What They Didn't Tell Me

So here I am, it's 9:09 PM on Tuesday night and I am flying to Vegas tomorrow for my first-ever Sin City business trip.  What am I doing up?  Packing?  Preparing for our big awards dinner tomorrow night?  No.  I am up washing Sam's White Coat.

Why am I up doing laundry at this hour?  Doesn't Sam have two White Coats?

Well yes, he does in fact have two White Coats; however, the hospital laundry service got some kind of pink stain on one of his coats and I just can't quite get it entirely out.  Ergo, Sam refuses to wear that particular coat.  Ergo, we have to do laundry after work when Sam spills his freakin' coffee down the front of his coat.  Goddamn it.

Because Sam is post-call tonight, he was pretty comatose by 8 when Hunter and I got home from his makeup training session with Kate.  So he got up off the couch, rinsed off his dishes and put them in the dishwasher (huge victory post-call, let me tell you!) and then realized he had forgotten to toss his coat in the washing machine.

So now, I am awake, watching The Adjustment Bureau while Hunter naps on my lap.  It was a great afternoon for us- the first afternoon walk of our year.  And I even jogged a little bit!  I need to get back in shape, and these little jaunts are just one part.  I am going to shoot for the morning spin class tomorrow at 9:15 before our plane leaves.  And then there's another spin class Thursday evening.  Back in the saddle for me!

March 4 starts the big Making the Cut program with Amanda, my former personal trainer.  She is hosting a variation of the Jillian Michaels diet + workout plan.  I'm kind of nervous but also really, really excited!

Ski Trip Recap

Sam, Hunter and I are back from our week long ski vacation.  Man, what did we come back for?

We drove up Sunday, spent a few hours with Sam's parents for dinner, and then headed to bed early.  I went home to my parents' house with Hunter and he was SO much better than he was when we went home in December.  He slept through the night, didn't scratch at the door every 15 minutes, and didn't keep me up.  THANK YOU, HUNTER!

Monday we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then we headed up to Northstar.  Man was it cold!  But there was NO snow.  

Thankfully, we took it easy on Tuesday and enjoyed several flurries of snow throughout the day and night.  Wednesday we had a pretty substantial dusting of powder for our skiing pleasure.  To our surprise, it snowed again on Wednesday night and the skiing was even better Thursday that it was the day before!

We ate at Tavern 6330 (not impressed) and Manzanita up at the Ritz Carlton (okay, Sam's dish was world's better than mine) but our best meal was probably the ravioli and salad we made on Monday upon our arrival.  

Friday we drove home and stopped in to visit my grandparents.  Papa, the daredevil, fell off a ladder on our anniversary and has been recovering from a fractured skull and some compression fractures on his spine.  How the man is up and walking around escapes me!  Sam came over for dinner that night and Mom made her signature pizzas.  Mmmmm.

Saturday I got to visit the O'Briens and hear all about their wedding planning and advice.  Then I ran some errands for our class reunion ad went shopping with Mom.  Dad hasn't been feeling so great so she and I went to dinner by ourselves that evening which was actually really nice.  Hunter spent most of the day with Dad and Max.  After dinner, we all settled in to watch the finale of Downton Abbey which Mom and Dad missed the weekend before.  Such a fun and relaxing way to cap off the week.

Sunday we drove back to SoCal and restocked the fridge, unpacked and generally got our lives in order.  Tonight Sam is on call and I am trying to prepare for my business trip on Wednesday (overnight to Vegas).  I have an early morning meeting at work, so I prepped our favorite chili and have everything set to go in the crockpot stoneware in the fridge so all I have to do tomorrow morning is pop it into the crockpot base and turn it all on.  Yippee for amazing and delicious meals made easy!

I managed to get the car washed tonight after work in addition to washing a load of laundry and running a load of dishes.  Tomorrow I need to get gas for my car, pick up more coffee beans (whole) from Peet's Coffee and buy some more kitchen trash bags.  My work is never done!

Walking Dead

I haven't been watching as much TV lately... Sam is trying to be more productive and study more.  He is also fighting off a cold, so he's just been a little overwhelmed.

I am not trying to incite anybody, but I have been bummed by this season of The Walking Dead.  I mean really, it's been much more graphic and violent than the previous seasons and the characters are really starting to strain under the zombie apocalypse environment.

I watched the mid-season premier tonight and I was shocked by the scene where Glenn stomped in the walkers head on the abandoned road in the middle of the trees.  I mean yes, I think Glenn is freaking out under the stress of being kidnapped and everything, but JESUS that was really graphic!  Like unnecessarily so.  And I'm not really a sissy, but that just seemed like it took away from the show- I mean I was taken out of the show's momentum and stopped to realize how gross it was.

Loving my Puppy

It seems that Sam has been on call every other night since I've been back from New Orleans, which has left me with quite a bit of free time.  Once the laundry has been done, the floors vacuumed, and the surfaces tidied there isn't so much to be done.  So tonight finds Hunter and I sitting on the couch watching some of the 3rd season of Downton Abbey- OMG I can't believe Sybil died and I really hope Tom and Matthew end up running the estate together!

