Posts Tagged ‘cats’

Yesterday Little Melissa and I hung out and it was a blast! We had a KFC picnic in a park in Santa Maria before heading to Boomers for some miniature golf. Being that it's the first sunny, rainless day we've had in weeks, a Saturday, and the beginning of most kids around here's Spring Break, the golf course was super crowded. We scratched that idea and went for a round of DDR. Then we sat in line for ever waiting for the bumper boats. I don't think I've ever done bumper boats before, and even though I don't especially enjoy getting sprayed for five minutes with dirty pond water, it was pretty fun. The only time Melissa's been on a Go-Kart was with her father when she was seven and it was really scary for her, so we decided to give it another whirl. We picked a two-seater and I was the driver. When a lady crashed into the side and took up the entire road, we slammed on the brake as not to hit her and discovered that our car had no brakes at all. Oh, we smashed into her pretty badly. Having no brakes isn't that big of a deal until the end of the five minutes is up. When the guy stood out in the middle with his flag and everyone stopped in a nice little line in front of him, we came barreling through at full-speed yelling "get out of the way! We can't stop!", coming inches away from running him over. I suppose it was the most exciting park go-cart experience I've had. We did another exhausting round of DDR then went sunglasses shopping at the mall. No, we didn't get these, he he. Good times. We hung out at home afterward, hung out with the cats and played around on MySpace. She has Spring Break all this week and I only have Thursday – Monday, so hopefully we'll get a chance either Thursday or Friday to hang out and, if the weather's nice, maybe go for a nice hike around here.

Jen, Matt's sister, spent some of her Spring Break with us last week. We only had four days with her, but they were a blast!

Day 1: Took some time off school to pick her up. Met the kitties. Looked through photos of her Martha's Vineyard internship. Listened to recordings she and friends did there. Cooked dinner. Watched Alias. Chit chat. Day 2: I had to go to school. Matt and her hung out and played Halo 2, Monkeyball 2, and some other games. Mystery Science Theater 3000. Went out to Sugar Magnolia's for dinner. Watched more Alias. Played with the kitties. Relaxing and more chit chat. Day 3: Turned in keys to the old apartment. Early Bird miniature golf special at Boomer's. DDR (man, are we out of practice!) Ordered pizza. Watched more Alias. Day 4: The self-proclaimed cat-hater falls in love with our kitties. Gabby didn't want Jen to leave (or she wanted to go with her!). Drove down to Santa Barbara. Walked along State Street. Watched some guy play the drums. Saw the beach. Strolled along the pier. Ate enchiladas and burgers at Ruby's. Saw her plane off. Spent half an hour watching the cool clock at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Jen is such a cool chickie. I wish we could have spent more time with her or at least see her more often. We'll fly out to New York for Thanksgiving this year, so we'll have some time then. Matt and I had an awesome time visiting with her. I think we're a little boring to come and visit, but she argued that we aren't. I'm glad she enjoyed herself. My mom and Ron are out on the east coast spending time with my sister and cruising around the little states. I'm so jealous. From the sounds of everything, Andrea and Michael are doing pretty well. Work is a bit of a strain on her eyes (being that she just sits and looks at screens non-stop), but it sounds like she enjoys it enough. Michael is working at Olive Garden now and it sounds like a good job. I found out what dates I'll have long weekends this summer when I'm down in Georgia so we can coordinate a time to visit. Andrea needs plenty of advance notice to apply for leave and I need to get plane tickets to Virginia whenever she gets it approved. I'm not especially looking forward to six summer weeks in Georgia, but having a weekend to visit with Andrea and Michael will be worth it! My classes are canceled today and I've been a bit under the weather anyway, so I'm taking the day off. So far I haven't done much: a little bit of math studying, chatting with my brother for a tad, updating my photo gallery, watching part of The Squid and the Whale, and hanging with the cool cats. It's nice to have lazy days. School is school. Still haven't heard back about my second math exam, though I don't have high hopes for it. I'm trying to get a head-start on the third exam at the end of this month because I hear it's the toughest and all this doesn't exactly come easily to me. It's getting more interesting/fun, though. I'm just having my doubts about whether or not I can handle future math classes. Physics is fun, as usual. The school is hiring a new full-time physics professor and they're in the interviewing stage right now. The picked ten candidates to do a short teaching demonstration of Gauss's Law. I attended three of them yesterday to give my feedback. It was actually a lot of fun. I'm not really allowed to discuss the candidates … physics teachers are just funny people. It was kind of neat because I aspire to be a physics teacher one day (high school preferable, then possibly moving on to college eventually) and I got to hear critiques of how all these teachers presented the material. It was pretty informative and hopefully somewhat helpful when I'm up there one day. Matt is almost finished with his first week of Airman Leadership School. He was really dreading doing this class, but it seems like things aren't nearly as bad as he had expected. The material seems pretty easy and he can get all his homework finished during class breaks. I wouldn't say he's making friends, but there are a few cool guys in there that he chats with and maybe could turn into something more. It would be nice to have some couple-buddies to hang out with. Today he had to attend in full service dress, which is very uncomfortable. It seems men have it worse than women on account of their neck ties, but they look much more striking than women do in blues. So he's at work right now getting choked, then in a few hours he'll have to do his PT evaluation. We've been pretty lazy lately and haven't run all that much, so he doesn't expect to do so well. But come the end of the month when he has his final exam, the difference will be quite significant. I'm sure he'll do perfectly fine, as he has long legs and is built to run; he'll probably just be sore this weekend. That's all for today. I'm off to download some more MST3K and lounge around lazily. Woo!

