Having Fun in the Warm California Sun

I had an amazing quick weekend getaway to California this long weekend. First let me tell you the weather was unbelievable for January. Sure it may be global warming, but it was sunny, 70 and beautiful.. When I left NY the high was 10 degrees and the wind chill made it feel 10 below. It was awful. Awfully horribly cold!

So what brought me West? My long time fabulous friend Kelly is pregnant, 8 months pregnant with a baby girl and I just had to see her pregnant! I've known Kel since 6th grade, we met at space camp in Huntsville, AL. 20 yrs ago. Week long trips to space camp were common for Sacramento area sixth graders. That's clearly no longer the case. Now obviously neither of us went on to be astronauts but we did go on to be wonderful friends and I didn't want to miss seeing her at this milestone moment. The beautiful weather was just a perk!

I got to spend 2 full days in Sacramento which allowed me time to see a good amount of friends.
Met college sorority sisters for lunch, the one in green is Christina, my big sis from the sorority drove all the way down from Chico for the lunch, isn't she the sweetest? She is a new mommy too!! She went home with a pink "I love NY onesie!" :)

Afterwards I met up with Ryn and Dan before mtg Kelly for a girly manicure session.
Then we met high school friends Jill and Meghan plus Carolyn for dinner.
Jill's a new Mommy too... Won't lil Parker be adorable in this?
I also got to spend some quality time with my in-laws while I stayed under their Roseville roof... It was an amazing weekend even though my sister-in-law (not pictured) stole my bed that I left there for us to sleep in on visits back since we weren't able to take it to NY.. She was in town too because it was Mike's dad's bday weekend. Happy birthday Jack!

On Monday, I drove back into San Francisco. My wonderfully generous and thoughtful sister let me borrow her car for the weekend. I had flown into SFO on Saturday morning and drove straight from there to the shower in Lincoln. Becca had picked me up, took me to Peets coffee, wrapped Kelly's presents while I changed clothes and put on makeup and then sent me on my way with her car. Isn't she the BEST???
So back to Monday. On Monday I drove back into San Francisco. It was by far the sunniest day in SF ever! It was beautiful and clear and sunny!!
I met up w/ Becca and Mark, Katie, and Michelle for lunch in the Marina area. It was great! I hadn't seen Michelle in 2 years or so and it was so nice to catch up! We had worked together about 8 yrs ago back in my Fox 40 days.
Afterwards, Katie and I shopped around and enjoyed the sun and then later that evening Bec,

Katie and I went to Tea! Complete with petit fours and finger sandwiches. It was adorable!!
Anyhow, I had such an amazing weekend. It was so nice to have some much needed girl time. I miss my girls!!!

And good news, we've already booked our next trip back to Cali and this time both Mike and Cooper will be coming. AND we'll be in both the Sacramento area AND the L.A. Area!The 3 of us all have our tickets! We'll be in Sac 4/3-4/8 and LA 4/8-4/13.
On that note stay tuned for a rant coming on why I feel that dogs should be able to Collect Airline reward "miles.". Cooper's airfare is as high as ours and he doesn't even get a seat he has to fly in a bag at our feet! Ridiculous right? But I guess that's the price of a jet set pet!

XOXO
Jen

Eating Like THE KING!!!

So most people know that one of my favorite foods, if not THE favorite, is peanut butter. I love it. Its wonderful. Peanut butter cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and OF COURSE, peanut butter and chocolate (Reeses peanut butter cups are EASILY my favorite candy). My Mom knows of all the times I came home to eat lunch with a loaf of French bread, cut it up, and covered it in butter and peanut butter...

Oh man, I think all the blood just rushed from my head writing that sentence...hang on...

Anyways, peanut butter, as Jason from the "Bachelor" would say, is "amazing." (fun digression: That should be the new drinking game...do a shot every time Jason says someone or something is "amazing" on that show. You'll be under the table within 45 minutes). And by the way, I'm somehow involved in a "Fantasy Bachelor" game with Jen and a bunch of other women from ABC and elsewhere...we had to pick who gets voted off each week, all the way down to the final, and I studied the "this season, on "The Bachelor" clips like it was the Zapruder film as I made my picks...but this is a whole other post altogether...where was I again? Ah yes...