I have to admit, Sam was smart to have given in to getting the puppy last January.  He is quite settled into our routine now, and he's so well trained (for the most part).  Hunter took to me almost immediately, that first night he was here he was so frightened and those first 4 days he spent most of his time snuggling with me.  The relationship between he and Sam was much slower to blossom, but when I came back from Michelle's graduation last June I found they were fast friends.  :-) Every night without fail, Hunter runs to the door when Sam comes home, squealing for joy and waiting for as much love as possible.  It's even more of a show when Sam has been on call, Hunter just fawns all over him. 

It's not exactly the same as how he is beside himself when I come in, but it's so sweet all the same.  He snuggles with me every night- either under the covers, between Sam and I, or on my pillow so that his head rests upon my shoulder.  He is just absolutely the most precious puppy.  As I type this, he is nestled beside me with his head in my lap.  I am absolutely Hunter's mommy, he comes to me when he wants to be coddled and loved and snuggled.  He comes to me when he get spooked and when he's cranky and tired.  

And even though the weight of his care falls on my shoulders, I bear it gladly.  He is the perfect little companion.  And I am so thankful to Sam for making this all possible.  

Washing Machine

The washing machine got fixed today!  Or at least I hope it did, I am running it right now as a test with the heavy blanket that I only halfway washed on Sunday night.  Of course, little Hunter had to go to the vet today so that our maintenance crew could come in and take care of it.  Even if management DID know about Hunter I wouldn't put him through the experience of being stuck in his crate while a stranger ran around the house.  He would probably still go to spend the day in a daycare situation.  :-)

And we're another day closer to our vacation in Northern California!  I can't wait to be home to see family and friends!

10 Years Together

Today Sam and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary.

I guessed that Sam would be exhausted since he was on call over-night on Friday and Sunday.  I was prepared to make us dinner and relax on the couch together, but Sam completely surprised me!

He texted me that we should go out to dinner rather than me cook.  Then he walked in the door with flowers from my favorite florist- 30 minutes out of his way home!  Wow.  Aren't they beautiful!?!


We decided to go to 'our place' The Cannery.  We had drinks, we ate dinner and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  It was like old times, before second year of residency, back when Sam had energy and spark!

He drove me to dinner and told the whole while how great he thinks I am and how much he appreciates that he gives 110% at work (where he gets so little appreciation) and then can only give 20% at home and yet I am so supportive and understanding.  I cannot even tell you how nice it was to hear him appreciate me!  And to his credit, his 20% estimation is probably a little too harsh.  I so appreciate being appreciated!  Sam is such a sweetheart and nights like this one make being a ortho widow so worth it!

What a great way to start off our vacation to Tahoe- although it doesn't technically start until next week and Sam is fighting off a cold!  What the heck, at least we have each other, a cold and a long rest of the week until our trip are nothing compared to that.  :-)

Washing Machine

Damn it all to hell, I think I've broken my washing machine!  I was washing the sheets and the coverlet and unfortunately during the coverlet's spin cycle the whole machine was shaking violently.  As soon as I noticed it was still full of soap, I threw it back in for another wash.  Now, the stupid thing won't drain, rinse or spin cycle!

Downton Abbey

So this weekend I am recovering from the exhaustion of last weekend in NOLA.  I am very overloaded and overwhelmed at work and at home.  But at least now I'm relaxing on the couch and mostly caught up from the craziness.

Yesterday I spent the day doing long overdue housework.  It amazes me how much nicer everything looks when the dishes are put away, the carpet vacuumed and the laundry done.  I don't blame Sam, but my goodness, I wish that he would have the decency to pick up after himself a bit more.  It's tough to come home and have a kinds of things going on for me to clean up.

I also stopped at Lowes and picked up some plant food for our budding hydrangeas and rubber plant.  I also bought some soil acidifier to help turn my hydrangeas blue.  Apparently that is what keeps the blooms blue!  I sometimes wish we had a bigger patio area so that I could put more garden in.  Of course, now that Hunter likes to eat most leaves it might not be so great to have a garden.  But I suppose I could train him to keep away from all of them.

Sam really wants to move somewhere with a yard for Hunter, nothing too big, but somewhere were he can runaround.  Obviously I think that would be ideal, but I also think that Hunter prefers to be with us as opposed to outside alone.  It would be great if I could get a doggie door and have him potty outside by himself while I'm at work, and let himself out to sit out into the sun in the afternoon.

Today I bought the first three seasons of Downton Abbey on our AppleTV.  Mom and Nonna just love it and I have lots of friends who are in love with it too.  So here I am, a bit late to the party, but catching up with the masses.  I am enjoying it so far, and I can see why ladies enjoy it.  It reminds me a lot of A Game of Thrones to be honest... all the chivalry, the royalty, the servants being treated as family.

I think I will like it quite a bit!

NOLA Photos

Dad, Dominic, Robin & Mom at Pat O'Brien's, our first stop after arriving in Louisiana 

Bourbon Street our first night in town

We met up with Ruby and Tracy

Then we had the whole crew!

The girls

Saturday we met up with my friends, and Carina arrived!

We met Dwight Clark, and Mom's lifelong dream came true!

Dad and his girls on Game Day

49er Faithful K-9

I'm on the plane to New Orleans with Mom & Dad, but I thought I would schedule this little gem for all you 49er faithful out there.  My childhood friend has become quite the seamstress and she has an Etsy store where I special-ordered this doggie bandana for my little guy.  

Here's to hoping we're all very happy campers on the flight back in 3 days!