Yup, still alive. It's been a pretty hectic month. School is stressful as usual. Had my second math exam, which I know didn't go nearly as well as the first one. It's tough stuff and I just need to study harder. Since my last post a few things have happened. I had my birthday. It wasn't really all that exciting, but it doesn't seem like 23 is supposed to be. It was the weekend my best gal pal Carol left town for Nebraska. It was all sort of bittersweet, as it's an exciting adventure and she'll be back with her love, but sad that we got really close just recently and now she's gone. I should be used to seeing friends come and go by now. We had a really nice going-away / birthday dinner at a cute local cafe. I had to go to school on my actual birthday, so it was fairly uneventful. So Matthew's out in New Jersey now. I'm excited for him because it seems so romantic to just drop everything and set up in a completely new place to be with someone you care about. I know he's struggling some with personal issues right now and I hope she's the influence and encouragement he needs. My only concern is his lack of employment. Hopefully his restaurant prospect will work out. It's just sad that he's now that much farther away. I'm way out here with the Pacific Ocean in my backyard and my two siblings are way out as east as can be. I just miss 'em. So Matt and I have been trying to plan a first anniversary trip for this June. We figured we'd drive out to Colorado and see my mom. We were thinking about IndieFest, which is in beautiful and relaxing Pagosa Springs, but I guess we both just aren't feeling it. A lot of the bands are pretty cool, just no one we're passionate about. Then we were considering Wakarusa, which isn't that much farther of a drive and would be completely cool because there's a bunch of bands there that we would absolutely love to see. It's just that we're driving the whole way there and back and are all ready short on leave, so it seems like too much of a hassle. Last summer we did the High Sierra Music Festival and next summer we hope to do Coachella, which seems like the only reasonable festival to attend, since it's within a 5-hour drive. Next month Dave Gilmour will also be in San Francisco for his On an Island tour … hmm. So we moved into this new apartment. It's only about 5 miles from our old one, but it's "in town", which I suppose is better. We can walk places now, if we were to go anywhere. The place is so much nicer than our old one. It's a lot newer and cleaner and has a second bedroom and a dishwasher, woohoo! We got bedroom furniture (finally) and a new couch yesterday and have completely moved everything, so we're starting to settle in nicely. Pictures to come soon! A driving factor was being able to get a second cat: our old place only allowed one pet. So of course last weekend we went out and adopted a kitten. She's a four-month old gray tabby with three legs (had to be amputated earlier this month after she got caught in a car belt). At first I thought that was kind of creepy, but she's so pathetically cute and I just love her to death. We named her Gabby because she's a Gray tABBY (hah yah, I know, lame), but mainly because we were looking for someone to name her for and we decided to go with Gabby La La (one of our new-found favorite artists … and playing in Santa Monica during my spring break … hmm …) She and Tal were really hesitant and curious about each other at first (a bunch of pictures here). Gabby just sort of sat in her house and Tal would stare at her and slowly approach. He whacked her on the head a few times and I think that ticked her off. For the next two days they'd hiss a lot and swat, but now they snuggle together, hang out, wrestle (and she makes the most horrible quack/groan things when she wrestles), and share everything. I think they've adjusted to each other really well, which makes things a million times easier. I'm glad Tal now has a playmate, since we're at work and school most of the day and he just hangs out alone at home. So we've just been spending a lot of time with the kitties the past few days.
So I'm skipping school today because Jen, Matt's little sister, flew in from New York for her spring break. She spent yesterday in LA and is on a bus on her way to Santa Maria right now. She's staying through Sunday, but I can't get out of school tomorrow (physics lab and I tutor … kind of important) and I have drill all day Saturday and Sunday (and this weekend is mandatory, unfortunately). So today is really the only day I'll get to spend with her, which is a huge bummer because she is one awesome chicky and I'm so glad she's traveled all the way out here to see us! At least Matt will have Friday – Sunday to hang with his sis. We don't have any huge, exciting plans. She just spent a few months at an internship at Martha's Vineyard writing songs and performing, then just had a trip to Nashville to hang out with all sorts of cool bands, then hung out with hot guys in LA, so I kind of feel like our visit is the low-point of her vacation. Ahwell, we'll take her out to a nice dinner and play video games. Matt will be the entertainer really, so he'd better come up with something fun to do, hehe. Well that's about all for me. I need to move some of the cardboard boxes out of the way and make the place a little more presentable for our guest. Ciao! Edit: I snapped some quick apartment photos for your viewing pleasure. The place is still somewhat messy, but we're working on it. Enjoy!