So when Jen told me there was a whole restaurant that focused on different kinds of peanut butter sandwiches, I told her we had to go...

So we went a couple of weekends ago, and I immediately locked on to a sandwich called "The Elvis".....it was a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich...grilled.

Now I know what you are thinking..."Holy #^&@$!! How could it possibly get better?" And Jen ordered one just like that....BUT I, on the other hand, knew something was missing. There was only one possible ingredient that could make a sandwich like that even more delightful and disgustingly bad for you....that's right people, for one dollar extra, you could add BACON to the sandwich...

so to recap...peanut butter, honey, bananas, and bacon...grilled...

your heart just stops writing that sentence...

I ordered the extra bacon for my sandwich, told the waitress to dial 9-1 and keep her finger on the 1 just in case, and chowed down....holy crap it was delicious....its no wonder Elvis died a fat man full of grease....I could eat those things every day...granted I'd be 700 pounds by the end of the year, but what a way to go...

Anyways, we'll be going back at some point (definitely when either Mike or Dave or both get back here) but it'll have to be awhile, because I'm fairly sure my arteries need a break...

Here's some pics from the trip....not pictured is the defibrillator I had on standby.... =)

Mike

Rambling Through the Holidays...

Hope everybody had a great Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus!! We had a nice quiet holiday here in NYC once again...we'll get to that day in a bit, but I feel like its been a while since I actually blogged (good job, Jen, for keeping it going....I was worried our blog was going to fall apart like the Neals apparently has)

So lets get caught up on some stuff meandering through my mind these days...

-- We're trying to blaze through Broadway these days. Tons of shows are closing early and shutting down due to the poor economy. So we went and saw All My Sons with John Lithgow, Katie Holmes, Dianne Weist and Patrick Wilson the other day...good show...Lithgow's always good in these settings, and Katie Holmes did well for her Broadway debut...although I think the highlight for Jen was seeing Katie carry young Suri out of the theater after the show...though she wasn't very happy with the Nazi-esque security guard that wouldn't let Jen stand near the guardrail because I left our printout tickets inside....after everyone had left, we went looking for the guy to give him a piece of our mind, but he had fled the scene, probably because he knew we were coming with a SMACKDOWN!!!

-- Anyways, we're off to see Young Frankenstein this weekend, and I've managed to talk Jen into seeing Spamalot next week before it closes (we're getting big time cheap tickets). That will make a grand total of EIGHT Broadway shows for us since we've been here...I've got this grand plan to buy frames for the Playbills and hang them up...we'll post pictures when it happens...

-- Speaking of Nazis (boy there's a segue), we went and saw Valkyrie last Friday. Pretty good movie, and I really am coming back around on Tom Cruise after "Tropic Thunder" and his appearance on Kimmel a couple of weeks back (where he played "Touch The Head), but he couldn't even attempt a German accent for this flick? In fact, no one apparently could...its a movie about Nazi Germany, and I think I counted 2 German accents...who knew there were so many Brits and Americans in the Nazi Party Germany in the early 1940s??? Having said all that, the movie was still pretty good...

-- I don't know about you, but as an anti-Yankee fan, I can't wait for this July when I'll get to watch a 420-pound C.C. Sabathia laboring through a 95 percent humidity day at Yankee Stadium when he's 6-and-8 with an ERA over 5....yeah, that was worth 180 million dollars...I mean, anytime you offer a guy 160-million, and he leaves the deal on the table for a month PRAYING that some other team will offer him something close because he doesn't want to come to New York, then you have to throw him an extra 20-mill just to get him to come play for your team, I mean, you have to do that deal.... BWHAHAHAH!!! Man, I love the Yankees when they overreact...between Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, that money is just wasted....

