Internet Lacking...

so, it seems impossible to update this thing on any kind of regular basis, so i will just give up. internet is not easy to get to and when we do, there is no time.

we're having a great time here. lots of good food, walking, sightseeing, etc. minimal exercise, which is sad. today we stay in the Oslo area and tomorrow we are packing up the car and heading south for some cabin adventures. we have lots of funny stories and great pics and vids.

laters...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Thanks for this good idea, Woodard!

We'll be updating from our travels here, folks. Travel phase 1 of 3 for the day is complete and we made it to Berkeley. Had some CHEESE BREAD at Cheese Board and about to head to SFO. Apparently "Marmalade doesn't have opposable thumbs". Hahaha.

10 hours on a flight to Amsterdam. Can't wait!!

Later...

THE BEAST

oh hell! everyday at 430 or so, the biggest, dumbest, BIGGEST flying black thing comes into the trailer and tries to mate with the fake flowers holding the roof to the trailer. i usually run out screaming and don takes care of it. this time i patiently waited for it to leave, but it wouldn't. i don't know how i was able, but i found the courage to slam the window shut trapping it between the glass and the screen. there's a rather large hole in the bottom left of the screen, but the dumb ass couldn't find it. so he just crawled around freaking out for the longest time. long enough for me to take this picture. all of a sudden, he found the hole and flew out. quickly i ran to the other window with NO SCREEN and slammed it shut. and i shut the door. now i'm trapped in the trailer. it's probably out there with 50 of it's closest dumbest friends waiting to attack me. &$&%&%_!!!!

the other crazy thing is, there is a spider living outside the screen on top of the trailer. every time the beast went up to that corner the spider came down on it's side of the screen and tried to eat the beast. so weird. i wonder if the beast first took down the spider upon it's release before it comes after me.

California RULES!

My first real reason to love California more than any other state I've lived in:

"Our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation," Chief Justice Ron George wrote for the court's majority.

Read the story

California Living!

OK, so...

This day was SO fun, but more on that in a minute. Not an incredible amount has happened since my last post in November. You know, just regular living. Getting used to a new place, new job, new life, etc. The holidays came and went. Miriam and I went and visited Glynnis in Hawaii then split off and she went to Pittsburgh and I went to Ann Arbor. We met back in LA on the 30th and drove to Santa Cruz together and spent New Year's there. Since then, we have been living and working and working and living. And it has been great.

But, it got SO much better when we found our new apartment. We found out that we had to move a few weeks ago and I stepped into high gear on Craig's List dragging poor Miriam from place to place around Santa Cruz. It's so competitive finding an apartment here. You show up at one place and there are four other couples there looking too. All jockeying for position. I hated it. We found a place we really liked and met all of our criteria, but I knew we lost it when we had to explain to the woman that we were a "couple". Ugh. The next place we looked at was perfect, just perfect! And it's where we are now. It's two levels, the first being a garage. In the garage, he made the space really nice, so it's not dirty and nasty, but kind of livable. He put built in cabinets and drawers and a desk. Plus there is laundry down there. The best part is that there is a garage door opener, so when I ride home from work, I just push the button and in I ride. Ahhh, a dream come true.

Upstairs is our real living space. There are tons of windows that bring so much delicious sunlight. With hardwood floors throughout the place, it feels so clean and dry and wonderful. Off of the kitchen is a great patio that is fenced and private. That also gets a lot of sun. In fact, Miriam burned her feet a little yesterday out there. Oops. There is one bathroom off the bedroom and vaulted ceilings, so even though the space is still small, it *feels* big.

Another great part is the location. The neighborhood is called Seabright and we are about 5 blocks to the ocean. In fact, the day we rode that roller coaster, Michelle, Matt, Miriam and I walked down to the beach saw the coaster and Michelle said "Let's do it!" So we walked. WALKED everywhere that day.

There are bars and cafes and restaurants and burger joints and just tons of places to walk to around here. Even grocery stores! We didn't have that at our old place and it's something we are so happy about.

It also cuts my commute down by about 15 minutes. Though my ride is a lot harder because of the route I choose, it only takes me about 20 minutes to get there. 15 minutes on the way home.

What else? My job at the university is going just fine and I've managed to make a few friends. We've gone out to happy hour a couple of times and these women are really awesome. They're all interested in things besides work and are smart and interesting and I feel so lucky to have met them. Plus, Battlestar Galactica is an interest of a few and I've found a place to watch it every Friday night, which is awesome!

Miriam is busy busy at work, though fortunately for us, the week we moved was her spring break. Sadly, she had to do a LOT of stuff for our move on her own and on the time she should have been chilling, but it was great for us. She really made it happen!! Now she's back at work and busy again. It'll be awesome when she is done this year and can relax and spend some time just living in this great new location.

We are both really happy and looking forward to visitors soon. Mike is threatening to come and Dana too, so we'll see. We'd love to have any of you, so please think about it!!