So we were approved to move in to the new apartment on the 18th of March. Yippee! I found the apartment on Rent.com, and the cool thing is that the website will give us a $100 prepaid Visa card for signing a lease with the place we found on their site. Matt and I started looking at new furniture and things to do with the new place. It's not necessarily more space, it's just divided more nicely. We have a whole lot more storage room. In stead of having a large living room (multipurpose room, really) and a large kitchen, we're going to have a medium-sized kitchen, dining room, living room, and spare bedroom (computer room / study). I'm psyched about moving in. Now we just have to get packing and all that together. We'll probably get all settled in, let Tal adjust, then look at getting another kitten. Anyhow, just a quick update tonight. I have my first big math exam tomorrow, so I'm off to bed early. Ta ta!

Today I just woke up weird, I think. I had another dream I was married to Smallville's Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). It wasn't creepy or weird or anything, just matter of fact. Sorry, Matt. :-\ Something strange must have happened though, because I woke up cranky. Matt's been super-sweet though. He got me all cozied up on the couch with the comforter and my crochet in front of Aladdin and ordered me just to relax. So that's what I've been doing. I'm making Melissa a cute little blue purse. She picked out the pattern and the yarn and I told her I'd try to whip it out as soon as possible. It's uhm, tricky for me. The pattern claims it's easy, but maybe I'm just that much of a beginner. It's starting to shape up, though! I'm going out with "the girls" tonight (Carol and Missy). Carol had her 25th birthday while she was on vacation in Omaha, so we're celebrating late. I couldn't find anything tangible to give her, so I'm treating her to dinner and a movie in Arroyo Grande / Pismo. We're going to see Last Holiday and she hasn't yet decided where we're going to eat. I'm looking forward to a girls' night out (and Matt is stocking up on chips and soda for a WoW-fest tonight!) I got a notice in the mail today that my calculus 2 teacher last semester had recommended to the college that I tutor this semester. I can have however many hours of paid calculus tutoring I want up to 20. Not that I'd be able to work 20 hours a week. Maybe six hours a week, split evenly between Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. It's a little bit of extra cash, and some experience. Math tutoring sounds like a nice, second part-time job for an aspiring science teacher. I at least feel honored to be recommended. So my brother and I talked last week. Well, we talk more than that, but we talked about important life plans last week. He's in his second semester at Colorado State, where I went for two semesters before, well … going broke and failing out. He did so-so grade-wise last semester, but says he's just not happy there, living in the dorms. I can't at all say I know what's best for him or what he should do, but I found that I wasn't quite ready for the whole University experience right out of high school. Joining the Air Force, working, and going to school part-time helped me mature and really want to work at going to school. It made my first semester back as a full-time student much easier. When I failed out, I didn't have many options. I didn't have any money, my car had just broken down for good, my parents didn't have any space for me (in either Colorado or Texas), so I felt desperate and joined the Air Force. If Matthew finds himself in a similar situation, I just want him to know he has many options, to include coming to live with me and Matt. Matthew and I talked about it before Matt and I ever got engaged: how cool it would be to roomie-up together and go to school. Well, Matt and I have been talking about it a lot and offered the option of Matthew coming to live with us out here in California, work full-time, go to the same school I'm attending part-time. We wanted to move to a new apartment anyway (they have dishwashers, tennis courts, and allow a second cat, hehe) when our lease is up in March and the cost of adding another bedroom is negligible compared to what we're spending on rent right now. Matthew got all excited on the phone and practically gave me an affirmative, but I told him to think about it and see how school goes this semester, then we'll see about a summer move. Selfishly, I think it would be really cool. I know Matt and I would be sacrificing a little privacy, but Matt and Matthew get along well and I love my little brother to death. I miss him a lot and worry constantly about him (not that there's too much to worry about, I'm just that way). I know he feels alone out in Colorado, and I feel like he doesn't have many people to trust or look up to. I like to think I'm one of those people and that we could help each other out if we lived closer together. I talked to Mama about it first and she didn't seem to think it was a stupid idea. Papa doesn't think it's the best idea. Hey, if this semester goes great for Matthew and he feels more comfortable and at home, I'm all for him staying out there. He complains about not being able to work and never having any money, and his grades aren't terrific, so I think maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to move out of the dorms and do the work/school thing. Matt and I are going to look at these other apartments anyway. Even if Matthew doesn't move in with us, it hardly costs us any more to get a second bedroom and we would appreciate the extra space. So we'll see what Matthew chooses and maybe we'll have a roommate this summer! Phew! I guess I just had to get that babbling out. I made two more crochet hats yesterday. The blue one came out horribly goofy; I think I added an extra stitch in there to make it keep growing. I've yanked most of it out and restarted, minus one stitch per round, to see how the new version turns out.

I closed down my Xanga account and my MySpace account. Just tired of all that. I’m back home, now. It’s just you, LJ. (edit: When this was posted on LJ.)

Well, Christmas was pleasant. It our first married Christmas together, which is special. We were both a little homesick, though. It’s just hard to get in the Christmas spirit when you’re wearing shorts and a tank top and haven’t seen family in months. It was fun, though. We got a nice plastic Walmart tree and picked out cute ornaments for it. We went out with Carol on Christmas Eve to church and out to dinner. Matt and I debated whether to open gifts on the 24th, my family’s tradition, or the 25th, his family’s tradition. We ended up opening them very late on the 24th, but it wasn’t due to any of my coaxing! My mother broke Matt down. :p Carol came over on Christmas day to exchange gifts and cook a feast with me. It was all very nice. I’m thankful to have such a good friend as Carol. We’ve just recently grown closer, and now she’s about to move away in a few months.

Our Friday night parties have fallen apart; I guess it’s mostly my fault. I suppose I just feel that we’re being used by our new friends. I don’t know if I expect too much from my friendships that they’re hard for me to find, or if friendships just aren’t important enough for me to want to keep. With the exception of Carol and Erick, I feel everyone here has disappointed me. I feel like we just haven’t found the “right friends”. Maybe other married couples? Getting together with 18/19 year-old boys for movies and video games is fun for a while, but really shallow. I guess I’m just happy to hang out with Carol … I don’t need a gaggle of superficial friends.

My mother is flying in on Friday morning and I am just too excited! She and Ron are coming up to Lompoc that morning to see our home, hopefully meet Melissa over lunch, some golf, and a nice dinner. They aren’t staying up here because Tal would drive my mom crazy (she’s allergic), so they’re staying in Santa Barbara. We’ll drive down there Saturday morning to stay with them for a few nights and celebrate New Year’s Eve / Matt’s birthday / Ron’s birthday.

It’s been quite a relaxing break. Matt pretty much got two weeks off work for free without having to take leave. He’s on standby, but nothing really happens (except an early morning, random urinalysis today) where he needs to go in. It’s been nice to just hang out with him and not do much. We started new characters on World of Warcraft that we got up a little bit (he’s a druid, I’m a hunter, both night elves). He’s been playing Dragon Quest VIII, one of his Christmas gifts. We got weights and tennis rackets to play with. I got a CD from Matt’s parents, Gabby La La’s “Be Careful What You Wish For …”, that has pretty much been on repeat for the past three days (Matt really like it, hehe). I’m learning how to crochet (goofing around, I made a pretty blue bracer/arm-warmer/sleeve thingy). I’m going to attempt an afghan on this break.

Aside from all that excitement, I’ve just been burning a lot of CDs and dinners. Well, I guess the dinners aren’t so bad, but I’m still learning. Today is just cleaning and tennis and watching CSI Season 5. Woohoo! I love Christmas break! Just two more days before until family visiting, woohoo!

Man, I am so craving some of those peanut butter and oatmeal nobake cookies. I want to just go whip up a batch for breakfast! :-} So the news today is, well, slim. I was all hyped up about spending time with Melissa yesterday, but it turns out she got some viral infection (hopefully not from some infected animal at the zoo on Saturday!) and is miserably sick. Melissa and I have had sort of a rocky relationship, not because of how we get along, but just because of time and dedication, I guess. I "adopted" Melissa in March '04 and things started out really well: we'd see each other every weekend, went camping, did schoolwork together, etc. A mixture of her family events, my night-classes and unpredictable work schedule, as well as my laziness pretty much destroyed what we had and we ended up hanging out maybe once every two months. It stressed me out a lot because I care about her and want to spend time with her (also, in the BBBSA you sort of sign a "contract" saying you'll spend such-and-such amount of time together per week and I had my case worker calling up constantly to check on me … guilt!) but it just wasn't working. I almost tried to quit the program a while ago because I felt so bad, that she deserved a better, more devoted Big Sister. Well, I'm not saying everything's the way it should be right now, but our hopes are higher and our schedules are clearer! Not working in the squadron while trying to go to classes at night anymore will really help. We planned a little schedule sort of … she comes over at the same time every Wednesday and we'd also try to get together once in a while on the weekends. Well yesterday was our first Wednesday and I was all hyped for making chicken parmesan and beading necklaces together! Anyhow, long story with little point: I was just sort of bummed out. Heh. I'm meeting up with my pal, Carol, today for lunch. We used to work together until she moved sections and I moved out. It's kind of a strange relationship. When I first showed up on base she hated me completely. I don't know if it was a territorial thing (there is such a small percentage of girls to guys where we worked) and I was hogging her boys' attention or if it was just something else about me. She was all tough and frankly, just scared the snot out of me. It really upset me whenever she was rude to me for no reason and I'd whine to Matt about it after work. I don't know what happened. Her friend, Denna, and I eventually became better friends, so then it was sort of the three of us. Tension just disappeared one day. I don't know if it was that I was hanging out with Matt and she saw this as a threat (they were okay friends in tech school before I came along), but I proved myself over time? I held a grudge sort of for a bit, but there's really no point. Things have seemed pretty fine for a while. Anyhow, Denna, Carol and I used to go out to lunch together at Sissy's, a cute, colorful cafe in Lompoc, every two weeks or so. Denna moved to Italy and Carol and I were left with each other, pretty much the only girls either of us knows around here (seriously in the shop right now there is one girl and 44 guys … poor Anya). She works strange, unpredictable hours now, so we get together for lunch when we can. Today we can and I'm looking forward to it. We found another Lompoc restaurant, Sugar Magnolia's, which I just adore and sort of became "our place" to go out (Sissy's was more her and Denna's place hehe). I think Carol's sick of Sugar's today though, so ohwell, I don't get their awesome natural smoothies and pasta salad. Well … I like Carol enough, she's a sweetheart and Matt likes hanging out with her, too. But seriously, whenever we go out I feel like we just talk about the same things: work gossip (ugh!), her relationship status, or how Denna's doing in Italy. We get along, but I don't feel we really have anything interesting in common. Since I was thirteen I struggled in the girl friend department, but hanging out with all the guys didn't really bother me so much anyway. Now I just sort of feel desperate, I just want a girl to talk to every now and then! You know, a girl kind of like me, heh. Matt is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I'm sure you understand … I think he does. I think I'm just feeling a little holed-up lately. I'm an inside, introverted person and hanging out with Matt is great, but every now and then I think I miss my childhood girlfriends. I don't want to be surrounded by a lot of friends or anything, I really just want one and for her to not live across the country. I think that's part of why I want to hang out with Melissa more … maybe it reminds me of when I was in middle school hanging with the "Chicklets" … but you know, she's thirteen. There's certain needs in that relationship that can't be met, either. Well, enough of that. Lunch today will be nice, but I guess I'm going into it feeling like the friendship is all ready sort of empty and it just bums me a bit. Yes, it's another morning where I just babble, so sorry. Yesterday I got a ton of schoolwork, errands, and housework done that I didn't expect to (due to my Melissa date being called off, wahh!) so I'm a tad ahead of schedule and can spare the thirty minutes of babble! So I think I will go whip up some no-bake cookies for later (not for breakfast, ick) and play with crazy Tal. He sure is going to miss me when school starts up in the Fall. The spoiled cat has a big toy all day long every day who is just going to disappear for the semester. Poor guy. >:-)

I know, now I’m just posting for the sake of doing so. I’m just a little bored. Not that I don’t have a gazillion things to do … I just don’t want to do them right now. I changed things around on here a little bit because I was tired of the way they looked before. I hope everything’s legible enough and all.

I feel kind of cooped up. I really started to loathe my job, but I went back to work yesterday to drop off lunch for Matt and found myself sort of nostalgic for it. I think it’s just that I sit around at home all day doing school work and housework. I was really excited about going to my new job with the guard last weekend, but I guess it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. What I did before at the 576th was actually pretty cool, it’s just I got really fed up with policies, sergeants, and all the bone-head 20-year old airmen boys I worked with. Not that I think the grass is greener back there, I was ready for a change. I just feel bored in this transition phase where we don’t know where we will be living come February and I’m still just taking here-and-there classes at a community college. I’m not disgruntled or anything, I just want to get on with the next act …

Hah, so I adopted a penguin today! Tal must be pretty jealous … Her name’s Tela and she’s not so good at standing on her own two feet. If you’re super-bored, you can adopt your own pet, too!

Anyhow, I guess I will actually get on with school work. Ta ta!

So it’s been a few days and I have little to report. School started on Monday, so that’s keeping me kind of busy. I’m only taking nine credits and they’re all online-courses, so it’s not so bad. I can do my psychology homework in my pajamas! I’m also taking World Civilizations and Logic, then I’ll have all my “core classes” out of the way finally. I really just do a lot of reading and that will last me all summer.

Matt and I are considering getting another cat. Tal is four months old now and extremely playful and it’s nice that I’m home all summer to hang out with him. I was reading that a kitten’s best toy is another kitten and maybe he would have fun hanging out with one of his own. Carol and I went out to see The Perfect Man on Wednesday (which was pretty cute!) and stopped by the shelter just to peek. There were so many kittens there, I was amazed. And so cute! When we adopted Tal the shelter told us he’s not very good with other cats. I don’t know if that’s just because of the environment he was subject to, if it’s something he’ll grow out of, if they were just the wrong kinds of cats, or if he’s really just anti-social. If we do look for a playmate for him, I think we’ll bring Tal along to see how he interacts with the shelter kitties and see if he can sort of pick his match. Hopefully that will go well!

My mother got home from the hospital yesterday, which I am very thankful for. She spent seven days in there and it sounded horrible. From what I hear, things aren’t too much better, though. The only thing she “can” consume is water and tea, and neither of those will stay down for her. She claims to be in more physical pain than she has ever known and I wish there was more I could do to ease that for her. We will just keep praying her pain subsides soon and she can get on with her day-to-day life.