-- Speaking of the Yankees, Brian and Katie Neal were in town for the holidays, and Katie put together a surprise 30th birthday party for Brian as well that Jen and I were able to go to...since he's the ever optimist, I think he liked the gift I got him....

-- I'm fairly certain Al Davis is now no longer able to competently run the Raiders because after watching his performance in the "I fired Lane Kiffin" press conference, I'm pretty sure Al is now a sea monster....

Well, we've reached the halfway point of this entry, so lets take a commercial break....

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"Now for a limited time only you can get amazing zero percent APR financing on any Toyota"

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"That's zero percent financing on 11 different models. No other car brand can make this offer. So hurry in now and see how much zero can save you on a Toyota."

"Saved by zero! Saved by zero!"

(by the way, that was from off the top of my head. We're coming awfully close to the point where I'll be a week away from driving to a Toyota dealership, buying a new Toyota with zero percent APR financing, driving off the lot, then yanking a 180 and speeding straight through the windows of the showroom at 80 miles an hour while I lean out the window yelling "Saved by zero!!!" Toyota folks, you might wanna shut down the ads...I'm not kidding. You know why we havn't seen John Cougar Mellancamp in, like, 2 years? Cause some guy has him trapped in a trunk in his basement dressed like The Gimp from Pulp Fiction after hearing "This is our country" for the nine-millionth time. Time to tone it down Toyota...we get it. Zero percent APR financing....heard you.

AND WE'RE BACK!!

-- I really wanted to root for Brett Favre this season, but that did go out the window as soon as the Pack dropped from the playoff picture, so watching the Jets collapse and Favre play like the old man he is was strangely enjoyable. I tried to warn Jets fans that this was coming, though even I didn't think Brett would crap the bed the way he did in the last five games (2 TDs, 9 interceptions) to lead the Jets from a sure playoff berth to on the outside looking in...now one day later, the Jets head coach is canned, and New York gets to spend the next six months doing the same "is he coming back, is he retiring" dance that I went through the last 3 seasons...good times!!

(by the way, if you're keeping track, I've done a complete 360 on my feelings for Favre. I hope no one injured their neck keeping track of those mood swings)

-- Christmas/Hanukkah was wonderful this year. I got some very nice sweaters and a great RL polo from Jen along with tickets to the Upright Citizens Brigade show (which we went to last night)...and great gifts from my family like the SportsNight DVD set from Sister Jen and the Jeff Pearlman book about the Cowboys from Mom and Dad...and a whole host of other stuff...its funny, when I was younger, I used to dread unwrapping a present to find what I called "the dreaded Sears box." Now? I'm more excited to get clothes than anything else. Does this mean I'm growing up?

-- Speaking of clothes for Christmas, I had asked my folks for a Sac State sweatshirt as a gift for reasons that continue to elude me...I guess I feel more of a tinge to represent my college experience out here since no one in the world has heard of CSUS out here. Or maybe its because I'm currently trying to lead the Hornets football team to the national title on NCAA Football 2009 on the Wii....or maybe its because I look good in green...I don't know...anyways, I got the sweatshirt and wasn't planning to wear it that same day, but when Chris and Shirley came over Christmas Day for dinner, Chris said "guess what I got for Christmas?" and he took off his coat to reveal a Sac State Hornets t-shirt!! Well, that changed my dress plans for dinner...I think we look rather good, don't you....

-- Christmas dinner consisted of delicious turkey cooked by Jen, with cranberry sauce and green bean casserole, and Shirley brought delicious lasagna and made lumpea as an appetizer, which I think I ate about 7 of....

Overall, its been a great few weeks and we'll see what the new year brings!! Happy New Year everybody!!!!

Mike

30th Birthday!