The two other pictures under the coaster: Miriam and her cowboy hat in our new apartment and the second is waiting for Michelle and Matt to arrive for burgers. I'll post more later.

Love to you all!

Neils

I've Officially Had My Ass Handed to me in California

Last night I went to "Racquetball Club Night" at UCSC's rec center. Basically, you show up and just play with whoever is there. I was SO nervous, but had to do it. I really want/need to get back into playing rball regularly. There weren't as many people as usual because of the holiday week, but I did get to play with a guy named Joe who handed me my ass oh I'd say about SEVEN times in a row. I think the most points I scored in a game was about 9. Boise, I am rusty.

It was so much fun though. I will definitely be making this a regular thing. Also, apparently there is an rball class on Thursdays from 6 - 8. Yes, I will check that out as well!

I received my California Driver's License in the mail the other day, so now it's official official. The little Golf has Cali plates and everything. That makes three states the car has been registered in. Definitely the next state will be Pennsylvania. I feel pretty certain about that. But not for a little while.

Ahhh, the sun is shining on my face as I type this from the Palace. Back to work now. I'll post a couple of pics below of the inside of the Palace. I love it here. I wish there were a way to make it smell a little better though. It smells kind of funky. Oh, and funny story: I have to pull the shades down on my window at certain points throughout the day because the sun is so strong. Yesterday I pulled the string on the shades and the whole thing came crashing down. Apparently the wood is so rotted out around the windows that it can't hold the thing up. Ahaha. I mentioned that this trailed was "red-tagged" before I got here, right? That means it was on it's way to the dump and they said "wait! Neile is coming, she can work there!" Ahahaha. I LOVE IT!

Miss you all!
Neile


View of the Palace from my chair

View of my computer and window. It's a little dark cuz of the sun (!!!). See that piece of paper on the window? That's our org chart that I now use to block the sun from burning a hole in my face.

Here's our kitchen and inside the door is where Don sits.

Birds Eat Off of Your Shoes in Capitola

So, today is Veteran's Day and for the first time in my working life, I have the day off. Whoo hoo! I've had a really great day so far. After breakfast with Miriam, I lied around in bed until about 8 contemplating the day. When I realized I could lie there ALL day, I got up, cleaned up a bit around the apartment and set out on my bike. Car insurance was the goal for the day. It took about an hour, but I got it done and now I'm ready to get my car registered here tomorrow. Then I decided I'd ride down to the beach and grab a sandwich and watch the water. It's SO beautiful here today. Really sunny and when you are in the sun, you are nice and warm. There is still a slight chill in the air which is also pretty nice.

As I was riding down 41st towards the beach, I passed a bicycle shop and stopped in. My brakes have been really weird, my gears aren't shifting very nicely and, as much as I don't want one, I need a kickstand if I'm going to put the ol' C-dale into our bike storage room. So, this really cool guy hooked me up. He adjusted a cable on my bike which has fixed the shifting problem, installed a kickstand for me and I made an appointment to get my brakes worked on. All for $10. I love bike shops!

I kept cruising down 41st and then did a little loop around and got onto Portola to head down to Capitola Village. Miriam and I had gone down there yesterday after working out and got some coffee at pastry at Gayles. Gayles is kind of like Zingerman's, just on a smaller scale. They make all of their bread (which they sell around town at groceries) and pastries, plus they have a deli and prepared food section, coffee, etc. It's really really good. Today I went to a place called Capitola Kitchen and grabbed a sandwich and some lemonade. Over by the beach they have a ton of benches that you can sit and eat and watch the ocean. Man, it was just gorgeous and a perfect spot to have lunch.

You're probably wondering what the title of this post means. When I was done eating I put my feet up on this concrete wall and was just relaxing. This little black bird came hopping by and was getting closer and closer to my feet. I wondered how close it would get and then all of a sudden it pecked at the bottom of my shoes and flew off with some kind of food product that was stuck in my shoe. Ahahaha, pretty gross and pretty weird and very funny.

On my way back to my bike I passed by a candy shop with the largest jelly bean wall I've ever seen. Yeah, I pulled out my BSG credit card and loaded up. I can't wait to go in on all the new flavors. YUMMY! Luckily it's really expensive per pound, so I will not be frequenting this place, but it's nice to know it's there.

So now I'm just chilling at the apartment. This weekend, among a million other things, Miriam and I put together her stereo and it's so fun having radio again. So, I want to figure out what the good stations are here and get the local NPR station and program those in. I think I'll take a little nap and then I'm meeting Miriam at CrossFit at 5 for a workout.

This weekend was really awesome. We made some good progress at getting our apartment in even better shape. Put stuff away, set things up and rearranged a bit. I think it made us both a lot happier . Soon we'll tackle getting stuff up on the walls.

Well, that's about it from Santa Cruz. Write back and tell me what's going on with you. I'd love to hear from you. For those in AA, I'll be back in town on December 27 - December 31 and would love to see you. Hopefully you'll be in town.

OK, love you!

Neile