So I’m all happy I found some new music! I stumbled across some Tea Leaf Green and Jack Johnson (awesome!) mp3s and now have CDs on order. I’m enjoying both tremendously and you should go check ‘em out! TLF is a San Francisco band, and I’m going to try to make it up to their next local show in September and Jack Johnson will be in Santa Barbara in August (going to buy tix now woohoo!) I haven’t been to any sort of concert for a while (well, Switchfoot up in San Fran a while ago, but it was late/far away and we didn’t stay through the whole thing) and it will be nice to go see one.

Well, here’s my promised recipe of the day! Last night we had a pseudo-Steak Diane. It’s more quick-and easy and there’s no setting anything ablaze, but it’s our favorite dish we’ve found so far. Serves 2 with wild rice and green beans!

2 (6-ounce) ball tip or strip steaks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons minced shallots
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon minced fresh or frozen chives
1 Tablespoon Cognac or brandy

Season steaks with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, melt butter. Add shallots and cook over medium-high heat 1 minute.

Add steaks and cook 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. Remove steaks to a warm serving platter.

Whisk lemon juice, Worcestershire, mustard, and chives into drippings in skillet. Cook 1 minute; stir in Cognac. Pour sauce over steaks and serve at once.

Tonight isn’t quite as exciting: just playing with my kinda-new crockpot and making a roast with veggies. Mmm! Matt and I are just going to chill out, play some Ragnarok Online and watch some Rayearth tonight. Ahh, this is the life!

Well, I've been slightly guilted into updating my brand new blog! :p I set out meaning to do so every single day, then thought that my life probably isn't quite that interesting … Anyhow, here's the scoop! Last Thursday I drove down from Monterey via Highway 1, or the Pacific Coastal Highway. Taking this route versus the 101 extends my trip significantly, but it is a truly gorgeous drive. The only other time I had the opportunity, Matt and I got into a car-fight and I really just couldn't enjoy it! Well, I left Andrea before 5:00 am (she had quite an early flight), so I saw the coast in its dreary, foggy stage. Not quite as spectacular as a clear day at sunset, really. I think I'm going through some wedding woes right now. I didn't think I would be, considering it's a fairly simple celebration and we haven't really gone all-out. Twice as many guests will be attending than I had expected (being that everybody has to travel quite a distance to see us for a short time), which is absolutely terrific! I really can't wait to see everyone. Someone told me recently that you know who your real friends are by who attends your wedding. I don't agree with that 100%, but it is kind of putting the relationships I hold into a different perspective for me. There are five friends driving 20 hours from Colorado, which is more than the friends I have driving in from California! Anyhow, I think it's just the little things that are getting me freaked out, which I'm sure is normal. My divorced parents have not spoken to each other civilly in eight years and now I'm putting them into a pretty uncomfortable situation. I should just let them deal with it or work it out, but I'm trying to please everyone and bend to make everything more tolerable. I had a silly dream last night that all sorts of things went wrong: there was no time for hair/makeup, my father didn't show up, no photos were taken, and my nails were painted in candle wax which kept breaking off. It sounds shallow/trivial but really, it stressed me out so much! :p My mom and Ron are packed up and ready to leave bright and early tomorrow morning, which just hit me how soon everything is. We've been planning this for almost a year, and now, the event being five days away, I'm just worrying about every little thing. Not cold feet or fear of marriage kind of worries, more like guests being comfortable and rain and everyone finding their way just fine! My father joked that he'll bring some Valium for me on Thursday, but well, in a way I'm hoping he's not joking! Matt and I adopted a gorgeous, now four-month old kitten last a little while ago. I'm watching him jump up and slam himself into the wall and go crazy on every single object in our living room. Really, watching him is my new favorite activity. I always knew kittens were energetic, but I never really knew! Tal astonishes me; he is so playful and personable. It's almost annoying though, being kneaded and gnawed every morning at 5:30 or stalked every time I walk down the hallway. But oh, so cute. Go take a gander! Anyhow, I'm off to go finalize reception seating charts and music playlists. Ciao!