I feel very blessed. I have accomplished some pretty awesome things over the last decade. I met my best friend and partner in life., married him, had some amazing positions in the field I have wanted to work in since age 14, moved over 3000 miles away to the largest city in the country to work in the center of the news universe, and not to mention Cooper's bouncy presence in our lives. So I feel very fortunate and blessed for my 20's. I can only hope To be just as successful, lucky and happy in my 30.
Speaking of blessed., I had two amazing 30th birthday parties!!!A few months ago I was looking ahead to my 30th and was sad I wouldn't be with all of my friends in Sacramento to celebrate.. But I have been very fortunate to make a lot of good friends in NY in the last year. My friend Dawn threw me a bowling birthday party at this hip bowling alley called Bowlmor Lanes in Union Square on the Sunday before my birthday. It was so much fun and I was amazed at how many people came out. It was super fun. Here are some pics...

On my actual birthday .Mike and I flew to Vegas. We stayed at the Bellagio. I have always wanted to stay there and it did not disappoint.. Our room was beautiful and huge! You could open and close the curtains with a switch in either fast or slow speeds. This was so my entertainment! Whenever Mike would walk up to the window I would close them on him. It never got old! Our view was fantastic! We could see the Bellagio fountains spray up in the air and Paris' Eiffel Tower was right outside our room!! The maid service was the best I had ever experienced too! I took like 3 showers a day because I didn't want to smell like smoke from the casinos. Every time I left the room, magically the bathroom was clean and we had fresh towels. I wish that happened at home!
After we checked in a surprise arrived at our door. It was room service with champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. A birthday surprise from Kelly and Chris! It was awesome!!
For my birthday dinner we went to Emeril Lagasse's steakhouse the Delmonico in the Venetian. It was amazingly BAMtastic!

On Friday both of our parents and my sister and her new guy pal arrived.
Friday morning we had brunch w/ my mom and dad at the Bellagio and then headed next door to the Forum shops at Caesar's! You see we have a little tradition, on your 30th birthday Weiss Women get a Louis Vuitton. 2 yrs ago my sister got one and I was so jealous.. You see I've always been the handbag lover in our family. So I was counting down the days until I turned 30 and tada... Isn't it beautiful!! For those of youwho care it's the Neverfull GM
That night we had my birthday at Machines across the street from the Wynn. It was so much fun! Our good family friends the Goldmans joined us. It was a great night.
We spent Saturday bumming around, shopping check out the casinos that opened since our last visit and then on Sunday we went all went home.
It was an Amazing Birthday Weekend!!

Oddly enough it was warmer back in NY then it was in Vegas. It was so cold. If we would have left a day later we would have seen it snow on the strip! And probably would have gotten stuck there too!!

Catching up Thanksgiving, Canada, and Early December!

Lots of catching up to do. As you all know we just got back from celebrating my 30th birthday in Las Vegas.
Before I tell you about all that I need to catch you up on everything that's happened since Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving day we had dinner with some friends that we have made in our neighborhood. James and Laura live a few blocks north of us and

Andy lives just down the street from us.
Laura hosted dinner and made the most moist amazing turkey, I brought 2 sides; creamed corn and green bean casserole. and Cooper was invited! He wore a fall. Themed sweater for the occasion.

Friday morning instead of doing up the black Friday sales we hit the road. Mike, Cooper and I packed into a little red rental car and headed north to mike's grandmas house. We literally went over several rivers and through the woods (the Pocono's) for about a 6 hour drive. This was Cooper's 3rd trip into Canada. I wore a red T-shirt with a big white maple leaf on it to charm the guards at the boarding crossing. On the way home he sported his stylish "I dog bone NY" hoodie.

We had a wonderful time in Canada. It wasn't as cold as it was the year before when we went and we had so much fun with Mikes relatives. We stopped in to see Mikes dads sister Irene while we were there. Living closer has allowed us to see Irene and Dick a lot in the last year.

All in all we had a wonderful trip up north.

The following weekend our good friends Will and Jen came into NY for a night to stay with us.

They are friends from Sacramento and we have dined with them in s states now! CA, GA, CT, & NY. Maybe next time we'll meet in Jersey just to bring it up to 5!!!

The next day Santa made an appearance at our neighborhood dog park so all the little dogs, put on their warm little sweaters and met for an afternoon of dog park fun! I brought Coopers Hanukkah bone and asked Santa to hold it since Cooper celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas!