Big Lagoon Beach

Danny, Chamreun, and Lauren drove up to visit us on Thursday. Danny stayed through the weekend and yesterday, a beautiful, sunny day on the North Coast, we took him to Humboldt Lagoons State Park and checked out Big Lagoon Beach. Thanks to Danny for taking many great camera-phone photos!

 Danny's Panorama

 

 

I was proud of myself catching the surf "spray" in this photo!

Pep, of course, loves the beach

 

"Footsteps"  (by Danny)

 

We couldn't actually walk too far south on the beach because the tide was encroaching on our "trail" and, in fact, some people get stuck walking one direction because the tide sneaks up on you!

 

love this one! (thanks, Danny!)

Hallelujah! (Christmas 2013)

Merry Christmas!

K and I are having a pretty quiet Christmas this year. Despite having a day and a half off from clinic, I'm on OB call and thus we couldn't travel. I delivered two Christmas Eve babies but other than rounding, haven't had any labor patients (yet) today.

Arlene and Eric were very kind and invited us (family-less this holiday) for Christmas Eve dinner last night, which was delicious.

Here is their neighbors' house, all decked out

Kelvin wore a very ugly Christmas Sweater (made by his nurse, Susanna) for a potluck last week

Here is some of our home Christmas decor:

Our tree, decorated with Christmas cards!

Grandma's Nativity Set

 

Me with the Pepperoo

 

We opened our *gifts* (some were things we bought for ourselves this month but saved until today to open!) late morning.

 Pepper got this doggie toy from her paternal Grandmother

 

We got a great touch-lamp and goodies from John and Inara, a gift certificate for dining from my sis, and some handy packing cubes from my parents. 

Kelvin assembled and hid this (men's) valet which is great for organizing my various clothes! 

While our Christmas dinner is going to be baked turkey breast (not a whole turkey) and brussel sprouts, provided I don't get called in circa meal-time, I like the idea of making sometime these grinchy Christmas kabobs, which I think someone posted on Facebook.

And for some beautiful music celebrating the JOY that surrounds this day, here is one of my favorite songs (Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah'), performed by one of NBC's Voice contestants, Matthew Schuler, and one with a Christmas twist.

HALLELUJAH!  OUR SAVIOR IS BORN!

Pepper vs. the Robot-vac

We splurged a bit on *our* Christmas gift to eachother this year. Not  particularly enjoying housework and not having much free time, we thought a robot-vacuum would make a good addition to our household and bring us all Christmas Cheer.

While the Roomba has gotten a lot of publicity, Kelvin's research showed that the Neato, which is actually a bit less pricey, had better reviews (and, with its shape, can go into corners).  So while I know it's not Christmas yet, we did already bust out the Robo-vac. As you can see from the videos below, it is quite noisy. It doesn't do very well with cords around. However, it does a nice touch-up job while we spend our precious free time doing things we enjoy more than housecleaning (if only there was a Robot-cook. Sigh).

 Check out Pepper's (ferocious) response to our new toy!

It's even threatening when parked!

Strange, but fun

We spent this past weekend in the Bay Area.

Here is us walking and goofing off with Pepper at a park down the hill from the Lees' house (a public park which we learned was actually not a dog-friendly park, however strange and wrong that seems to us as dog-owners)...

  

Mason walked Pep in Alameda (where there's another dog-UNfriendly beach)

Sophia likes ice cream!

(which is not so strange because so does her big brother)

On Saturday night, we carpooled from Oakland with the newlyweds (so strange!) Serena and Brad to eat Chinese Hot Pot in San Francisco, which was new for me (we joked that this was their wedding reception as they went to City Hall in place of having a grand party). It was tasty, but strange (I was not a fan of the tiny fish on the plate which we were supposed to "cook" in the broth)...

... however, this sign (it says "The Pot's" in case it's not clear) really bothered the grammarian in me...

Don't you think it's strange not to have someone editing restaurant signs?

We then headed to the Orpheum Theater in SF for the 8pm showing of The Book of Mormon.

 

Thrifty and punctual (mostly) Asians as we were, we drove around theater to find the best deal on evening parking (which, for the record, was $15 at around 7th and Mission).

The show, while extremely irreverent and vulgar at times, was absolutely hilarious.  It tells the story of Mormon missionaries who go to Uganda and, written by the writers for South Park, was certainly, and by far, the funniest musical of all time.  Strange, but outrageously funny.

 (iPhone quality photos are certainly not the best quality. I'll always insist that K lug around the "nice" camera from now on)

And on our way back home we saw another strange sight: snow on the ground in California (which has actually lasted for more than a week!)

Pepper and a random (strange-looking) doggie at the rest stop

 

Did you do anything strange, but fun this weekend?