation when we drive over the bridge to Coronado!  I just love the palm tree lined streets.  We were going to rent and ride a tandem bike, but they were all rented out by the time we got there.  So we just walked around and enjoyed the scenery and weather.  I felt so free, like I could breathe deeply again.  We also had ice cream at our favorite ice cream shop in San Diego, Moo Time. 
• Todd’s homemade Asian-inspired noodles.  So good!
• We watched the movie “Coco” on Tuesday night and it was so good!  Really loved the music.
• It was warm enough to wear shorts! 
• On Wednesday went to lunch at Macaroni Grill (Todd had a BOGO coupon), and hung out at the mall.  Then we went to a recently opened cafe called Mostra and had a latte and a brownie.
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• We had banh mi sandwiches for dinner on Friday night.  Our favorite banh mi place also had an outdoor open mic that night.  It was kind of cold and nobody showed up early.  But we saw on their IG account that people showed up after dark to play the open mic, so we missed out by being too early.  We were hungry though!
• I got a really nice new full-length mirror from Target.  Todd hung it on the wall for me downstairs in our entryway.  Now I have great lighting for outfit photos, ha ha!  The background is our spiral staircase.  To the right (or left, since we’re looking at a mirror image) is our living room that we use for working out.  I love the new mirror and its location!
• Todd and I went downtown to Copley Symphony Hall for a jazz concert.  It’s the Lincoln Center Jazz band with Chick Corea, who is one of Todd’s long time favorite jazz piano players. 
• Noodle being cute. 
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I did work Thursday and Friday, but those are the best days of the week to work!  I could get used to this taking three days off and working two days per week, ha ha. 

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Way Back in August

In real life I’ve been back at work for a little over a week and it’s pretty taxing on me.  So I’m just gonna go back to August and document some fun things that I haven’t had a chance to blog about. 

First, a word from Noodle.  “I love to lay on paper.  It’s my favorite.  I do this every day while my catmom works out.”

I ate a lot of good food while on leave.  Some cooked at home.  Some dining out.  If I hadn’t been working out every day, I would have gained a lot of weight.

On Sunday 8/20 we went to Lolita’s Mexican for lunch.  If you don’t get there by noon you will have long lines to order and almost no seats.  That’s what happened to us.  But it was worth it!

On Saturday 8/26 we checked out Westroot Tavern for lunch.  It was a new-to-us place.  It was pretty good but expensive for what it was.  Fancy bar food!  We got the roasted Brussels sprouts with pork belly and it was really good but really oily.

I got ahi tuna salad and it was just meh.  Plus it was tiny.

Todd got fish & chips and it was ok.  He said it wasn’t salty enough.  So overall we won’t be back on a regular basis.

On Sunday 8/27 Todd went swimming in Del Mar with the SD Tri Club.  He got to wear his new wetsuit for the first time!  He had a wetsuit that he wore for years, but it finally broke down.

After that we went to lunch at Kappa Sushi, one of our favorite Japanese places around here.

We had an early dinner at Pho Hoang Express.  Then we went to Bernardo Winery for the Ira B Liss big band concert.  We do this every year and it’s always such fun!

After we got back home, it was time for the Game of Thrones season 7 finale!  I really enjoyed season 7.  Now we are watching season 6 again every Sunday night so we could go back and listen to the recap podcasts.  Long wait till season 8!

Todd took Monday 8/28 off so we went to lunch at Liberty Public Market.  We had sausage sandwiches from Mastiff.

After that we shared two small scoops of ice cream from Scoops by Moo Time.  One was Banana Nutella and the other Chocolate Pomegranate. 

And now, a word from Noodle.  “I loved to sleep in this cat bed by the window during my catmom’s leave from work.  I just wanted to be close to her, next to the recliner.”

Thursday 8/31 was the kickoff game for the Ohio State Buckeyes football season!  We invited our friends Anne & Gilbert over for dinner and the game.  Todd made homemade carne asada, which set off the smoke alarm when he was cooking it.  But man, was it good.  Anne & Gilbert brought jalapeno corn bread and it was divine.

Group selfie during the game!

Todd made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for dessert.  So good!

The Buckeyes beat Indiana 49-21, pulling away in the second half.  It was a great way to kick off the college football season!  The first college football Saturday was 9/2, so of course Todd was prepared for it!

I haven’t been sleeping as well since going back to work.  I’ve been still working out every day though, so at least I’ve kept that going.  I’ll be back in a couple of days with more September recaps.  Talk to you soon!

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Sunshine in My Pocket

I cannot get over how happy & joyful I have been since the start of my leave of absence from work.  On various days, I would just randomly text Todd while he’s at work and say, “I’m SO happy!!”  It really has been the best time of my adult life.  I need to figure out how to carry this mindset with me when I return to work. I also need to figure out some coping mechanisms for the stress.  Work has not been my friend the last two years.  It was a perfect storm where I got way more responsibilities dumped on me, and then just massive changes happening every few months, and not being appreciated.  I was really unhappy at work and I let it permeate into the rest of my life.  No more!  I will write a separate post soon about my relationship with work and what I have learned since going on leave.

I’m behind on documenting the stuff we’ve been doing!

On Friday night 8/11 we drove down to the Embarcadero Marina to see the San Diego Symphony orchestra play all the scores from the ET movie while watching the movie.  I haven’t seen the movie in years!  As always, the combination of the San Diego waterfront, sunset, symphony, and movie is amazing.

Before the show, we had a quick dinner at The Kebab Shop.  We usually share a plate.

On Sunday 8/13 morning, Todd went swimming in the ocean with the San Diego Triathlon Club.  Someone got a group photo this time (I downloaded it from Facebook)!  Todd is on the left, right behind the waving hand.  Ocean swimming is no joke, so I’m glad Todd has the Tri Club to swim with!

After he came back, we went to Little Italy for some lunch.

We went to Monello, one of our favorite Italian restaurants in San Diego.  For weekend brunch, they have these croissants with nutella!  There are actually a few fillings you can pick from.

Todd had the fish.

I had the squid ink pasta with octopus.  This is my favorite dish there!

We thought the Little Italy Mercado (farmer’s market) was on Sundays, but it’s on Saturdays, so we missed it.  We walked around and went to Lofty Coffee to share a latte.

It was a fun outing in Little Italy.  We hadn’t been in a long while.  That evening, we took a walk after dinner, on the trail by our house.  The light was just perfect, and it was so picturesque.  Of course, we had to walk quickly so we could go back home and start watching Game of Thrones!

Todd took day off on Monday 8/14, so we went to lunch at Bongiornos.  This is Todd’s favorite casual pizza joint, so he’s always happy & excited to go there.

On Tuesday 8/15, we cooked Lemon-Browned Butter Cod with Hazelnut Pilaf.  One of our favorite fish dishes!

On Wednesday 8/16 I got my haircut and pink hair coloring done.  It took 4.5 hours!  If I were working I would have had to take a half day off for it.  Afterwards I met up with Todd at Punjabi Tandoor nearby for dinner.  This is our favorite Indian food in San Diego.

Afterwards, Todd’s softball team Mean Green Peace Machine (MGPM) played their playoff game against Natty Ice.  My friend Daryl plays on Natty Ice, so I went to game to watch it.  But my loyalty was with MGPM, of course! 

Todd played well.  He had a couple of hits and caught a couple of fly balls for outs in the outfield. 

But unfortunately, they lost to Natty Ice and were eliminated from the playoffs.  One last team cheer!

The team captain, Jared, told Todd afterwards that he nominated Todd for “Most Improved Player” this year.  That’s fantastic!  I’m so proud of Todd, especially since this was his first year playing.  And I loved seeing him bond with his teammates, be a team player, and having fun. 

On Friday 8/18, Todd led his work lunch book club in a discussion of the book “Meddling Kids”.  He got up early to make these chocolate chocolate chip cookies with chocolate cream cheese frosting, so he could bring it to book club!  These were fantastic.  He left two cookies for me and they were gone in no time.

Of couse, Monday 8/21 was the solar eclipse.  We didn’t have total eclipse in San Diego.  I think it was around 55% eclipse.  I went outside with a colander a few minutes before the max 55% eclipse and took some photos and a video during the max eclipse at 10:23 AM.  So fun!

Check out the crescent shaped shadows in the holes!

And I watched the total eclipse on TV as it went across the US.  So cool!

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