ice cold!

we started off our long weekend with a great meeting with our wedding photographers in their oceanside studio. they are a husband and wife team and just plain awesome- fun, hip, stylish- and have an amazing eye for those special day moments.

afterwards, we headed down towards old town san diego in search of lunch. we drove in what was generally the right direction... exited too early from the freeway (hungry people are eager)... proceeded to get turned around, ending up in point loma, a peninsula of sorts. to avoid spending big bucks on a map (and also because we've purchased a map every single time we've driven down to sd), i had the brilliant idea to swing by a hotel to grab a map from their brochure smorgasbord. "they have to have maps, right?" george pulled into a holiday inn driveway. i hopped out and proceeded to stroll in, duck behind the display, grab a handful of brochures, and stroll out. once in the car, examining our brochures- we experienced the meaning of "you get what you pay for"- or in our case, "you don't get what you don't pay for". no freeways or communities even identified, much less actual street names. we located a gas station and purchased a map. *sigh* so much for brilliant ideas!

we finally found rockin' baja lobster, 50 minutes after leaving our photographers' studio. when we got seated, the first thing we grabbed for were the bar menus. me:modelo. george:bohemian. because there's nothing like an ice cold one after a long morning.

oh, the games we play

Silly confession: Sometimes, when George and I are hanging out, we play these goofy made-up games with made-up rules that make no sense. We find that these games, um, help enhance our creative thinking skills.

Game 1- modified version of 6 Degrees of Separation (aka. the Kevin Bacon game)
Designed to test one's knowledge of movies and actors who appeared in them. Not one of my personal faves, as George is so much better than I when it comes to movie trivia.

Game 2- name a theme song
When you're out in public, id an individual or group of people, then hum a song to describe them. (i.e. seeing a group of girls dressed out for a night on the town might invoke the "Sex and the City" theme song)

Game 3- would you...?
Name an outrageously large sum of money, then an equally or more outrageous task that would have to be performed to acquire the sum. Designed to test one's human limits or thirst for wealth, but at what cost? (i.e. Would you, for 5 million dollars, allow yourself to be strapped to a huge wind generator propellor?) The general tactic in this game, if you are posing the question, is to be prepared to either lower or raise the sum, or up the risk level of the task. (in the example above, if I answer "yes" to the initial proposal, George might follow up with "Okay, then what if you are not actually strapped to the propellor, rather, you are just hanging off." My reply: "But wouldn't I get whipped around and banged against the propellor?" His reply: "Maybe.") We like playing this one with Liz and Eric.

Game 4- monotonous humming
This one belongs to me and my sister, made up in a fit of boredom during a drive home from Berkeley. Hum a tune in monotone. Keep the rhythm of the song, you can even say the lyrics, just don't give a melody. It's harder than you think, plus even harder when the hummer picks a Phil Collins song from "Tarzan". So random. This is not one of George's faves.

Try these sometime. You might enjoy them.

g+h

g+h

Look at how much fun they are having together....

just wonderful!

Saturday dinner out to celebrate slim's bday. we're sitting across from gino and flo, conversation happens to turn towards movies... disturbing movies... disturbing tv... the x-files. the best show ever and it makes for great dinner discussion besides!

so it came up... anyone remember the one with the peacock family? (no spoilers for those who haven't yet seen it!) in my opinion, one of the more horrifying ones as x-files episodes go. we were racking our brains to remember the song that was featured at the end, when ______ took ______ and was ______. it was some happy-go-lucky 50's song that provided a stark contrast to the "yikes, i might hurl" content of the storyline itself. so i did some searching on the internet (how did we ever live without it? in the cruel state of not-knowing, that's how!!) and found a site that lists songs in x-files episodes. just like that! let's get to the answer already: "wonderful, wonderful" by kenny james. it's so unfitting that it's perfect.

*side note: i also read, in the course of my 3-minutes of internet "research", that due to the subject matter of this episode, it was only shown once on network television. nice!

anyway... if you want to look this one up, it's season 4, episode 3, titled "Home". just think twice about watching during dinner.

once in a very, very long while...

I haven't eaten Yoshinoya Beef Bowl in about five years, literally. We are going to pick some up tonight for old times' sake- and ALL RIGHT, I'll admit it, because I am craving it. I am looking forward to covering my so-called beef and rice in that red pepper. (Let's see how enthusiastic I am about this whole idea tomorrow!)

Speaking of cheap food... warning: walk down memory lane ahead... George and I have had our share of it when we were broke students. We worked at the student store on campus and used most of our paychecks for rent and bills, and what little was leftover went to food. We spent quite a bit of time at Tomy's on Gayley... the window next to buck-fifty subs. So-called beef burritos were two dollars and the most filling thing we could find to stretch our money.

Dang, we were poor! I do, too often, take my life now and the little (and not so little) luxuries for granted. But all it takes is the memory of us eating our Tomy's burritos under the yellow awning for my eyes to well up and for me to want to give George a big hug. Not only does the thought remind me to appreciate absolutely everything we have today- it reminds me of the fact that we've come so far TOGETHER.

The Computer Section

Borders on Lake Avenue... introduced to us by Liz and Eric. We'll be in Pasadena for shopping or to grab a bite, and when everything else to do has been exhausted, we head over to Borders for a cup of Seattle's Best and a leisurely browse through new magazines and books.

It happens the same way pretty much every time. The first thing we do- provided that we haven't already paid Starbucks or Peet's a visit- is go over to the cafe and order our steaming cups of joe (e-squared) and Americanos (pure cane sugar). Beeline to the magazine section: for Liz and me, straight to scrapbook and wedding. (The order of viewing depends on whether or not one of us is getting married.) Eric to travel and leisure. George to graphic design.

When we finally look up forty minutes later- the guys are long gone, having moved on to better sections in the store. The search begins. Except, with George, there's not much guessing to be done. To the question, "Where's George?"... the answer is always, "in the computer section."

On Sunday, we stopped by Borders on Lake Avenue... and everything happened exactly as described above, except that Eric wasn't there.

So here's a photo I took of George upon finding him in the computer book aisle. Too cute no?

State of Mind

H's style - upbeat, quirky, fun and always optimistic.
Photos taken by G.